Week 4, 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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Sandy Scholz of Stempelchaotin created this wonderful soldered glass house! The flat sides are made from glass bevels with Sandy's colorful artwork behind.

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You can more clearly see the glass bevelss in this shot, and the fun game pieces she used for feet!

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Look at the way Sandy has spelled out Mad Hatter with wire, then soldered it to the top of the house! Be sure to stop by Stempelchaotin to leave a comment for Sandy!

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My project (Lynne Phelps of Savvy Sisters Studio) is an altered paper mache book box, which seemed very appropriate to showcase a storybook character or two! I love how the crackling turned out, both the real crackled paint and the areas filled in with the IndigoBlu crackle stamp in rust.

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The bumps on the bands of the spine add a lot of dimension and a touch of shine!

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I'm also really happy how the warm neutral color pallette worked out. This March Hare image is my fave, and so fun to color with Copics!

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The tea party image brightens up the inside! For all the details, please stop by Savvy Sisters Studio and leave a comment for Lynne!

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We have one more project from Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog; a fun "After the Tea Party" art journal page! I love the way Retta has created a scene with the small March Hare and the Tweedles visiting amidst the tea things!

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We can see the Mad Hatter through the keyhole in the wood door. Love the shiny leaves too! Be sure to stop by Foxy's Weblog and leave a comment for Retta on this wonderful project!

Time is running out! 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!