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Striped Art Journal Page - The Altered Alice Chapter 11

2012-01-29T19:38:00.001-05:00

The challenge this month at The Altered Alice is STRIPES, and our sponsor, Jenny Doh of CRESCENDOh, provided this wonderful Alice in Wonderland by Danita stamp set. I love these simply drawn, whimsical characters! I had a wonderful time making this spread in my Moleskine Sketch Journal.

I used a plastic stencil with squares to make the stripes. I sponged various colors of Distress Ink through the stencil using an ink blending tool. Then I offset the stencil, sliding it over horizontally but leaving it lined up vertically. On the right side, I centered the second set of squares over the divider from the previous stenciling. On the left, I slid the stencil over just far enough to cover the divider from the previous step. After that I sponged some clocks through the stencil with Pumice Stone colored Distress Ink.

Then stamped all the figures on white card stock, colored them with Copic Sketch markers, trimmed them out and pasted them on with a Zig glue pen.

After that I had fun doodling, snugging up the name of the character to each cutout and selecting the quotes I printed on the blank horizontal stripes, making stripes out of the quotes. Each quote is connected to the character with an underline.

I think this quote by the Tweedles is one of my favorites!

Supplies:
Journal: Moleskine large red sketch journal
Paper: Copic X-Press It card stock, Earth Love patterned paper.
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink in Fired Brick, Scattered Straw, Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Dusty Concord, Ranger Ink Blending Tool, Copic Multiliner Pens.
Stencils: The Crafter's Workshop "Mini Mosaic" and "Time Travel" 6x6 templates

Please leave a comment before you go!

A Lewis Christmas Caroll to you!

2011-12-17T23:49:00.000-05:00

Calling all Alice fans - make a Wonderland holiday card and link it on The Altered Alice; there is a wonderful prize up for grabs!

I have not had time to create anything this month, but I wanted to share a couple older Wonderland Christmas cards with you. This first one is one of my top favorite cards ever! The background is a fabulous collage stamp by Stampin' Up! My sister is a hobby demo, so we'd be happy to help you get your own Christmas collage stamp if you need one. I stamped it on Kraft card stock, double inking the rubber with brown dye ink and then Versamark before stamping, which allowed me to heat emboss with clear detail powder. Then I did detailed sponging, using the Tsukeniko Fantastix to rub in various colors of distress ink. I printed "Greetings from Wonderland" in the blank rectangle in the design using a brown pen.

Then I highlighted some areas of red and gold with Smooch, love that stuff. I added white gel pen highlights to give dimension to the letters and berries. The White Rabbit was also embossed on kraft and colored with a white gel pen, prismacolors, and Smooch. The gold ruffled lace is a doily from the baking aisle. I cut out the center of the doily, just leaving a thin strip intact right above the lacy edge. When I straightened it out to adhere it the the edge, it creates lovely flounces that I manipulated with my fingers to make pleasing ruffles.

This next card is the Pixie Dust Studios Mad Hatter and the paper is Nikki Sivils. I created the banners and sentiments on the computer, coloring and trimming the printouts. The gold Krylon paint pen edging adds some elegance, and the rich satin ribbon is the perfect finishing touch

I had a wonderful time coloring this fun image with Copic alcohol markers. Of course I had to color the face a la Johnny Depp! I added more details with a multiliner, like defining the thread areas of the spools on the bandoleer. I trimmed it out, but the small white rim did not isolate it enough from the background patterns. I wanted the Mad Hatter to stand out, so I glued the trimmed out figure to black card stock and trimmed it out again with a larger margin. I really like the way this looked, and it isolated him from the background so he now stands out against the patterns.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope you experience your own Wonderland this year as we once more welcome Christ into our hearts.

Notice Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland in the left panel, and all the characters below.

I will leave you with the full quote from the poem that is quoted in the Lewis Carroll nativity window, "From a Fairy to a Child":

LADY dear, if Fairies may

For a moment lay aside

Cunning tricks and elfish play,

'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heard the children say—

Gentle children. whom we love—

Long ago, on Christmas Day,

Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,

They remember it again—

Echo still the joyful sound

"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Yet the hearts must childlike be

Where such heavenly guests abide;

Unto children, in their glee,

All the year is Christmas-tide!

Thus, forgetting tricks and play

For a moment, Lady dear,

We would wish you, if we may,

Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

--Lewis Carroll; Christmas, 1867.

It's time for a Lewis Christmas Carroll over at The Altered Alice!

2011-12-04T00:43:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Altered Alice! This month the design team brings you their holiday wishes, and we invite you to send your holiday greetings to The Altered Alice. You have until Friday, Dec. 23 to enter. The winner post will either be a little early or late, as the last Sunday of the month falls on Christmas day!

Our prize this month is a $40.00 gift certificate to Custom Crops, the premier online retailer for crafters of all kinds. From Accuquilt to Zva Creative, adhesives to vinyl and everything in between, Custom Crops offers a huge selection of the products you've been looking for at competive prices with fast, friendly customer service. Thanks to design team member Donna for organizing this Christmas prize!

To celebrate the season, we bring you The Lewis Carroll Memorial Window at Daniell Chapel in England. Notice the left panel where Lewis Carroll and Alice kneel to pay homage to the newly born Christ in this wonderful Nativity scene! This month's quote is actually contained within the windows, do you see it?

Click to enlarge

The window was designed by stained glass artist Geoffrey Webb, a must-see for anyone that loves Wonderland. A wonderful Christmas poem by Lewis Carroll is shown in the center three bottom panels, which include characters from Wonderland - the White Rabbit, Dodo, the Caterpillar, Mad Hatter, and more! Our own Sue Roddis visited this chapel and gave me permission to show her close-up photos here, click to enlarge:

We look forward to seeing your holiday greetings, so send us a Christmas card or tag! If it features Wonderland, you will have two chances at the randomly awarded prize instead of one. Multiple entries are fine, but each must be on a separate post.

Stop by The Altered Alice to see some AMAZING design team inspiration projects, and we hope you will play along as well!

Tweedle Card in Fall Colors for CHAPTER 9 on The Altered Alice

2011-11-27T00:32:00.000-05:00

"`Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
Nobody moved. `Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You're nothing but a pack of cards!'
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face."
-- Chapter 12, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I wonder if the Wonderland story took place in the Fall of the year? Autumn has arrived in the northern hemisphere. Just as Alice recognized the court characters as playing cards, the trees are losing their cloak of green chlorophyll and showing their true colors of gold, burgundy, scarlet, chartruese and orange. Your challenge is to show us a project drenched in fall colors!

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessentially English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

The design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are really big!

