Winner & Honorable Mentions, CHAPTER 20: Twinkle like a Bat, Shine like a Tea Tray!

Happy Hallowe'en from The Altered Alice!

Our sponsor this month is Smeared Ink, home of edgy, wild and fun designs in rubber and digital forms has released a Wonderland Collection; images are available individually or as a set. The randomly-chosen winner of this month's challenge will receive a $15 shopping spree in their online store.  But first. . .

One Last DT Project!

A two-page art journal spread from Lynne Phelps of Savvy Sisters Studio (me!). It was a real joy to color these complex detailed images despite it being a huge departure from my usual style, LOL! I really enjoyed the way the Queen of Heart's looking glass acted like a window into Alice in the garden and I wanted to have the two images next to each other to reinforce the connection. Here are some closeups of the images and my coloring:

I would love it if you would stop by my personal blog, Savvy Sisters Studio, and leave a comment there for me!

Our Winner:


Our sponsor this month is Smeared Ink, home of edgy, wild and fun designs will give the randomly-chosen winner of this month's challenge  a $15 shopping spree in their online store.   Smeared and Smudged is an online community of rubber stampers and crafters who enjoy using alternative, gothic, edgy, and unique stamps in their designs. We thrive on different and unusual. We welcome the macabre and devious side of things, and most of all, we embrace ALL types and styles of art. Whether or not you “come to the dark side”, your creations should be a reflection of you. At Smeared and Smudged, the most important thing is being yourself. There are lots of ways to interact with the community! [ Ning Community | Challenge Blog | Facebook Group ]

The winner of this month's challenge is #2 as chosen by random.org, so that means that Shahrul Niza of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the lucky one! Check out her amazing exploding box!

Be sure to visit her blog, Such Pretty Canvas, for many more pictures showing all the amazing detail! Shahrul, please email me through the link in the left column so I can forward your info to Smeared Ink for your shopping spree! You may also add this badge to your blog, linking it to this post:

Thanks again to Smeared Ink for being such a great sponsor!

Honorable Mentions

Artwolf2009 from Munich, Germany brings us this scary entry along with a charming story! Be sure to visit her blog for the tale.

The wrinkled background texture behind these twinkly bats is fantastic. Kudos to Keren Howell of Altered Ego for trying a great new technique!

Leintje brings the very first shaker card to The Altered Alice and shiny metallic gold hearts make the perfect "snow".  The image of Alice with the playing cards flying about is just perfect for a shaker card! I love the way she used the bell jar shape, charming!

I love the quirky Cheshire Cat shape of this twice-altered clock from Blackdragon, who titled the piece The 31 Days of Hallowe'en. The outer border makes me think of board game trails to go along with that theme! Love the hand too!

WendyLynn's Paper Whimsies poses the question "is everyone in wonderland batty?" and I would have to say "why YES!" It made me laugh so it is in for a Mention!

Marcelo Carbone from Brazil and living in Italy, brings us the undead Queen of Hearts and her undead vampire playing cards! Eeeek! He calls this Alice's Hallowe'en Nightmare; who knew an altered doll could be so scary?

I had such fun watching the video by EmeraldQueen of TatteredRoses41 showing the creation of this art journal page Be sure to visit her blog to watch the video!

I am out of time to describe what I like about each project, but everyone did such a great job this month that ALL ENTRIES get an Honorable Mention! Thanks to all our participants for doing such a great job! See the other entries below:
Please leave a comment before you go!

Week 3, CHAPTER 19: Lovely Garden and Bright Flowers

"...she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of very little use without my shoulders."-- Chapter 1, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Your challenge this month is Garden and/or Flowers! Enter your creations by Friday, September 28, 2012. Multiple entries are allowed, but to count as a separate entry each must be on its own blog post. All entries are welcome, but projects that feature Wonderland will have two chances at the drawing instead of one.

The winner will receive 3 digi images from The Stamping Boutique, which has a wonderful Alice in Wonderland line we will be sharing with you! Tracey Malnoski is the owner and illustrator, and she has previously designed stamps for Unity, InStyle, Squigglefly, and The Digi Shack. Her Stamping Boutique has it all: digital images, red rubber stamps, and themes that include fairytale, whimsy, sentimental, and candy. Please visit the Store and their wonderful Challenge Blog!

