Celebrate Mad Hatter Day with a MAD TEA PARTY, Altered Alice Style!

Join Us for a MAD TEA PARTY!

There are two Mad Hatter Days every year, and one of them is this month! In the United States, October 6th is Mad Hatter Day as we abbreviate our dates as month/day. In the United Kingdom, Mad Hatter Day is June 10th as they abbreviate their dates as day/month. So what do these dates have to do with the Mad Hatter? In the original Tenniel illustrations, the Mad Hatter has a price tag tucked into his hat band. It says "In this Style 10/6" which, for us ignorant Yankees means ten schillings and sixpence, or half a guineau back in Alice's day! So Mad Hatter Day falls on 10/6, and here at The Altered Alice, instead of choosing between date systems, we just celebrate twice a year!!!

 Our generous sponsor this month is The Artistic Stamper, and they are offering a £15 pound voucher for The Artistic Stamper stamps! They have a WONDERFUL online store that offers free worldwide shipping on orders over £35 and they carry loads of my favorite brands. The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog offers amazing inspiration and interesting challenges, so be sure to visit! Jennie has kindly provided our design team with the Mabel Lucie Attwell Mad Hatter Stamp for our projects this month. It will be interesting to see how everyone applies their own style and vision to the same image!

The challenge this month is to create a project to celebrate the Mad Hatter, AND to bring something to our Mad Tea Party! You have until 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!

Here are the design team's party contributions:

Your Weekly Inspiration from the Design Team:

This month everyone on the design team will be using the same charming image by Mabel Lucie Attwell that features the Mad Hatter and the March Hare stuffing the Dormouse into the teapot as Alice departs the tea party.

Normally I post the design team projects in the order they submit them to me, but this month I'm jumping a bit out of order because Retta's party ensemble is such a perfect kick-off to our Mad Tea Party!

Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog begins her party ensemble with this lovely and fun invitation! I love the way she echoed the polka dot pattern on the Mad Hatter's hatband in her choice of papers and ribbons throughout the ensemble!

Of course on the inside of Retta's invitation, we see that it takes place at 6 o'clock, because it is ALWAYS time for tea in Wonderland!   Love the way she reduced her colored image inside the card. The date, of course, is 10/6. So, are you going to show up on June 10th or October 6th?  Ha!

Once we arrive at the party, we find a lovely banner to welcome us to the Mad Tea Party!  Love the way the pompom fringe ties in with the polka dots!

Each pennant in the banner has the image stamped in white on the crimson background, and the doily peeking out behind is a great tea party touch, don't you think?

I am not sure if this is meant to be worn as a party hat or serve as an amazing centerpiece, but either way I LOVE it! This time the image was stamped on white shrink plastic to make a lovely charm for the hat! Aren't those hat pins a great touch?  The thing I love most is the way it perfectly echoes the Mad Hatter's hat in our stamped image, complete with polka dot hatband and price tag! And I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that charm would make a pretty cool necklace to wear between tea parties, don't you?

And what would a party be without gifts?  I love Love LOVE the way Retta has stamped this image on the crimson and just highlighted touches with white or yellow. A custom gift bag is a brilliant way to complete this FABULOUS Mad Tea Party ensemble! Kudos to Retta, and please stop by her blog to leave her some comments on her brilliant inspiration project!

Tracy Evan's large pocket watch plaque is decorated with MANY different versions of the stamped image, but unlike the previous ensemble, these are all part of the same wonderful piece!  I love the soft monochromatic colors Tracy used to unify all the various elements of her wonderful wall art. This piece is all about the details, and as I am very detail oriented the whole thing just makes me really happy!

I love the way Tracy has used circles to frame different vignettes within the same image. We see three large circles of descending size on the right side of the plaque. LOVE the way Tracy has then added a shrink plastic version of the same vignette as an embellishment to each stamped circle!

The little striped top hat projecting from the base is a wonderful touch, and Tracy filled the circle at the top of the hat with another stamped circle, this time with the Mad Hatter's face!

The fringe is made up of eyelash yard and all kinds of great embellishments! Card suits, hearts, a pocket watch cham, playing cards; the whole thing is just wonderful! Be sure to stop by Tracy's blog and leave her a comment!

So find something fun to bring to our Mad Tea Party, and show & tell when you link your project that celebrates the Mad Hatter! You have until 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 Happy Mad Hatter Day from The Altered Alice!

To enter your creation, use the linky tool below - just click the red link below the thumbnail images. Please list a name when you link your entry, your name or the name of your blog. (Note - if you are viewing this in email or through a reader, you will need to click on the title of this post to view it on the blog.)

Please leave a comment here before you go! I'd love to know how you like the design team projects, and also whether or not you like the Mad Tea Party idea!