The minute I saw this great Tweedle Dum Tweedle Dee stamp, this caption sprang to mind! I stamped the image three times on gold, orange and rust paper and slightly highlighted the eyes and faces with white Prismacolor pencil. The edges were sponged with Walnut Distress Ink and a white gel pen was used to add faux stitching around each image. The edges of the kraft card base were also sponged. The striped grosgrain ribbon, a bright orange and white, was subdued by coloring it with E42 Copic sketch marker, then it was gathered with a button threaded with cappucino baker's twine. The images were mounted with dimensional foam adhesive. I wrote out the caption in three parts and cut out little comics-style speech bubbles and added them to the Tweedles!

Inside, the sentiment is completed: "We've been through a lot together, and most of it was YOUR fault!" I stamped the Tweedles one last time in brown ink and added another comics-style speech bubble.

I hope you enjoyed this fall-colors challenge. Please leave a comment, I love hearing from you!

Mad Hatter Book Box for The Altered Alice CHAPTER 8

2011-10-23T01:54:00.000-04:00

Click to enlarge

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing
"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
You know the song, perhaps?'
`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.
`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle--"'
-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Here at The Altered Alice we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day twice a year as the date is taken from the price on his hat - ten shillings and a sixpence or 10/6. That means it is on October 6 here in the United States, and on June 10 in the United Kingdom. But mainly it is just a great reason to party with the Mad Hatter twice a year! Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessentially English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are really big!

I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says
"The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout!"
Thanks Alfie!

Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Multiple entries are encouraged, but each must be on a separate post. As always, entries that feature Wonderland in some way will get two chances in the drawing instead of one.

Mad Hatter Book Box

Click to enlarge

My project starts with a paper mache book box. I painted it with gold and copper, then I painted the outside with crackle medium, then ivory. Wherever the crackling was not very good, I filled in with the wonderful IndigoBlu crackle stamp in rust ink. I love this IndigoBlu image of the Mad Hatter looking pensive; a nice change from the Tenniel and Disney versions! I stamped it in brown and colored it with Copic markers and trimmed it out. I stamped the raven image on tissue paper with gray ink and used the back side as this softened the bird image even more and let me flip it to face the other direction. The raven riddle, another IndigoBlu image, was stamped in brown and trimmed out. Because I used a waterbased dye ink to stamp the rust crackles, I sprayed the whole box with a fixative, which prevented the ink from running when I decoupaged the two images onto the front with matte multi-medium.

Click to enlarge

On the spine of the book box, I decoupaged the Alice in Wonderland title, another IndigoBlu stamp that I stamped in brown and trimmed out. I colored the raised bands on the spine with gold and copper Krylon leafing pens, then added a row of bumps with a Viva Decor pearl pen in copper.

Click to enlarge

Of course I had to show off my ultimate favorite IndigoBlu image, this whimsical March Hare! I can just imagine him defending his attempted repair on the Mad Hatter's watch, saying that he used the best butter to lube the works! I love the distressed font on the IndigoBlu quote stamps, this one and the hare were stamped in brown, the hare was colored with Copics, and they were decoupaged onto the box. The IndigoBlu flourish was stamped on the front and back with Versamark and heat embossed with gold detail powder. The box is not perfectly flat, so the impressions were not perfect but I think it goes with the crackling and distressing!

Add caption

I painted the inside of the box black and added a strip of brown striped ribbon and this IndigoBlu image of the Mad Hatter's tea party. I think this would be a really great place to keep all kinds of Alice-related charms and trinkets for use on projects.

Supplies: (Note: If you are viewing this in email or a reader, you will have to click on the title of this post to go to the blog.)
I hope you enjoyed my project to celebrate Mad Hatter Day in the U.S.; I'd love to read your comments! I also hope you will visit IndigoBlu to see their wide variety of wonderful stamps; remember they are already on sale plus you get an additional 10% off on top of the sale price!

A Sad Farewell

2011-10-20T02:17:00.001-04:00

This card is inspired by the beautiful Southwest Indian art and mission churches of New Mexico. It was made for a very special purpose which I will share below. I promised you a super-duper card and I think this fits the bill!

Front - click to enlarge

It is a center-step card; two cuts and a couple simple folds result in a really neat structure of card! There are a lot of pictures to show you all the angles and how it is constructed. I was inspired by this lovely card by Beate, and the tutorial links for a center-step card are on the same post:

Source: beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com via Lynne on Pinterest

Here is a picture of my card flattened out. I started with a letter-sized piece of kraft card stock. The center fold is at the halfway mark as normal, which is hidden behind the large stamped pottery bowl. But the two side pieces are separated from the center panel by a cut that begins one inch above the bottom front and ends one inch beyond the center fold. Then some mountain and valley folds create the side panels.

Flattened card - click to enlarge

And here is a side view so you can see how the folds work:

Side - click to enlarge

And the back - from the front, the crosses and the pottery bowl hide the top folds so it is hard to see the true profile:

Back - click to enlarge

This special card is now on its way to a very special lady. My aunt has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and I fear that she is fading fast. Prayers for my aunt and especially for her family would be wonderful if you are so inclined, I'd be grateful. I don't think I am going to get to see her again, and in a way that's a blessing because my memories are of her beautiful and healthy, always so generous and kind. It took me a couple years after my mother passed to be able to remember her without the image of her illness superimposed over my every thought of her. I know my mother did not want all the visitors; she knew she was loved and wanted people to remember her as she was before the illness. She endured all the visits because she knew others had the need to say goodbye but it made her so sad.

This card, which says "To everything there is a season" is the vehicle for a heartfelt letter telling my aunt how much I love her, how grateful I am that she is a part of my life. Sharing some special memories and assuring her that she she is loved and I will always remember her, that she is constantly in my thoughts and prayers. Illness may take a life but it does not kill LOVE.

Front - click to enlarge

The storyteller and the large Mimbres pottery design are by Stamp-a-mania. When a storyteller's eyes are open, she is singing and when they are closed she is chanting. I thought this image was particularly suitable for my aunt! I colored it in Southwest shades with Copic Sketch markers. I shaded the large pottery to look like a bowl and give it some depth, then I added the sentiment from a set appropriately named "Life Lines" by Flourishes. The two Indian pots on either side are Magenta images; the bird pot on the left was the bottom pot in a stack of three.

All the stuff - click to enlarge

I cut and embossed the crosses with a Spellbinders die set. The back crosses were colored with a Krylon gold leafing pen, I love how that turned out - my friend Terri's idea! The "wrought iron" railing across the front is cut and embossed with another Spellbinders die set: Fleur de Lis Accents. The "From the Heart" stamp used inside the card is a retired Stampin' Up! image. The striped paper is from the Earth Love 6x6 paper pad by Cosmo Cricket.

On a lighter note, I had a heck of a time taking photos of this card as one of my cats, Beignet, was determined to help! Here is my photographer's assistant, you can see that she is taking her job very seriously, lol!

Click to enlarge

Please leave a comment! I am sure many of you are relieved to see a card again, thank you for sticking with me. I am afraid my foray into art journaling has driven away a lot of my long-time subscribers and I've gained some new ones. You have to follow your muse and I certainly understand that the change in my creative direction is not for everyone. But the main thing to remember is that Cancer can't kill LOVE.

