Starting CHAPTER 24: Romance in Wonderland

...next [came] 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...

The theme of this quote is couples, and that's what we celebrate in February with Valentine's Day. For the month of February, we are celebrating Romance in Wonderland! As always, you may enter any project that fits the challenge theme, but those that feature Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are encouraged but each must be on a separate post; enter by Feb. 23.

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We are using the fabulous Steampunk Romance images by Simply Betty Stamps . The people pictured in this stamp line resemble grown-up characters in Wonderland, don't you think? You should also check out the whimsical Alice in Wonderland collection. Here is what the oh, so talented Betty has to say:

Simply Betty Stamps started in 2010, when I was forced to close my little scrapbook store due to my last baby coming early.  I was home, with a preemie  couldn't do much but draw, craft, and had just discovered blogging!  I started to nose around about digis, how could I do this, how could I do that?  Slowly but surely Simply Betty Stamps was born!  I have a quirky sense of humor and I believe it shows in my images.  I have immortalized my kids in my images as it is what I love creating with, their everyday shenanigans and goofy ways.  I love sharing my creativity, I can't tell you how awesome it is to see others creating with SBS images!  I look forward to continuing to bring in the quirkiness to crafters across the globe and look forward to many years of fun images.

So get busy and show us your interpretation of  Romance in Wonderland!

Design Team Inspiration

Bonnie McLain of Love Light and Peace created the most incredible star book featuring the entire cast of characters!

You will need to go to Bonnie's blog to see all the detailed photos, closeups of the characters and more pages in this FABULOUS star book, and be sure to leave her some love while you are there! Star books are a time consuming endeavor, and I am so thrilled that Bonnie took the time to make such a beautiful project for us. Thank you Bonnie!

Once again we bow to the Queen of 3D Paper Projects, our own Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes and her Wondeland mailbox!

Donna created an amazing mailbox, ready to receive Valentine's from Wonderland! The flag really raises and lowers, complete with pearls and blue gingham bow.

The postage stamp letters spelling Alice are the perfect label for this pearl-studded mailbox! The silver teapot, teacup and tea bag are charming. Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!

Donna's trademark use of alphabet beads is the perfect finishing touch on the back of the mailbox. I really love the color scheme; the powder blue and white are cheerful, and soft red makes it pop. The soft shades make it fresh and fun rather than patriotic.

I love the way Alice is framed on the end of the box, complete with a silver key ring charm! She looks lovely against the heart-shaped red lace doily. This image is lovely and Donna has colored her beautifully. Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to get all the details on construction of this amazing mailbox, and to leave Donna some love!

3D project abound this month, as Barbara Washington of Magic Delights created a wonderful Valentine Pop-Up card!

The cover sets the tone. I love the white stamped letters contrasting the embossed red heart. Two of the Steampunk Romance characters are examining their Valentine offerings of cards and flowers! But the magic is inside...

Ta da! I love the way the folded pop-up is a series of hearts, with all characters facing the center doily. Those rhinestone flourishes add a festive note!

Trimming out the characters was well worth the effort; that white rim makes them stand out beautifully from the rich red patterned background.

Thanks Barbara for such a lovely Valentine project! Be sure to stop by Barbara's blog for details and to leave her some love!

Amy Bowerman of Plucking Daisies was created a set of six Valentine tags using a variety of images from past sponsors! She was inspired by past Tim Holtz tag series and they are wonderfully detailed.

I love the torn colored kraft card stock, embossed with the Postcards folder, so appropriate for a Valentine theme! The strong crackle-stamped jewel tone backgrounds really unifies the series of tags, and the embellishments add texture and interest! Fantastic job Amy, these tags are fabulous and I absolutely love them! Be sure to stop by Plucking Daisies for all the details and to leave Amy some love!

Submit your Romance in Wonderland projects by Feb. 23 using the Linky Tool below. PLEASE include your name or your blog name in the TITLE, this helps me enormously when it is time to do the honorable mentions. Note: If you are viewing this in an email or reader, you may need to go to the blog by clicking on the title of this post in order to submit or view the projects.
Please leave a comment before you go!

