3 Inspiring National Tea Day Celebratory Art Ideas

National tea day has been celebrated on 21st April since 2016. I decided to make an art journal page for national tea day 2022 so started off by visiting the website for national tea day in UK.

What is National Tea Day About?

Us Brits love our tea don’t we? I know I do and not just your standard cuppa. Herbal teas are a firm favourite and have health benefits that we have been taking advantage of for centuries. So National tea day aims to celebrate this tradition by dedicating a day to it each year. The organisation behind the celebration organises on and offline events to honour the humble cuppa. Of course tea drinking in the UK isn’t just about the brew, it has a whole raft of associated culture. I’m thinking of tea and biscuits to ‘dunk’ in it, or high tea with scones and cakes or even the notorious builder’s brew – strong and in a big mug. There’s also tea parties and teddy bear’s picnics where the teapot rules supreme. All this is a lot of fuel for art journaling inspiration and so I came up with 3 themes for national tea day art journal pages to share with you.

National Tea Day Art Journal Ideas

• Glass mugs with different coloured ‘herbal teas’ in them – use cellophane to represent the tea. Create a cozy environment by adding cushions and tablecloths with patterned paper.
• Teddy bears drinking cups of tea – use fabric to create teddies of different shapes and sizes. Add colour to the page with vibrant inks.
• Use texture paste to make a builders mug of ‘bricks’ by scoring a wall pattern back into the paste. Remember to follow the curve of the mug to give it an element of realism.

My National Tea Day Art

I decided to go with a teddy bears tea party for my page.

I started with an inky background and added clingfilm to produce that cracked, delicious, crinkled effect that is a go to background technique for me. You can see it with clingfilm in place to the right. After it had dried I removed the clingfilm and began laying out my page as I had planned in a sketchbook previously. I use Neocolour crayons to colour areas such as the table as they allow the cracked effect of the background to show through. Then I added my furry teddy bears which I had cut from offcuts of fleece fabric (from which I had made my dressing-gown) using a soldering iron so there was no danger of any fraying. If you try this technique ensure you wear a mask as there are some fumes emitted. Also be careful of your fingers as the iron gets really hot. It’s a very easy way to cut detailed shapes out of fabric. I used white gesso to knock the background colour back a bit and then Posca pens to add the #NationalTeaDay motto:

Brew More, Do More

I painted in the teddies’ funny faces and made teapots and teacups from card. This was a really fun page to make and I think using the fabric for the teddies really amps up the cuteness.

Video of My National Tea Day Art

I hope you enjoy National Tea Day 2022 and get a few quiet moments to enjoy your favourite brew and maybe try using fabric in your art journal pages. I would love to hear what you got up to on this most British of days. Hugs, Ceri xx