Angels in Disguise

2011-10-16T23:03:00.004-04:00

FYI: Be sure to stop by The Altered Alice; I've added another week of amazing design team projects made with IndigoBlu stamps!

I have quite a collection of angel stamps, and I love this Bible verse from Hebrews 13:2 about angels: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." That's one of those quotes that just doesn't sound right to me unless it is the good old King James version! I know when I reflect on my life there have been definite turning points and people who seem to have been placed in my way for a reason; without those influences my life would have been on a very different course.

Click to enlarge

This page started off as a technique exploration. I wanted to try using Liquitex Clear Gesso on the page instead of regular. Clear gesso is very different as it seals the surface AND gives the surface a lot of tooth to hold pencil or charcoal; it almost feels like the fine side of an emory board. I painted it on with a foam brush, first in one direction then another, which resulted in a linen finish.

Click to enlarge

Then I sponged on PanPastels in a beautiful gradient. The aqua shade in the center is actually more vibrant than it appears. Then I sponged various colors of PanPastels through a stencil at the top and bottom and outlined the areas with a clear Gelly Roll Stardust pen. I was hoping that the extra tooth of the surface meant that I would not need to fix the pastels, but I still needed to spray the surface with a fixative to prevent smearing.

Click to enlarge

Next I used a wing stencil with a product I now LOVE - Delta Texture Magic. It gives so much dimension; I spread it through the stencil with an old credit card. It has a really different texture and is fairly low moisture. I was pleased at how quickly it dried compared to modeling paste, and it has a very interesting texture!

Click to enlarge

I stamped "Angel in a Garden" by Postmodern Design and painted it with watercolors. When dry, I went over the halo, wings, and robes of the angel with the clear Gelly Roll Stardust pen. I hope the above photo gives you some idea of how shimmery this is in real life! I trimmed it out and adhered it to my page.

Click to enlarge

I wrote in the Bible verse with a purple Copic Multiliner SP but the dark color was too harsh. I rubbed some PanPastel over the words and that really helped to soften the text. I highlighted some areas with the clear Stardust pen and other areas with a white Gelly Roll pen. The layout needed some horizontal elements, everything was so up and down, so I ruched some ribbon, adhering it to Scor-Tape as I ruffled it up. I love the ruched ribbon, it adds a lot of movement, which reminds me of angel wings, and the satin folds remind me of folds of the angel's robe.

It still wasn't right. it looked like an overgrown card, not a journal page. Then I realized it needed some journaling! I keep a lined journal where I write down poetry and quotes that I like, and I have quite a few angel quotes. I am much happier with the page now that it tells more of the story. Click on the photos above to see the details!

Around the top I wrote this quote that I love by Eric Honeycutt:

"The wings of angels are often found on the backs of the most unlikely people."

Above the angel wings I drew another white line with a white gel pen. In between I wrote a quote by James Russell Lowell:

"All God's angels come to us disguised."

At the bottom, I could not fit the entire passage I wanted to use, so I just used the last part of this quote by George Eliot:

"The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone."

I do have a pretty amazing card to share with you, I just haven't had a chance to get good pictures. That will be up next!

Supplies: (you may not see the list in a reader or email; click on the title of this post to go to the blog)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about angels, influences on your life, or any of the techniques used. Your comments are what makes this effort worthwhile!

A life without BOOKS...would kill me!

2011-10-09T20:53:00.001-04:00

I am an avid reader. I have thousands of books; I am afraid to be more specific than that, lol! We moved all the time when I was a kid, and being quiet, chubby and wearing glasses pretty much ensured I was not at the top of any popularity list. Books were my friends, and they were friends who could come along with me no matter where we lived. When I found this quote by Heinrich Mann I knew I wanted to build an art journal page around it: "A house without books is like a room without windows."

Click to enlarge

I started by sealing the page in my 7x10 inch journal with gesso. Then I tore up book pages and decoupaged them onto the page with matte multi medium. Then I scribbled Neocolor II watercolor crayons in various shades of green, but instead of activating them with water, I used more of the multi-medium. It worked like a dream and had the benefit of making the watercolor impervious to subsequent applications as it was now sealed with acrylic! This allowed me to then paint in a brown path over the greeen without mixing the green into it. I used an ultra-fine Sharpie to sketch in cobblestones and clumps of grass.

Click to enlarge

Then I turned my attention to the sky. I scribbled in a sunrise sky with all different colors of watercolor crayons, then wet my brush with matte medium instead of water. I LOVE this technique. The medium is wet so it activates the watercolor, but it is like mixing up an acrylic glaze in all different colors right on the page! Heaven! I stamped the quote with a little Studio G wooden letter stamp set that I found in the dollar bin at Michaels. I did not even try to keep them straight; I prefer the crooked look. I used black Stazon to ensure it would stick to the acrylic medium.

Click to enlarge

I love this set of Zettiology house stamps by Teesha Moore. Each one looks like it has its own story inside! I really like the way they all have faces and text inside. I stamped them with Versafine on cream cardstock and glued them down with the matte medium. It still needed something, so I added this tree with a leaf stencil by troweling gesso through the stencil using an old credit card. When it dried the white looked too stark, so I colored it with Copic markers! Love the way this turned out.

Click to enlarge

Supplies: (Note - if you are reading this in email or a reader, you may have to go to the blog to view the supplies; just click the title of this post.)
I would love to hear your comments on my page! Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll have a pretty incredible card to show you next time, back to my roots!

It's Time for CHAPTER 8 at The Altered Alice!

2011-10-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

I'll be posting my own project later this month, but go visit The Altered Alice to see our CHAPTER 8 Challenge: to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing
"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
You know the song, perhaps?'
`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.
`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle--"'
-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessentially English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are really big!

I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says
"The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout!"
Thanks Alfie!

Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Multiple entries are encouraged, but each must be on a separate post. As always, entries that feature Wonderland in some way will get two chances in the drawing instead of one.

Friends are Flowers that Never Fade

2011-09-30T01:45:00.002-04:00

Last Friday my little stamping group decided to play with spray inks. I had not used spray inks prior to this and it was quite a learning experience! We started by putting a coat of gesso on the page. This allows the ink to move around freely, it won't soak into the page. The actual colors are deeper and richer than shown. Sorry about the photography, my iPhone doesn't come near my Nikon DSL but I was in a hurry! :-)

Click to enlarge

We used Ranger Color Wash Spray and Tim Holtz Distress Stains. After I had some red and yellow swimming around on the page of my 7 x 10 Canson Mixed Media journal, I heat dried it and added some texture with stenciling. Molly had a Crafters Workshop flower patterned stencil, so I used a credit card to swipe some gesso through the openings. I put several random splotches around the page. It looked really cool! Then more spraying fun. Note: gesso comes in various thicknesses. I was using the Claudine Helmuth gesso which is very thick and comes in a jar, not a bottle.