Your Weekly Inspiration

Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies made this wonderful teacup planter; this cup is huge! She colored in the charming garden scene with Copic markers, and used Mod Podge Spray to seal it onto the teacup planter. Amy said this is her favorite product to seal Copic coloring. Of course she hit the teacup planter with some turquoise Glitterblast spray paint!

You may or may not realize that Amy is the Queen of Upcycling around here. Visit Amy at Plucking Daisies for many amazing makeovers with her recycled projects, great tutorials, and she also has tips on adhering stamped artwork to curved surfaces. Leave a comment while you are there!

Meme/Donna of Meme's Art Place gives us tiny Alice wandering in the garden of flowers on the cover of this fun tri-fold card! I love the mix of colors and patterns against the neutral card base, adding to the lively feeling with all the punched flowers!  Hmmmm, what is that peeking out at the top above the flowers?

What fun to see the Cheshire Cat inside! I love this digi stamp with that big grin and the hat perched on top! The punched flowers continue inside to accent the two wings of this tri-fold card. Great job Meme! Be sure to stop by Meme's Art Place to leave a comment.

Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes created this fabulous tiered box out of recycled tape and ribbon spool cores! The scalloped layers are reminiscent of flowers. Love the alpha beads and the gold embossed key, and they way she split the key on either side of the keyhole! The cut keyhole layer raised on foam tape adds so much dimension to the Alice keyhole digi stamp.

You can see the whole thing swiveled open here.

The bank of flowers up one side is perfect with the garden theme, and it hides all the mechanics that attach the layers.

The top is swiveled open to reveal the first tier of the box. The brad through the flower center acts as a swivel. Love the fresh colors and gingham prints with the fun Alice digi stamp!

Lots more dimension and embellishments at the bottom of the lower tier. Great coloring, it is so fun and charming. Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to get all the details and leave a comment for Donna!

That's it for this week; we'll be back with more inspiration next week. Be sure to enter your flower/garden project in the linky tool below by Friday, September 28, 2012 and PLEASE include your name or blog name in the TITLE. This helps me enormously when it comes time to had out the honorable mentions! (Note: if you are viewing this post in a reader or email, please click on the title of the post to go to the blog to see the entries or submit a project.)

Please leave a comment before you go, I love hearing from you!

Week 2, CHAPTER 15: Any Way You Go Will Get You Somewhere!

`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'
-- Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Any way you go will get you somewhere, so this month's challenge at The Altered Alice is ANYTHING GOES! It's all up to you, and we can't wait to see what road you will take with YOUR project. Wonderland entries are encouraged; you will be rewarded with two chances at the draw instead of one.  Multiple entries are fine as long as each is on a separate post. You have until May 25 to enter!

ALICE ON SALE!!! 
ALL
Alice in Wonderland
on sale May 6-26, 2012 

Our sponsor this month is the amazing Alpha Stamps [Store | Blog], and Alice fans are in for a real treat when they shop in this magical store! Alpha Stamps features exclusive rubber stamps, collage sheets, paper dolls, kits and collage supplies of all kinds. Their Alice in Wonderland selection is HUGE! Other shopping themes include Steampunk, Birds, French Vintage, Circus, and many more. I love it that you can shop by theme or product type. Be sure to enroll in their newsletter, as the supplies used in the latest artwork from their talented design team are often on sale! They also have fun challenges that are hosted on their Facebook page. The winners are chosen by the number of "likes" each project receives!

The Prize - Anything Goes and Everyone Wins!
The Altered Alice design team will be working with this newly released exclusive "Alice's Adventures" stamp set from Alpha Stamps, plus some Alpha Stamps exclusive collage sheets and other collage supply goodies! 

ONE  randomly drawn winner will receive the same "Alice's Adventures" unmounted rubber sheet that the design team is using!
EVERYONE who participates in the challenge will win a brand new digital White Rabbit ATC Collage Sheet, emailed at the end of the challenge!  SO DON'T BE LATE - enter by May 25 (Eastern daylight time zone)!
And if you just can't play along, you can still enjoy ALL ALICE ON SALE at Alpha Stamps, now until May 26, 2012. So get going and let's see where you go with this fabulous Alpha Stamps challenge!

