Week 3, 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. Time is running out; 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!

Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies has done another upcycling makeover on this old table, which now looks like THIS!!!

What a fantastic makeover! Charms are glued around the edges of the table and the ring around the legs. Mini playing cards adorn the edges.

The top is a magnificent decoupaged collage. The characters from Alice's Adventures stamp set have been stamped on metal, and the center is a mix of elements from various Alpha Stamps collage sheets!

And here it is amidst the previous Wonderland garden art makeovers by Amy; isn't it charming? Be sure to stop by Plucking Daisies for MANY more photos and the links to all the Alpha Stamps products used.

Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes has created this charming scene using Alpha Stamps paper dolls! The Queen of Hearts has spotted that unpainted white rose and she is NOT happy! It looks like both Alice and the Duchess have been imprisoned in this birdcage.

The paper doll sheets have many layers. Look at the little hedge hog Donna created with a pompom, and tiny cards have formed a whicket!

I love all the elements Donna has added to decorate the top of the cage. I think the laughing cat is one of my favorite stamps in the new set. And look at the clever way she has used the flamingo stamp! Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to leave a comment and to see links to the Alpha Stamps supplies used.

Alpha Stamps Guest Designers:

Amy Mayfield of Amy's Blam decorated this fun house-shaped wooden shadowbox! It is full of Alpha Stamps goodies; take a close look!

I love the "clock" at the peak of the roof, and the embellished bottle cap is a neat crowning touch!

Every inch is decorated, eye candy everywhere! I love the way Alice is looking at it along with us, a really great touch!

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.

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!

Week 3, 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

Remember this?

Amy Bowerman Stucki of Plucking Daisies gives us another installment in the ongoing trash-to-treasure transformation she is performing on a chest of drawers! 

The small Alice in Wonderland by Danita images were the perfect scale for the top row of smaller drawers. Don't they look fab in their bold stripes?

I like the way the stamped textured card stock contrasts with the glossy painted wood!

It is also fun that the stripes go in two different directions, very Wonderland that, don't you think?

Even the drawer pulls have been given a special touch, very cool! You can see previous drawer projects, which Amy submitted as challenge entries before she joined the team, on her blog, Plucking Daisies. Be sure to stop by her blog to see new photos of the whole work-in-progress and to leave a comment on his fantastic piece of work!

Meme of Meme's Art Place painted a board and then attached small stretched canvases to it. I love the warm green with the black checkerboard striped border all the way around, which echoes the black background in the stamped canvases! The multicolor striped background on the canvases is the perfect pattern to pull everything together. It is warm and charming and I just love it!

Meme added a little bonus, just for fun! She called this a "where's Waldo" as we see the Cheshire cat vanishing, chameleon-like, into the stripes of the background! It makes me smile just to see it. . . or not see it, LOL! Be sure to stop by to congratulate Meme on being asked to design for COSMO CRICKET/Advantus! Whoo Hoo! As well as commenting on her charming striped pieces, of course!

So show us your stripes by entering on or before Jan. 27 to have a chance at the wonderful prize! 

Note: If you are reading this in an email or a reader, please click on the title of this post to go to the blog and see all the wonderful entries!

Please leave a comment before you go, we really appreciate hearing from you!