However, I had not really thought it through. I was thinking the acrylic gesso would act as a resist, but of course gesso is a primer and it is made to hold the paint that goes on top of it. I want to try this again with some acrylic paint, which I think will resist the subsequent layers of color. Still, the dimension of the gesso flowers caused the spray inks to pool around each raised area which gave a neat effect!

Then I added the words with my all time favorite alphabet set, the retired Stampin' Up! Collage letters and numbers. The Friendship stamp is part of a series of words by Kelli Everett from The Uptown Design Company, now sadly out of business. I used Stazon black ink; the stickiness of the ink was a plus on the non-porous surface. I used a black Sharpie to doodle flower outlines, stems and leaves. A date stamp was added last.

Supplies: (Note - if you are reading this in email or a reader, you will have to go to the blog to see the supplies, just click the title of this post.)

Linky Tools - Personal Link Library!
There has been a lot of buzz about InLinkz new "Link Manager" tool. I sent owner and programmer Brent Riggs a request to add this functionality to Linky Tools. Three days later Brent contacted me to test the new functionality, and there is no extra cost or separate subscription! I can't tell you how wonderful it is working with Linky Tools. I will do a separate post about the new Personal Link Library functionality; it is so cool. I just add all my supply links with thumbnail one time and it is so fast to do. Then I can pull those links onto any list I like! You'll be seeing lots of neat supply lists like this from now on. What tickled me (even more than the amazing responsiveness and quick turnaround) was that Brent featured my blog in one of the demonstration videos. I hope you'll check it out, my 90 seconds of fame, LOL!

This was a really fun project. The quote seemed perfect as I was having nice messy fun with friends while making flowers! This page will always bring back memories of a fun evening.

Please leave a comment; your comments are what keep me blogging!
:-)

Edited to add:
Several people commented on the alphabet I used - Stampin' Up! Collage Alphabet and Collage Numbers. Although they are retired, the two sets are readily available on eBay. Click here to see the search on the US eBay, or search for this string in your country's eBay:
"stampin up" ("collage alphabet", "collage numbers")
This will search for the alphabet OR the numbers set, so you will see both! They are available at all price points.

Twelve Things to Remember. . . We will never forget.

2011-09-14T01:47:00.003-04:00

Last week I visited my friend Molly and showed her some of the fun things you can do with PanPastels. I quickly created this vivid background in a Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal using the Sofft Tools oval sponge and the 20 painting colors set. They are completely erasable, so after I used a fine black Sharpie to draw my checkerboard border, I just erased the pastel and brought it back to a bright white page! The eraser was not the best, sure wish I'd had my kneaded eraser handy!

Click to enlarge

Molly had just received a Zettiology order, and I could not resist stamping this cool Teesha Moore image in the center! I used the eraser to create highlights in her face, legs, and striped sleeve. Then I used a fixative so I could add more layers without smearing.

There are three really good quotes worked into this stamped image, but they are so tiny you can hardly read them. I decided to write them larger on my page AND site the sources. I am fanatic about listing the authors of things, and I like to list dates also when that adds interest.

Can you see all the quotes? One is on her chest, another down the left sleeve, and the third is writing tiny, tiny, tiny around the whole figure:

Click to enlarge

I added white gel pen highlights to the figure with a Sakura white Gelly Roll pen. A little shine on her nose, highlights in her curls, and gleams in the whites of her eyes, white gloves, a dazzle on her tiara, it all really brought her to life!

Click to enlarge

The quote on her chest reads "We should gain more by letting ourselves be seen such as we are, than by attempting to appear what we are not." was in the "Maximes" of François de La Rochefoucauld which began in 1665 and reached their final form in 1678. Isn't it fascinating how human nature doesn't change? This advice sounds as fresh today as it did in the seventeenth century! I wrote it in at the top with various black Copic Multiliner SP pens, then I doodled lines and added some white dots and outlined them as well.

Click to enlarge

All around the checkerboard border, I wrote in "Twelve Things to Remember" by Marshall Fields, the great Chicago retailer. It echoes the way it is written all around the edge of the figure. They are also sometimes called "Twelve Priceless Qualities of Success."

Twelve Things to Remember:

The value of time
The success of perserverence
The pleasure of working
The dignity of simplicity
The worth of character
The power of kindness
The influence of example
The obligation of duty
The wisdom of economy
The virtue of patience
The improvment of talent
The joy of origination

All things worth remembering, worth valuing, worth preserving.

Click to enlarge

The quote down the left sleeve says "You give birth to that on which you fix your mind." by Antoine de Saint-Expupéry, a French novelist and aviator who lived from 1900-1944. Another quote that is as fresh now as it was then. Of course the point of the quote is to fix your mind on good things, lofty goals, to dream great dreams. But it also works in reverse. Serial killers dream terrible dreams and fix their mind in directions they should never go and give birth to atrocities. Terrorists in some cave or compound fixed their minds on how to devastate America and gave birth to the destruction of World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the high-jacked plane of heroes. We all need to exercise some mental discipline to maintain decency, kindness, and civilization. We need to strive to fix our minds towards the good and so give birth to creativity, to joy and not to tragedy.

I still remember the day it happened. I was at work in a 50-story skyscraper in New Orleans. A friend called and said, "Get out of there! If the planes come to New Orleans it is your building they will hit!" I said what are you talking about and she said "Find a TV!" We all watched in horror in the conference room. Not one face without tears. Just the beginning. . . .

This page did not start off having anything to do with 9/11, but I finished it on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy and it seemed to apply. It was certainly on my mind as I researched all the quotes and added all the text. So I added the speech bubble to the figure. "We will never forget."

9/11/2001:

WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

And now for something completely different. . .

2011-09-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

Click to enlarge

My little stamping group met recently at my friend Judy's house. She had prepared a really fun project for all of us to make! Using the Stampin' Up! Butterfly and Large Heart punches, she had dozens and dozens punched from the K & Co. Que Sera Sera pad. All of these were punched from the same pad, it has a wonderful range of colors. What beautful paper!

They were inspired by an example in this year's Stampin' Up! catalog at the top of one of the punch pages. A really fun fast project, especially since all the punching had been done ahead of time; thanks Judy!

Click to enlarge

We stacked two of each and used a repositionable adhesive to tack them down until we sewed down the center of each column from top to bottom. Then the top layer of punched shapes are folded up to give dimension. The card bases on the right are So Saffron Stampin' Up! card stock. They are straight stitched on a small sewing machine.

Click to enlarge

The cards on the left use a zig-zag stitch which I like better. The card bases are one of the new Stampin' Up! In-Colors, I love this shade called Pool Party. I sponged the edge of the white cardstock with Broken China Distress Ink.

If you need any of these Stampin' Up! supplies let me know; my sister is a demo and we always have some kind of special! We'd be glad to get you fixed up.

Let me know if you make some of these cards, and please leave a comment before you go!