Your Weekly Inspiration!
Be sure to visit each design team member's blog, as they will have links to all these fabulous Alpha Stamps supplies. Remember you too can stock up on these items while the Alice section of Alpha Stamps is on sale!

First up is Barbara Washington of Magic Delights, who has stamped and collaged a whole unbirthday tea party for our pleasure!

Of course the stamped Fish and Frog Footmen are delivering the invitation!

 A wooden teapot is filled with bubbles of collage sheet characters!

More collage sheet elements are decoupaged into the bottom of the tea tray!

A row of stamped flamingos decorate the teacup (love!!!).

Which of course sits on a lovely stamped saucer, featuring the Humpty Dumpty, Cheshire Cat, and Alice and the Queen of Heart silhouette stamps. Humpty seems very appropriate for a breakable china saucer!

Stamped shrink art decorates the cupcake picks!

The cloth napkin has been stamped with Alice, a lovely detail!

The red rose is displayed in a clever handmade mushroom vase.

And a small shrine decorates the tray! What a wonderful tea party Barbara has prepared for our unbirthday; be sure to stop by her blog to leave a comment and get links to all the Alpha Stamps goodies used!

Erin Leveille of Stamp till U Cramp has altered a vintage children's edition of an Alice in Wonderland book!

Inside, amid the charming vintage book images, Erin has glued pages together and carved out a niche for a little Alpha Stamps scene! I think it is really neat that she has framed the chapter with Humpty to create her Humpty Dumpty niche.

Every few pages, Erin inserted Dresden or green punched vine borders. I love the rabbit peeking out, cut from a collage sheet. The collage sheet image in the background includes the same Humpty Dumpty image in the foreground that is included on the stamp sheet. Washi tape adds a decorative frame!

Various Alpha Stamps charms and a chunky bottle filled with a green glitter "potion" decorate the ends of the ribbon bookmarks. I LOVE that detail! Be sure to visit Erin's blog to get links to the supplies used, and to leave her a comment on this charming altered children's book!

Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes has created a charming wall hanging with loads of dimension! Donna noticed some of the images on the new Blue Caterpillar collage sheet contain diagonally overlapping images, and she has put them in relation to each other in this charming piece!

Donna printed the caterpillar scenes several times and tiled them up into a pyramid, which gives it a really neat dimensional effect when viewed from the front:

The text and stamps are from another collage sheet, and I love the way she has used the alphabet beads to spell out the age-old caterpillar's question! Notice the caterpillar silhouette from the new stamp set that she has placed in the margin.

More silhouette stamping in the margin, and postage stamps and quotes from the collage sheet. I love the postage stamp border Donna has used to echo the theme, and the Tim Holtz goodies with the Wander tag.

I love the vintage sign aesthetic that the whole piece has, and the layered labels at the bottom complete the effect. Alice's Adventures is one of the stamps and the name of the new stamp set, so appropriate! Be sure to stop by Donna's blog to get links to all the supplies used and to leave a comment!

Alpha Stamps Guest Designers:

Nichola "Knickertwist" Battilana [Bio] of Pixie Hill created this wonderful wooden shadowbox with all kinds of Alpha Stamps goodies!

I think Nichola has really caught the dreamlike nonsense quality of the stories, don't you? I love the stage curtains that create a proscenium arch at the top, another collage sheet element.

Love this Mad Hatter, he looks ready for tea! Be sure to stop by Nichola's blog to leave a comment on this wonderful, surreal project!

Rhea Freitag of Starrgazer Creates brings us another shadowbox, completely different different from the first as it is infused with the red energy of the Queen of Hearts! This is actually a make-over of a previously created project, so interesting to see the changes. There are so many wonderful things to look at; be sure to visit Rhea's blog for all the details and to leave a comment.


Remember ALL entrants will receive a copy of the White Rabbit ATC digital collage sheet; it will be emailed at the end of the challenge. So enter here using the Linky Tool, and make sure your email address is correct! Please put your name as the TITLE when you submit your project:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please leave a comment before you go, and be sure to check back next week for more inspiration.