Week 3 - CHAPTER 12 Challenge: Hearts!

"First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognised the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King's crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand procession, came THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS."     -- Chapter 8; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 

Since February contains Valentine's Day, we are challenging you to show us your HEART (or hearts), in whatever form you'd like to interpret that! Our sponsor this month is The Octopode Factory, who is offering a $30 Etsy shop gift certificate to one randomly selected winner.

The Octopode Factory has amazing and unique images born from the fertile imagination of Lily Chilvers. The Etsy Shop carries her digi stamps and collage sheets, and she has large and small rubber stamps available through her blog. Be sure to check out all the incredible Alice in Wonderland characters and digital stamp sets, and visit!  And for fun and inspiration, be sure to visit Lily's blog and The Octopode Factory Friday challenge blog, or TOFF for short!

This is a very short month, so you have only until Friday, Feb. 24 to submit your entry! As always, projects that feature Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are fine, but each must be on a separate post. Please join us!

Your Weekly Inspiration

First, I owe Meme an apology as I accidentally posted her wonderful Queen and castle a week early. Please visit Meme's Art Place this week to leave a comment and get the details!

Now we have the next installment on the Alice in Wonderland dresser, which is an ongoing upcycling project by Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies! As you can see, two more of the small drawers at the top have been painted since last month's striped drawers: a chessboard drawer and a Cheshire Cat drawer. Then Amy transformed one side of the dresser! Such fun, let's look at the details.

The chessboard drawer background is made of punched squares of black glitter cardstock over a silver painted base. Alternating squares are decorated with hearts punched from playing card backs - I love that detail, so appropriate. The Octopode Queen of Hearts is near her distressed playing card at the left.

This darling Octopode White Rabbit is available exclusively in rubber, three sizes are available. Go to THIS blog post to read all the details and see more photos of the chessboard drawer!

Next up is the Cheshire Cat drawer! I love the colors on this one. And the way Amy has shown the vanishing of the Cheshire Cat is so creative!

Look at the way she has trimmed the cat down to eyes and a grin at the left end!

And here the Cheshire Cat is dancing on his head, and another vanishing cat on the right! Love the doodles on the die cut leaves she has decoupaged as a background to the cats.

In case you are wondering where the hearts are on the Cheshire drawer, both drawers feature these heart drawer pulls created by Amy. But we are not done!

Next, Amy began on one side of the dresser; the theme for this side is "The Golden Afternoon" and it is so charming! I love the deep blues and greens of the background; the shimmering pearlescent paints almost make this scene look underwater!

Octopode's Retro Alice wanders amidst the garden of living flowers! I love the saturated colors, eye candy to be sure!

The Octopode Rocking Horsefly soars on his heart-shaped wings through this truly magical Garden. Be sure to stop by all three posts from Amy to see many more photos on the whole process; seeing the different steps along the way is really fascinating!!!

Time is flying; you have only until Friday, Feb. 24 to submit your entry! If you are viewing this in a reader or email, please click on the title of this post to see the link list on the blog:

So get busy and show us your heart!