Week 2, CHAPTER 7: Text as Nonsense

2011-09-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

I couldn't resist making a second project this month for The Altered Alice CHAPTER 7 Challenge: Text as Nonsense. I am in love with the wonderful silhouette stamps on the Alice 2 plate from our sponsor, Stamp Attack!

Click to enlarge

I created the first page in my new Moleskine sketchbook. I got two of them: a red sketchbook for Alice projects and a black sketchbook for everything else. (They were almost one third off at Amazon, just click the link at left!) The paper is so smooth and heavy, a dream to stamp on, and it smells wonderful! You may laugh but I just kept sticking my nose into the pages and inhaling the wonderful aroma of this paper! They were so beautiful and pristine that it took me a while to actually get the courage up to sully a page with one of my artistic attempts. But now I'm over that, lol!

I began by painting a backdrop for my "shadow puppets" with PanPastels. The grassy area was done with the oval sponge and all the rest was done with the Sofft Tool palette knives. LOVE them!! I started off with the 20 set of pure mass colors (the "Painting" set of 20) but I am going to order the tints and shades next, plus the palette trays. The bulldog clips just help to weight down the pages while I'm working on it. I knew the curtains would cover the sides and the stage would cover the bottom. The silhouette images were stamped with black Versafine.

The front of the stage was punched with an EK edger punch of card suits and I scribbled red marker in the heart and diamond openings. I created the scroll with the title in Adobe Illustrator. The admission tickets are an old Art Tickets set that is still available from Invoke Arts.

I ran book pages through my crimper in all different directions to soften the paper fibers before I tried to pinch and glue the curtains into place. They are sponged with Distress Tea Dye ink on the folds. The tiebacks are ribbon. The ALICE Scrabble tile word and the key stamped on the curtain valance are also from the Stamp Attack Alice 2 plate. I love making these curtains; you can see my first attempt on this circus tent page!

I hope you enjoyed my little Wonderland Shadow Puppet Theater. Please leave me a comment and think about playing along in this month's challenge!

The Altered Alice CHAPTER 7 Challenge Begins: Text as Nonsense!

2011-09-04T04:24:00.001-04:00

Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: `-- and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill -- ' `When you say "hill,"' the Queen interrupted, `I could show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.' `No, I shouldn't,' said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: `a hill can't be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense -- ' The Red Queen shook her head, `You may call it "nonsense" if you like,' she said, ` but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!' -- Chapter 2, Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Using text as pattern is a trend right now that I really love. Your challenge is to use text as nonsense - not to read but as pattern on your project! Of course you can still have words or sentiments, but we also need to see text used in a non-reading way. I have a stack of old books and dictionaries that I use for this purpose.

Our sponsor is Stamp Attack, a British company that is well known (among other things) for their fantastic Alice stamp plates which have sold to customers all over the world. In fact, Helena Bonham Carter, the actress who played the Red Queen in the Tim Burton Alice movie, purchased sets of Alice stamps from Stamp Attack, which were then delivered to the studio! Enabler alert: Stamp Attack offers speedy worldwide shipping for only £1 on unmounted stamp orders, so go on and check out their beautiful stamps!

The winner will receive a Stamp Attack gift certificate for £13.50, which is equivalent to one of the stamp plates that the design team will be using!

You have until Friday, September 23 to enter your creation at The Altered Alice and the winner and honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday of the month, September 25. All kinds of projects are welcome, they do not have to be "altered art" and as always, entries that feature some aspect of Wonderland are given two chances instead of one in the random prize drawing. You may enter multiple times as long as each project is on a separate post.

My Project

My art journal page was inspired by this Stamp Attack image of Alice on the Queen's croquet ground. The Scrabble tiles spelling Alice are another Stamp Attack stamp, cut apart and displayed on a banner of ribbon snippets, outlined with black or white. They are both from the Stamp Attack Alice 2 plate; it is a full-sized plate and the images are very deeply etched on thick red rubber. I'm working on another project with this stamp collection so stay tuned!

I am working in a Strathmore Visual Journal - the mixed media version. Love the heavy book board covers and the paper is great. The background of my page is a Hero Arts cling stamp called Word Pops; I had to have this stamp! The text circles were stamped and then the whole page was colored in using PanPastels (love them!). I applied the color using the Sofft Tool palette knives; this product is a unique cross between a soft pastel and a fluid medium. The black strip on the bottom was punched with a fun EK edger punch with scallops and huge dots, then backed with dictionary paper colored with oil pastels. That takes care of the "text as pattern" required by the challenge; all the circles make me think of colorful painted croquet balls, although I know Alice will be using hedgehogs instead!

It is a journal so I decided to include some writing. I had fun wrapping a quote from the story describing the croquet game around all the text polka dots! I used a Copic 0.2 Multiliner SP to scribble in this fine print. I love how this turned out. If you click the image above you can enlarge it enough to read the story. Please visit me at Savvy Sisters Studio and leave a comment, I love it when you do!

I hope you are inspired to make something and play along with The Altered Alice!

NOTE: If you decide to buy some of the products mentioned above, please consider using the links above to do so. I will get a tiny referral fee and you will get the same great price. It is a small way you can help to support this blog and The Altered Alice. Eventually it might cover my Linky Tools and professional Photobucket subscriptions, LOL!!! Thanks!

A Breath as Big as a Circus Tent. . . .

2011-08-23T20:08:00.006-04:00

Well, I have been bitten hard by the art journal bug and now I offer you page number two in my 40 cent composition book! The circus is a hot trend right now, and rather than buying a bunch of new stuff, I remembered my old, classic (pre-Tim Holtz) Stampers' Anonymous circus stamps!

I began by drawing a pennant border on a dictionary page using a fine Sharpie marker - love those! Then I painted it in with my Maimeri Venezia watercolors, which proved to be risky as it ran when covered with gel medium. Next, I ran some book pages through a Fiskars crimper several times to soften the fibers, and pleated them into curtains! I glued down the outside edges but left the rest loose.

Then I stamped the 7-League Express in the center of the background. I painted black over the top area of the stamp except for the elephant in his seven-league boots. It is a busy stamp and I wanted him to stand out. I outlined him with a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and a black ultra-fine point Sharpie. I stamped it again below but painted over it with brown for the circus ring surface, so it just acts as a visual texture.

Next I glued down the curtains and also some folded paper tie-backs. This was done with Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue, a personal favorite. I used Liquitex heavy matte gel medium both under and over the circus pennant border to glue it down. I used the heavy gel as I was gluing it to such a lumpy surface. The watercolor ran, but I decided I liked the subtle streaks of color going down my bookish curtains!

Then I glued down the Stampers Anonymous characters that I had already watercolored and cut out, plus the "Circus of the Perverse" sign. They are all attached with the Fast Grab Tacky Glue. The clown is actually a doll stamp with separate torso, arms and legs, so I could position his arms however I wanted. Love the sign board carrier, he is so quirky!

