Week 2, CHAPTER 21: Gratitude

'You ought to return thanks in a neat speech,' the Red Queen said, frowning at Alice as she spoke. . . .In fact it was rather difficult for her to keep in her place while she made her speech: the two Queens pushed her so, one on each side, that they nearly lifted her up into the air:'I rise to return thanks--' Alice began: and she really DID rise as she spoke, several inches; but she got hold of the edge of the table, and managed to pull herself down again.-- Chapter 9, Through the Looking Glass

The US Thanksgiving holiday is this month, and many people are dedicating the month to a spirit of gratitude; after all there is nothing like counting your blessings to make you realize how many blessings there are! Our theme this month is GRATITUDE, and you can interpret that any way you like as long as you explain it in your post. Enter by Friday, Nov. 23; all entries are welcome but those that feature Wonderland will have two chances instead of one. Multiple entries are encouraged, but each must be on a separate post to have additional chances at the prize, which is quite wonderful!

The theme ties in nicely with this month's sponsor, Nature's Blessings, who have offered a $30 shopping spree to the randomly chosen winner! Nature's Blessings stamps were the beginning of my love affair with Alice in Wonderland stamping, as they have beautiful rubber versions of the original Tenniel illustrations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass. Without Nature's Blessings, The Altered Alice might not exist! In their words:

As avid readers and bibliophiles, we fell in love with the beautiful line drawings in the books in our family library. Our antiquarian stamps are a collection of our favorite images. If your tastes range from the classically elegant to the quirky and fun, then we make stamps for you! We also offer a variety of original art: be sure to visit John Wagner's page of Calligraphy and Art Lettering, and Laura Ann's pages of stamps for holidays and special occasions.

Your Weekly Inspiration:

Barbara Washington of Magic Delights came up with a fantastic idea for our gratitude challenge; she made a thank you card and a set of charming hostess gifts for the upcoming holiday season! I love her thank you card, pictured above, don't you?

Everyone on the design team decided they would like to invite Barbara over when they saw these charming gifts! This night light with the custom made Alice shade is absolutely charming, even when unlit.

It is even lovelier when illuminated, isn't it? 

The next hostess gift is a set of coasters in a holder. Gratitude is indeed the memory of the heart, and some of my dearest childhood memories are involved with reading Alice in Wonderland! Here are the individual coasters:

I love it that Nature's Blessings has such a complete set of the original Tenniel illustrations! These coasters are fantastic; hasn't Barbara done a wonderful job with this gratitude theme? Please stop by Barbara's blog to tell her so!

Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies dyed a vintage handbag (her grandmother's) with rit dye and created iron on transfers with Nature's Blessings stamps and "Transfermations". Amy is our queen of upcycling, and this bag looks new and funky and fun!

I was so pleased to learn about this product; look how well it transfers onto dark fabrics! It is designed for ink jet printers but Amy has great results with stamping!

These stamps have such wonderful detail; the cross-hatched lines are crisp and distinct. Lizard Bill is looking good!

Some Blue Moon charms add interest!

Gratitude is embodied in what this bag was used for; in Amy's words:

The bag was used to transport a package to hurricane victims. A friend of mine from NJ has spearheaded a campaign called "Socks for Sandy" . Such a simple necessity that so many are lacking since the storm hit. As far as grattitude I'm thankful that power was the only thing I lost in the storm when others have lost so much.

You can read about Socks for Sandy HERE. They are in urgent need of socks, winter gloves, mittens and hats, and NEW packages of underwear for men, women and children.  Please stop by Amy's blog to leave a comment on her stamped "Transfermation" bag, her Alice post will be up soon so check back at her blog to read all the details.

We look forward to seeing your interpretation of our gratitude theme! Enter your projects in the Linky list below by November 23, 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!

Week 1, CHAPTER 11: Stripes!

"At the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, 'A pawn goes two squares in its first move, you know.
So you'll go VERY quickly through the Third Square--by railway, I should think--and you'll find
yourself in the Fourth Square in no time. Well, THAT square belongs to Tweedledum and
Tweedledee--the Fifth is mostly water--the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty--But you make no
remark?'
'I--I didn't know I had to make one--just then,' Alice faltered out."
-- Chapter 11, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Happy new year! When I think of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, I always think stripes and plaids. Lewis Carroll does not mention the patterns they are wearing, but so many illustrations and movies have clad them in mismatched stripes and patterns. Your challenge this month is to use STRIPES.

