Hands down, my favorite part of party planning is creating props that bring our theme to life. My goal is to make our guests feel like they’ve stepped out of reality and into our fantasy world. Ultimately, I want them to forget about everything except having fun. For our daughter’s vintage Alice in Wonderland party, I tried to imagine all the things that would make Wonderland real for a room full of 5 year-olds. From bottles with “Drink Me” tags to Mad Hatter party hats, I literally wanted to sprinkle everything they touched with a little magic dust from Wonderland. Especially the food, which had to look as good as it tasted. This Mad Hatter’s tea box filled with cookies shaped like tea bags was the perfect blend of magical and yummy!

Materials

• metallic gold paint or spray paint
• paintbrush
• railroad board or thin chipboard
• white cardstock
• rectangular cookie cutter (it makes life a little easier, but it’s not necessary)
• drinking straw
• X-Acto knife
• metal ruler
• cutting mat
• scoring stylus
• twine or embroidery thread
• glue gun

Tea Bag Cookies

Grab your favorite shortbread cookie recipe, dust off your KitchenAid mixer, and let’s make some cookie dough! If you’re not a baking prodigy, don’t despair. Just follow this Food Network recipe, and no one will be the wiser!

Once your cookie dough has chilled, whip out your rectangular cookie cutter and punch out your cookies. Alternatively, if you don’t have a cookie-cutter, you can use your knife to cut 3.5″ x 2″ rectangles. Use the tea bag template to trim the corners off of your rectangles and create a hole near the top with the help of a drinking straw. Tadaa! Instant tea bag cookies.

While your cookies are baking, print the tea tags on card stock and cut them out. Next, cut a 9″ long piece of twine. Fold it in half and thread it through the hole in your cookie. Slip the ends through the loop and pull tight. Finally, spread a thin layer of glue on one side of your tea tag, place the ends of the twine on top, and press the tag closed. I think the Mad Hatter would be proud of his branding team!

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Box

Now that our tea bag cookies are complete, it’s time to make a home for them. Use the box diagram to transfer the solid cut and dashed score lines to your board. Using your X-Acto knife and a metal ruler, cut the box out. Be careful to cut along the solid lines only. Next, use your scoring stylus to trace the dashed fold lines. This step is essential for achieving crisp folds. At this point, your board should look like the one below.

Fold the box along all of your crease lines. Next, use hot glue to attach one of the side panel tabs to the adjacent long panel. Repeat with the tab on the opposite side of the same long panel. Fold the top rectangular panel down and glue in place. The two tabs from the previous steps will be covered.

Repeat the previous steps on the opposite side of the box. To complete the box, fold and glue the side flaps on both sides. Apply three light coats of metallic paint.

 The Sleeve

Print the Mad Hatter’s Harvest sleeve on card stock. Next, use your stylus to score the three gray guidelines and fold carefully. Use double-sided tape to attach the white tab to the interior face of the side panel. You’ve just created the sleeve!

If you have a Cricut, you can create a gold foil version of the sleeve. If you choose to go this route, print this version instead Then, upload the logo files to your Cricut Design Space, select the mirror option, and load gold foil heat transfer vinyl into your Cricut with the shiny side down. Weed the vinyl to remove the excess material around the logo, and use your iron to adhere the logos to the top and side faces of the card stock. Then score, fold, and tape the sleeve. It’s a little extra work, but the gold really makes the sleeve pop.

Mad Hatter’s Harvest Tea, Anyone?

Place a sheet of parchment paper in the bottom of the box. This step serves two purposes. The first is to protect your box from the cookies. Nothing ruins a pretty food presentation like grease stains! The second, and more important reason, is to provide a food-safe surface for the cookies since we painted the interior of the box. And now we’re ready for tea, Wonderland style! Just drop your tea bag cookies into the box and slide the sleeve onto your Mad Hatter’s tea box! I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely on board with perpetual tea time!