Then I used a white Posca Pen to write in the quote from poet e.e. cummings (who always wrote in lower case as I recall):

"when god decided to create the world he took one big breath as big as a circus tent and everything began." -- e.e. cummings

So who is the circus of the perverse? That's all of us of course, living our contrary lives in this huge creation!

I have decided to enter this into the Carnival of Curiosities challenge (HDH103) over at the Haunted Design House, as in retrospect and though it was not the intended effect, these Stampers' Anonymous characters have a bit of the macabre to them, or maybe a Ray Bradbury touch. What do you think? I have also entered it into the Bah, Humbuggers' Challenge 33: Something New. This whole art journaling gig is so completely new I still can't believe I am trying it! My gosh, my first Moleskine sketchbooks just arrived in the mail and I'm using gesso for goodness' sake!

I hope you have enjoyed my second journaling attempt; I think I have really found myself with this art form. I love quotes and poetry, and I love applying my stamping, coloring and painting skills to this different form. I make all these cards and they sit in boxes in my craft room because I don't actually correspond with people via snail mail as I'm way too disorganized! I think I may put a For Sale page on The Altered Alice and see if anyone wants to buy some lovingly created Alice cards, LOL! I'm running out of room!

Please leave a comment, I would love to hear what you think of my Circus of the Perverse, clowns, tents, watercolors, Ray Bradbury, selling my cards, e.e. cummings, or anything else you'd like to say!

The Altered Alice Chapter 6: Painting the Roses Red!

2011-08-21T01:43:00.005-04:00

'A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!' -- Chapter 8, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The club cards were painting the white roses red to avoid angering the Queen of Hearts, so your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use PAINT on your creation! Of course you can paint it RED like the design team will be doing, but you can also use other colors. You need to tell us what item was painted and what technique you used!

We are sponsored this month by Creative Inspirations [Store | Blog], makers of wonderful shimmering paint which comes in almost 60 colors, including clear iridescent Fairy Dust. They also carry hot fix Jeweled Inspirations and Metallic Inspirations; I am particularly intrigued by the latter as they look like brilliant nail heads. The Altered Alice design team will be using Garnet paint, a bright sparkling red, and I hope the Creative Inspirations design team might decide to play along! The winner of this month's challenge will receive five colors of their choice.

Be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, August 26. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on August 28.

My Art Journal Page

I have wanted to try art journaling for a long time and decided to jump in with supplies I had on hand, namely a 40 cent composition book and some big ideas. Like fellow design team members Erin and Terri, I had to use this fabulous Stampin' Up embossing folder with big bold roses. (My sister is an SU demo and offers a lot of specials, so if you *need* this folder let me know!)

I used a piece of heavy acetate (I actually recycled a Spellbinders package) and embossed it. Then I followed Barbara's method of painting with the shimmering Creative Inspirations paint from the back side of the acetate. At first it was very streaky, but the paint dries very quickly, especially given that it was a non-porous surface. I gave it about four coats and it has the most unbelievable glistening radiance in real life. The garnet paint is a bright gleaming red but the shimmer is a deep fuschia pinky-violet color! Fabulous! From the front, I just went over all the raised lines with a black Sharpie and trimmed it out. I LOVE this look! Spellbinders Foliage rose leaves complete the focal point.

As this was the cheapest of cheap paper, first I coated the whole page with Ranger gesso. Then I used my airbrush with Copic markers to tint the page green at the bottom and blue at the top. My foam brush still had some white gesso in it, so I dabbed in some clouds.

Next, I used a Plaid rose stencil and pounced gesso through it using a foam brush. When it was dry, I partially painted my white rose red and added some drips of paint. I outlined the drops and segments of the rose with a black sharpie felt tip marker, and added some white gleams on the drops with a Posca pen. Then I took a 0.3 Copic Multiliner SP to write in the quote from Chapter 8 about painting the roses red. I tucked in some other words here and there. I really like how this turned out! At this point I had the stenciled rose on the left and the acetate roses that would be placed somewhere to the right but it was missing something. I had planned to use two stamps I had of the card characters that were painting the tree, but they were way too small to hold up against all my huge roses.

I purchased this amusing Queen of Hearts from Mo's Digital Pencil. I wanted to print her larger than the normal, so I used a FREE program called SmillaEnlarger to blow up the image a bit. I think this program does a better job of enlarging than Photoshop; it is a great utility. This allowed me to print it at a blown up size without the least hint of jaggy pixels. I colored her in with Copics then trimmed her out with a bit of a margin. But when I placed the cutout on my page, she fell right into the busy background stenciled rose. So I used my black sharpie to color all the margins black, which gave it a nice bold outline. Now it can hold its own amongst the other elements.

I couldn't resist adding this snarky comment, just for fun! It makes me laugh as the Queen looks so out of control!

I hope you have enjoyed my first foray into art journaling as much as I have! After creating this page, I did some "research" (a.k.a. pestering design team member and art journal expert Sue Roddis!), and have now ordered a Moleskine sketchbook of my very own! Two actually; a red one for Alice and a black one for everything else. I got them for a fantastic price on Amazon!

If you decide to buy some, please use the links above to do so. I will get a small referral fee and you will get the same great price. It is a small way you can help to support this blog and The Altered Alice. Eventually it might cover my Linky Tools and professional Photobucket subscriptions, LOL!!!

I love hearing from you; please let me know what you think about this page, about embossing acetate, art journals, smarty-pants remarks, or anything else you like! Then hurry up and PAINT something and link it on The Altered Alice! Time is running out. . . tick tock, tick tock!

The Twinery Anniversary Give-away - enter by TONIGHT, August 19.

2011-08-19T14:48:00.000-04:00

Winning a prize package of 14 spools of yummy baker's twine from The Twinery would be an event to remember! I have entered to win, have you? Time is running out. . . tick tock. . . tick tock!

Get over to The Twinery and see how many different ways you can enter. I hope I win, but if not I would love it if one of my blog readers won!

Last Week for The Altered Alice "Tea Things" Challenge!

2011-07-24T17:53:00.001-04:00

I couldn't resist making another project with this wonderful collage sheets from One Crabapple; this is a hybrid project that started off digital and soon moved into the paper and scissors realm! The challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your creation, and you need to get your entry in by Friday, July 29, to have a chance to win 5 collage sheets of your choice!

All elements shown are from these collage sheets - can you find all the elements?

I made a digital collage using Photoshop, which was lots of fun as I could resize or flip things to suit my composition. One of the elements was the fabulous nonsense quote, so I used that large in the background and small in the upper right corner. I thought it would be fun for Alice and the Caterpillar to have tea! I also wanted to include the frame as a nod to "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There". I lightened up my image a bit as it prints darker than you see it on the screen:

Then I printed out several copies on my *new* color LASER printer - you can color me happy, happy, happy! I have wanted a color laser for years! I took an 8x10 inch stretched canvas, painted the edges black, and then used gel medium to paste one complete printout to the canvas. Then I cut up all the elements - Alice with teacup, frame, mushrooms, hookah, teapot, caterpillar, and monogram - after first pasting the sheets to cardstock to make them more sturdy.

