Week 1, CHAPTER 10: A Lewis Christmas Carroll to All!

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?

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The window was designed by the 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! 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.

Your Weekly Inspiration:

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Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog was inspired by the same windows featured above, and created this wonderful altered canvas for us to enjoy! Be sure to click to enlarge the image to see the wonderful detail. I love the way the  window panes have been colored, it really looks like light is pouring through! The canvas and windows were painted with watercolor crayons, after the windows were stamped with Jet Black Archival ink. The characters were stamped and colored separately and glued on.

There are so many wonderful details! Lyrics from classic Christmas carols have been penned in around each window - I LOVE that touch! The tiny wreath and angel above adds a wonderful 3D element to the scene. The snowflakes (or stars?) and both stamped and done in bling for loads of sparkle and shine. The corsage of snow covered fir branches, glass ornaments, and a star ornament finish it off wonderfully! Kudos to Retta for such a fab Wonderland Christmas scene! Stop by Foxy's Weblog and leave a comment for Retta on this beautiful creation!

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Tracy Evans created a magical Winter Wonderland in this gorgeous art journal spread. I love the background created with layer upon layer of snowflakes and number stencils, perfect for our holiday countdown! Each bauble has been textured with the IndigoBlu crackle stamp, and the characters are IndigoBlu as well.

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I love the way Tracy has added the text with alternating bits of back and white pen, and the checkered stripes at the border and above and below "Winter Wonderland" tie in with the black and white of the character images.

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Have you noticed the clever way Tracy has dotted in the names of each character around their ornament? Loads of details to love in this art journal spread, be sure to stop by and tell Tracy how you like it!
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Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes created a Wonder-full teapot snow-globe on this fun and charming easel card, with a holiday tea party inside covered with snowy white mica flakes! I love the red, white and silver color scheme, the whole thing really shines.

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One of the things I love best about this wonderful project is that the snow-globe is created from recycled packaging! Donna said this acetate bubble was from a tape package. Be sure to look at all your packaging this holiday before you add it to the trash pile, I'll bet there are some great crafty supplies in the discards and what an extra bonus! The mirrored silver card stock is another wonderful (non-recycled) element; that silver rim around everything adds a lot of elegant shine!

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The beautiful snowflakes are the perfect finishing touch, along with the red bling. Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to tell Donna how you like her holiday tea party snow-globe!

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Last but certainly not least, we have a wonderful ornament by Retta of Foxy's Weblog made from an altered mint tin! I would love to hang this on my tree, that's for sure, as it's a real treasure! The tiny wreath and "pine" fringe have such a great retro Christmas vibe!

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Retta primed the whole tin with Mod Podge (GREAT tip), then tinted it with alcohol inks which you can see around the edges of the patterned and stamped paper. I love the layering of images, embellishments, bling and text!

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Then the real treasure is inside - each half of the tin has been treated like a mini shadowbox!

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LOVE the tiny garland, Christmas lights and the tiny Christmas tree with the Cheshire Cat hovering amidst the boughs! The snowflakes hang like paper lanterns over what is now a holiday tea!

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More retro vintage Christmas Greetings - Be sure to stop by Foxy's Weblog and wish Retta a Merry Christmas!

Well, you have had four wonderful Christmas greetings from three of our designers! Now we are hoping that you will have a Wonderland Christmas greeting for the design team.  You have until Friday, Dec. 23 to enter.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Altered Alice! Please leave a comment before you go!