Jenny Doh, formerly the managing editor of the famous Stampington publications, has started an artist's community website called CRESCENDOh. There is an online shop selling all kinds of things including charming CRESCENDOh clear stamps, including the Alice in Wonderland by Danita set that the design team is showing off. But the heart of the site is all the stories; stories by artists of all kinds, stampers, quilters, paper crafters. Each shares a tale of how art has changed their life. For some it is a joyous outlet, but for many others it has been a way to stay afloat in times of tragedy or grief.  As I thought about this challenge, the theme of STRIPES seemed appropriate. The tents of the knights of old were striped, as are circus tents. Many flags are striped and so are rugby shirts, so stripes can symbolize belonging or affiliation. Stripes are birthday wrapping paper and elegant Regency wallpaper. Stripes are the traditional garb of prisoners, and stripes are also how the marks of a whip are described. Stripes can represent so many different things, and the creative process has been many things to the people who have contributed stories to the CRESCENDOh site.

Author Jenny Doh is donating a signed copy of her latest book, Art Saves, which is not only full of eye candy but is also full of the stories of how art changes lives. "Discover not only the HOW but also the WHY, through the stunning projects and unique stories of 20 exciting multi-media artists." Thanks so much to Jenny for contributing such a meaningful prize to start off 2012!

Enter your project featuring stripes by Friday, Jan. 27. The winner will be announced the following Sunday. As always, entries that feature Wonderland will have two chances at the random drawing instead of one. You may enter as often as you like but each entry must be on a separate post. All posts must mention and link back to the challenge.

Your Weekly Inspiration

Tracy Evans created a charming striped page in her art journal. I LOVE the way she's created the striped background with Distress Ink. Stripes everywhere - of course all the characters are wearing stripes, and she has framed each embossed and sponged heart with a striped border. 

Lots of dimension and texture - the characters are trimmed out and mounted over the stripes and hearts.  All the little images are lined up in stripes of their own! I love the monochromatic composition; these stamped images really stand on their own without being colored, don't you think?  Be sure to stop by Tracy's blog to see more pictures and leave a comment!

Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog created a set of charming stuffed decorations, sewn on her Hello Kitty sewing machine and stuffed with cotton batting.  You could make similar ornaments with a bit of potpurri inside to make some Alice sachets! Retta said she imagines these hanging in a baby's room, and I think they would be a charming addition to any nursery.

Two are hung from little French Laundry Hangers. I have some of these that I purchased from Stampington.com. The images were stamped on fabric scraps with Ranger Archival ink and colored with Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pens, what a fabulous look!

Others were sewn to a little wall hanging that spells out "ALICE" and are so cute! I love the naive simplicity of these CRESCENDOh stamps!  Be sure to stop by Retta's blog to see more photos and leave a comment!

Earn your stripes and enter your project below by Jan. 27, we can't wait to see your stripes!

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

Week 3, 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:

Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies created a whole Wonderland tree, I LOVE this!  She used an actual branch from her yard which she rooted in a teacup planter.  Some of the leaves are real leaves, stamped and embossed with IndigoBlu images, while others are die-cut paper. Take a look!

IndigoBlu flourish stamped leaf and a bead charm wired onto the branch

IndigoBlu Executioner on a real leaf, and paper leaves

IndigoBlu running Mad Hatter on real leaf and Alice charm

Curioser and Curiouser!

White Rabbit

Paper leaves with Alice, Mad Hatter, quote, and crackle stamps from IndigoBlu

You will need to visit Plucking Daisies to leave a comment for Amy and get all the details on the construction of this fabulous Wonderland tree!

Our dear Sandy Scholz of Stempelchaotin is never afraid to try something new, and she has now ventured into stamping and stitching on fabric! I love the way she has attached the chain and clasp to each ribbon tab; that and the metal trinket pins add an edgy look.

I love the Tweedles! The fabric texture is great and the splashes of colors add so much energy. I really like the exposed seams.

The red stitching is so vivid, and I love the way she has partially outlined the Mad Hatter with the red stitching.  Fun and different! I hope Sandy tells us what she has stuffed inside, I wonder if they are sachets? We will have to find out on Sandy's blog when we visit to leave a comment on her new endeavor!


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.
Wasn't it interesting that neither of our design team projects involved stamping on paper as the primary element?  What kinds of things other than paper do you like to stamp on? Please leave a comment here before you go, we love to hear from our readers!