Then I went into a pop-dot frenzy, using both eighth inch and sixteenth inch foam mounting tape to get different levels of dimension. The frame is popped up from the background and other elements are popped up higher. I think this angled photo shows some of the dimension. No where near the dizzying heights that Donna of Popsicle Toes achieves, but still a lot of dimension! ;-)

The completed piece, I am very happy with how this hybrid project turned out. My two One Crabapple projects are my first attempts at digital crafting, and I have discovered that unless the digital project moves into the paper realm I'm not happy - I need the satisfaction of cutting and gluing and making a fine mess!

For those of you thinking about a new color printer, consider a color laser/led printer. I purchased a Brother HL 4570CDW from Amazon and I am thrilled with it. Amazon offers a good discount on the Brother toner cartridges, and the printer is sold from Amazon so I got free shipping and the assurance of Amazon's customer service. This printer is about $100+ more than the same model without the wireless feature, but I wanted to be able to print from my iPhone and the freedom to place the printer anywhere without needing to hook it up to my router. Brother has a personal line of color laser/led printers and an office line - this is from the more robust office line which ships with fully charged toner cartridges instead of partially filled starter cartridges. I also love it that it is a duplex printer - I have been making my own double-sided patterned paper!

I did not use my color ink jet very often, so every time I needed to use it I had to clean the print heads to unclog the nozzles, wasting a lot of ink. My cost per page was astronomical as I was only getting partial use of the ink cartridges before they dried up.The toner will be much more cost effective as the toner cartidges won't dry up or clog. I also discovered it was just as easy for me to print photos through an online service like Wal-Mart or Walgreens, so I don't need an inkjet for photo printing. The other problem with the ink jet was that it was not craft friendly - I couldn't get any glue or decoupage on the prints as it would mar the finish. That is not a problem with the color laser printouts! The toner printouts are more durable - I can use gel medium over them, spritz them with Perfect Pearls, decoupage them, all things that would mar the finish of inkjet printouts.

Winners will be posted next Sunday so be sure to check back on The Altered Alice. To see the rest of this week's design team inspiration pieces, click HERE, there are some fantastic projects to see!

I'd love it if you'd leave a comment before you go!

I've Been Published in Ginger Scraps Street Magazine!

2011-07-11T02:13:00.002-04:00

Look who's published. . . ME!!!!
Jess Marin, our lovely guest designer on The Altered Alice, has more talents than her amazing coloring and wonderful paper craft creations. It turns out she is also a talented writer for Ginger Scraps Street Magazine, which is an online digital publication. I was so honored when she asked me to submit not one but TWO separate projects for her article on Alice in Wonderland. Well, I sure have a few projects on this blog featuring Alice, LOL!

Jess writes the "Crafty Boutique" column which features Alice in Wonderland this month:

July 2011 Table of Contents - one of my pieces is shown on the contents page!
July 2011 Crafty Boutique article - features my projects!

Please go check it out and then come back here and leave me a comment, I need some of you to jump up and down and laugh with me!!!

Jess writes wonderful articles. I loved the one she did in the last issue on Twilight, it was great! You can see all the issues of the Ginger Scraps Street Magazine.

CHAPTER 5 Challenge: Tea-Things

2011-07-10T01:37:00.003-04:00

`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.

The Mad Hatter's tea table was full of tea-things, with place settings all the way around and many teapots and teacups. Your challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your project, and, as an option, to use something OTHER than a stamped image as your focal point!

That's because The Altered Alice design team will be showing off with digital collage sheets from One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland categories I've seen! The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. It is well worth waiting for I promise; most of the design team members had a difficult time making their choices and a couple of us needed all of everything in the Alice category! The winner will have their choice of five collage sheets from One Crabapple!

July is a long month, so you have almost four weeks to enter your project! Plenty of time for even our stragglers to play along, just be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

My creation uses the Mad Tea Party sheet and the diamonds from the Go Ask Alice sheet, and since I was on vacation away from my craft room, I decided to make it a completely digital creation using layers in Photoshop. You could use any image editing program with layers, including Photoshop Elements, which is much less expensive, or GIMP which is free.

I loved all the head gear on the Mad Tea Party sheet, so I copied the oval portrait and duplicated it three times, matching the plaid backgrounds, then pasted different hats on each Alice! I was really taken with the rich burgundy and gold of the Mad Hatter hat, so I colorized the teapot and teacups to match, and the background is a burgundy to gold to burgundy gradient with noise added for texture. The captions are also from the collage sheet, but I reduced the opacity of the text layers to 65% so it looks like vellum. Lots of drop shadows were used to give a sense of depth, just think of them as virtual pop-dots! Please click on the image to enlarge it so you can see these details.

Scoot on over to The Altered Alice to see the Week 1 and Week 2 inspiration from the design team, and to enter your own creation. Please leave a comment, I treasure every one!

Celebrating the Mad Hatter

2011-06-26T17:19:00.001-04:00

The challenge this month on The Altered Alice was to celebrate Mad Hatter Day, and the whole design team was given this same stamped image by Jennie at The Artistic Stamper. I really love these vintage Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrations of Alice in Wonderland that The Artistic Stamper has translated into rubber.

Attwell was born in England in 1879 and by 1914 had established her trademark style of illustrating roly-poly toddlers, loosely based on her daughter's appearance at that age. By the 1920s her children's picture book illustrations had captured the public's fancy. In fact the author of Peter Pan specifically requested that Attwell illustrate her gift book edition. If these appeal to you, The Artistic Stamper has several of these charming Attwell toddler drawings in rubber! And remember - free worldwide shipping over £35!

Attwell's illustrations of Alice in Wonderland are in quite a different style, and I was really inspired by the original color illustrations when I created my piece. First off, Attwell's Alice was a redhead, and as a redhead myself I approve! She wears the drop waist dresses typical of that period, and all the illustrations have a retro-vintage charm that stops short of being cute.

Here are some of the illustrations that inspired me - click to enlarge:

Aren't they great? I hope The Artistic Stamper will come out with more Attwell Alice stamps! They remind me of British art pottery of the same period, with the stylized trees and restricted color palette. I wanted to make my stamp look more like this image of the Mad Tea Party:

So the first thing I did after stamping the image on Beckett Radiance card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink was to use various weights of Copic Multiliner SP illustration pens to draw in the rest of the table under the teapot. You can see that I modeled my table legs on those pictured here, as well as the yellow skies, orange sun and yellow-green foreground. I also colored the clothes and the teapot and teacups to match this illustration. Then I trimmed it out carefully with my Cutter Bee non-stick scissors, which are my favorite for intricate fussy-cutting. Now what to do?

