Week 3, CHAPTER 8: Celebrating the Mad Hatter, with Twinkles!

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.


Your Weekly Inspiration

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Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog has delivered a second project this month, a delightful Mad Hatter tag! I love this Mad Hatter image from IndigoBlu's Alice I, which includes this wonderful crackle background. The great flourish is part of the Alice II set. The colorful background really sets off the red tablecloth. He looks like he is deeply pondering his own riddle!  Be sure to stop by Retta's blog for more info and to leave her a comment on this wonderful tag!

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Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies has created a fantastic altered tea set, and what could be more appropriate for celebrating the Mad Hatter? I am so loving that amazing curl of steam! 

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Look at this wonderful detail; Amy has written all along the back of the steam! I can't quite read it, we will have to visit her blog to see what it says! And this view shows the way the ribbon holds the tea party image hanging from the handle.

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I love the way Amy has suspended teacup charms from the beautifully colored tea party image! And look at the amazing alcohol inks that are so brilliantly coloring the teapot!

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No detail is overlooked as an opportunity for embellishment! Look at the fabulous teapot charm hanging from the handle, and the peppermint striping of the handle itself!

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The teapot would have been enough to wow us, but check out the awesome teacup and saucer! It looks like a tiny March Hare has just dunked the Mad Hatter's watch in the tea to try and revive it, after he lubricated the works with the best butter, LOL! There are more photos on Amy's blog!

This March Hare image is my ultimate favorite IndigoBlu image from the Alice I set. I LOVE the way Amy has turned the watch in the image into a REAL opening pocket watch! Amy is our new guest designer, so please stop by Plucking Daisies to comment on this fabulous project and to welcome her to the team!

October is a long month with five Sundays, so you'll have no excuse not to join us in our Mad Tea Party celebrating Mad Hatter Day, US style! Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Just make sure YOUR watch is not two days slow!

To enter your creation, use the linky tool below - just click the link below the thumbnail images. Please list YOUR NAME or YOUR BLOG NAME in the TITLE, for example "Alice Liddell - Tea Party Collage".  The field is long enough that you can also put the name of your piece, but please put your name first in the title field. (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 before you go, they mean a lot!