Week 2, CHAPTER 9: Falling Leaves and Their True Colors

"`Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
Nobody moved. `Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You're nothing but a pack of cards!' 
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face." 
-- Chapter 12, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 

I wonder if the Wonderland story took place in the Fall of the year? Autumn has arrived in the northern hemisphere.  Just as Alice recognized the court characters as playing cards, the trees are losing their cloak of green chlorophyll and showing their true colors of gold, burgundy, scarlet, chartruese and orange. Your challenge is to show us a project drenched in fall colors!


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.

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 to the introductory discount, the Head Honcho Alfie says
"The Altered Alice readers can take an extra 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout!" 
Thanks Alfie!

Enter by Friday, November 25 (the day after Thanksgiving); our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, November 27. 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:

Click to enlarge

Erin Leveille of Stamp till U Cramp created this wonderful domino necklace. Alcohol inks added lovely splotches of fall colors, then the Alice girl and word were added in black. The final coating of Glossy Accents not only seals the design but also holds the layer of copper microbeads around the edge and a few of them drift across the design; be sure to enlarge to see the detail. Tim Holtz trinkets finish off this fun necklace. Be sure to stop by Erin's blog to leave her a comment on her wonderful design!

Barbara Washington of Magic Delights created three wonderful vintage postcards! I love the vintage color and the spatters, and the mix of images is wonderful! I love that executioner stamp in the upper left corner, I think this is his first design team appearance and it is another IndigoBlu exclusive!

I see lots of lovely Distress colors here. Am I the only person in the stamping world who did not buy the limited edition fall colors of distress inks (I am adamantly opposed to buying ink pads without a reinker!)? I love the purple and gold mix and the diffused look of the images. The little punched corner detail also adds to the vintage charm and ties the three designs together.

Love the crackle background stamp on this one, it adds such fabulous texture. I love the colors layered over the crackle!

Of course Barbara gave the same attention to detail on the back of her postcards, love that! I also love the way she included an IndigoBlu stamped quote in the message area of each card! Be sure to stop by Barbara's blog to leave a comment on her wonderful postcards!

Sue Roddis of JABBERWOCKY created this fabulous art journal page literally covered in falling leaves! Lots of layers add wonderful depth on this page. The gessoed background is covered with Distress Inks (those limited edition fall colors again), misted, and then the IndigoBlu crackle stamp was applied and the wonderful scrolled flourish stamp also.

Each die-cut leaf was stamped with a different character. I love the way Sue shaded around the edges of each leaf. The more intense application of Distress Ink makes them both stand out from the background and blend in as she used the same shades.

The IndigoBlu sentiment was cut apart and adhered over the leaves. I love all the layers of color, crackle, and cut-outs; the page has so much depth and the fall colors are fabulous! Be sure to visit JABBERWOCKY and leave a comment for Sue on this great project!

Your challenge is to show us a project drenched in fall colors - orange, russet, burgundy, gold, yellow, nad charteuse, your pick!  Enter by Friday, November 25 (the day after Thanksgiving); our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, November 27. 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.

Please leave a comment here before you go, we love to hear from our readers!

Week 2, 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

Erin Leveille of Stamp Til U Cramp made this fantastic purse out of packing tape! Remember her shrine last month? This is another idea from the same book: Kaleidoscope: Ideas & Projects to Spark Your Creativity. I'm starting to think I might really *NEED* this book! Basically, you use the overlapped packing tape on both sides of the material you are showcasing; in this case a set of destiny cards from a yard sale and wonderfully colored stamps from our sponsor!

And here is the other side of this charming and functional bag! Be sure to stop by Erin's blog for more photos and details on this interesting project!

Barbara Washington of Magic Delights made this wonderful easel card with an attached drawer underneath which is full of domino pins! What a fantastic project! The dominoes fit perfectly in the drawer. Love this image of the Mad Hatter deep in thought as he gazes at his watch.

There is plenty of sparkle and shine on this project! The orange rays behind the Mad Hatter really gleam, and the domino pins have quite a twinkling shimmer going on! Love the vibrant colors, such fun!

I love Love LOVE how these domino pins turned out! Be sure to stop by Barbara's blog to leave a comment about her wonderful project!

Sue Roddis of JABBERWOCKY has created a mad chair for our twisted tea party; I love the elongated shape! Three of the sponsor's images fill in the gaps between rungs in the chair back, love the way they are tinted with color! Hardware cloth (wire mesh) covers the back and wraps around the legs, such a cool way to add some texture.

The Mad Hatter's chapeau is hanging from the top of the chair, and I'd say there is a bat infestation going on! Of course we are talking about Sue, and it is October, so I guess the only surprise is that there are no skulls or baby doll heads attached! {wink}

Love the shiny centers of these fun bats! You can see the mad tea party image in the back of this photo; the others include the running Mad Hatter at the top of the chair back and the pensive Mad Hatter in the center. Be sure to stop by and leave a comment for Sue about this fun seat at our tea table!

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!