I knew I wanted to have the book text in the background. I tried to find a likely background shape amongst my die cuts and I decided the Grand Label Four Nestability shape would work best. I used the next the the largest die to cut my text covered card stock. It is the actual words from the Mad Tea Party chapter of the book! I sponged the background with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. I took the brush Copic Multiliner pen and loosely sketched in a horizon line and some bush outlines above it. I made a mat by tracing along the inside rim of the largest Grand Label Four die and glued the two together. Now my background was complete, but the table was really bugging me. I wanted it to have dimension. It also looked disproportionate, as I had to draw the table top front edge so low due to the position of the teapot.

Then I had a brainwave! I scored the cut out image along the front and back of the table. I attached it to the background with dimensional foam mounting tape, centered on a Sizzix Weathered Clock die cut. I stamped and colored the Mad Hatter and March Hare arms, Dormouse and teapot and added that layer as you can see above.

Then it looked too empty under the table. I made a little price tag with another image stamped on kraft card stock and colored with pencils. I added an "Imagine" ticket and it was done! I wish I could tell you how cool this 3D effect is in real life! Now it is even more so as I added a layer of Glossy Accents over the entire teapot to make it shine.

You can see the rest of the design team's creations here: Original challenge post, Week 2, Week 3, and Winners & Honorable Mentions. Going last has it's advantages, as Tracy/CuddlyBunny's project on book text was a major inspiration, and the Glossy Accents coating to give the teapot a glass effect was inspired by Terri DeVine's stolen tarts project!

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my dimensional Mad Tea Party!

Altered Alice Mad Tea Party Winners!

2011-06-26T04:53:00.000-04:00

The winner and honorable mentions have been announced on The Altered Alice!

The post also shows my challenge creation. I will post all the details here later today, so PLEASE check back later to take a look!

THANKS!

Happy Father's Day to My Wonderful Dad!

2011-06-19T15:45:00.001-04:00

I have the most wonderful father in the whole world, and he means the whole world to me! They say that we don't remember days, we remember moments and every moment with my Dad is a treasure. So a "world" theme seemed very appropriate for Father's Day!

Well, my wonderful Dad has a tardy daughter, as he will be seeing this card for the first time on the blog! I did not finish it until yesterday; I had all my bits and pieces ready earlier in the week but just couldn't get the arrangement the way I imagined it. I'll get it in the mail tomorrow Dad, but in the meantime, enjoy this blog version!

This card uses "The Open Sea" stamp set from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini catalog and it is only available until the end of August! Please contact me if you would like to order it; the coordinating designer paper is absolutely yummy. I have ordered it and I think I will get it in the digital paper set also. My sister is an SU demo and we'd be happy to hook you up with this wonderful set, and by going through a demo you would get the preferred pricing on your order.

The problem I was having is the card front was too crowded. Then I decided to mount the A2 card front (Sahara Sand SU card stock) on a larger 5 x 6.5 inch kraft card base. I was going for a cluttered collage look, but it needed the blank space of the larger card base to ground it. I decided to mount it off center and balance it with a sailor's knot. Then I needed something to unite the two elements, and a pierced border was the perfect element to tie everything together. The pierced border was created with the Stampin' Up! Mat Pack. This 3-part Mat Pack is always on my craft table within reach, just like my scissors and Stamp-a-Ma-Jig.

I did not have a stamp with the sentiment I wanted, so I just wrote it in white gel pen along with the stamped world and compass images. I also repeated some of the images on the left front of the envelope, just for fun.

Dad really loves my two cats; in fact he calls them the "grandcats" and always asks after them when we talk on the phone. I was trying to get a photo with Abita's big turquoise eyes looking over the top of the card, but she started drifting into a little cat nap during the photo shoot. It is crazy; I can't keep them OUT of the picture when I am taking pictures of my cards, but when I am TRYING to include the cat, she decides it is time for a snooze! Oh well.

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Dad, and you'll get the real card in the mail this week! I love you bunches!

Birthday Style for Hannah!

2011-06-12T16:25:00.003-04:00

My wonderful niece turned 20 a few days ago; where do the years go? It seems like she was a darling four year old who loved purple just a few days ago! Now she is a very sweet, smart, and stylish college student and I am so proud of her. I had some paper that made me think of her, and although Hannah is not into vintage fashion, all the sentiments in this Sew Stylish stamp set by Hero Arts made me think of her!

The Polka Dot Paisley paper was the jumping off point for the entire project. It is part of the Funky Vintage - Lizzie Collection by Making Memories, which I received as a gift from my stamping friend Judy! I stamped the models, two of the ruler stamp, and one of every sentiment in the set with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. Then I colored them in with Copic markers, choosing colors from the paisley paper.

I cut out the sentiments with notched ends, then colored them with Copics to match the paper. Last were the rulers; I had to blend several shades to make it match the muted yellow in the patterned paper.

The 5½ inch square top-fold card base was made from Sage Shadow card stock (Stampin' Up!, retired). I cut out my fashion models, leaving a generous margin to help with the stability and durability of thin areas like their legs. I adhered the patterned paper with my Scotch ATG tape runner, I absolutely love this tape gun! The models were attached with foam pop-dots, then the sentiments were stapled on with the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I really love the petite scale of these staples, and I can use them on things that are way too small to attach with normal sized staples and it is such a neat look. Notice the way the placement of the yellow items both balances and guides your eye though the composition. The two long thin rulers bound the bottom and left sides are balanced by the medium sized fan shaped area in the middle of the pattern and the smaller sentiment in the upper right corner.

On the inside I stamped the birthday sentiment, followed by an Postmodern Design setiment slab saying "Be the Diva". I used one of the strips I trimmed from the patterned paper to anchor the arrangement.

I used more snippets of paper to cover up the back of the staples. I also took a scrap of the Sage Shadow card stock to make a pocket for some money or a gift card. To make it more fun I border punched the top edge with a Martha Stewart Loops punch and glued a strip of ribbon across the pocket.

Happy Birthday Hannah! And thanks to Judy for the Funky Vintage paper pad! Please leave a comment before you go and let me know how you like Hannah's card.

We're Celebrating Mad Hatter Day with a Mad Tea Party on The Altered Alice!

2011-06-12T02:19:00.004-04:00

We're having a Mad Tea Party on The Altered Alice, and The Artistic Stamper is our sponsor this month! In addition to creating something to celebrate the Mad Hatter, you also need to bring something to the tea party! Read all about Mad Hatter Day and why we celebrate it TWICE a year here, then see more amazing tea party inspiration from the the design team here.

Here's what the the design team is bringing to the Mad Tea Party:

So figure out what you are bringing to the party, make a project and come on over! Enter at The Altered Alice by Friday, June 24 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4:00) and we'll announce the winner of the £15 voucher for The Artistic Stamper stamps on Sunday, June 26! And I'll see you next week with my own Mad Hatter project!