Reminder CHAPTER 23: We're All Mad Here So Anything Goes

`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'
`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
-- Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"We're all mad here" is the favorite Alice quote of artist Rick St. Dennis, so in January, anything goes! Be mad! Get cute, get creepy, get crazy, because Rick St. Dennis has amazing digi stamps in all those styles, including many wonderful AIW images! Submit your creations by Friday, January 25th for a chance to win three digital stamps from Rick St. Dennis. All projects are welcome, but those featuring Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are welcome, but to be counted as separate entries they must be on separate posts.

[ Etsy Store | Rick's Blog | Sparkle and Glitter Challenge Blog | Facebook | Pinterest ]

Designer of over 100 theatrical productions, Rick St Dennis (Donald McAfee) is also the author of 4 books on decorative painting and contributor to at least a dozen national magazines on crafts and art. St. Dennis has appeared on such TV shows as Home Matters with Susan Powell, Aileen's Crafts and others. He was Crafts editor for Country Folk Art Magazine and sold his artwork nationally through galleries and shows. For a complete bio of his amazing career, see Rick's blog!

Design Team Inspiration

Bonnie McLain of Love Light and Peace created a wonderful calendar, featuring Rick St. Dennis' wonderful illustrations plus her own "tangled" hand-drawn embellishments!

May

June

July

August


We will feature September through December next week! Aren't these calendar pages absolutely wonderful? Be sure to visit Bonnie's blog to leave her a comment and let her know what you think!

Donna/Meme of  memesartplace has created 5 beautiful cards using Rick's wonderful Wonderland images.

We have the Mad Hatter in all his glory.  Who wouldn't smile at these fabulous colors?

Sweet Alice.  How perfect for a little girl's birthday.

And speaking of birthdays, how about this for a belated one?  Too cute!

The Tweedles look a bit disheveled.  Read what Donna/Meme has in mind for them.

And finally, the perfect Valentine!  Be sure to stop by memesartplace and leave a comment for Donna/Meme's wonderful work. 

In our last creation, we have Alice down the rabbit hole and all the characters she encounters along the way.  Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes created this whimsical step card.  

This Alice is a brand new image.  See how she gets smaller and smaller the further tumbles?
Donna kept the card base black and white and backed all of her fussy cut images in black as well to make the colors POP.

Embossing adds the interest to the tree in which the Cheshire appears and the doodling on the spiral rabbit hole mimics the patterned tie he wears.

This gives you an idea of the depth Donna has created.  Find out about it's creation, as well as many more detailed pix of the rest of the characters, all colored with Copics, on her blog.

Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to leave a comment for Donna about oh so mad Wonderland creation!

Submit your creations by Friday, January 25th for a chance to win three digital stamps from Rick St. Dennis. 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 scroll down to the previous post to add your link.

CHAPTER 23: We're All Mad Here, So Anything Goes!

`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.' 
`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.' 
-- Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"We're all mad here" is the favorite Alice quote of artist Rick St. Dennis, so in January, anything goes! Be mad! Get cute, get creepy, get crazy, because Rick St. Dennis has amazing digi stamps in all those styles, including many wonderful AIW images! Submit your creations by Friday, January 25th for a chance to win three digital stamps from Rick St. Dennis. All projects are welcome, but those featuring Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are welcome, but to be counted as separate entries they must be on separate posts.

[  Etsy Store |  Rick's Blog  |  Sparkle and Glitter Challenge Blog  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest  ]

Designer of over 100 theatrical productions, Rick St Dennis (Donald McAfee) is also the author of 4 books on decorative painting and contributor to at least a dozen national magazines on crafts and art. St. Dennis has appeared on such TV shows as Home Matters with Susan Powell, Aileen's Crafts and others. He was Crafts editor for Country Folk Art Magazine and sold his artwork nationally through galleries and shows. For a complete bio of his amazing career, see Rick's blog!

Design Team Inspiration

Bonnie McLain of Love Light and Peace created a wonderful calendar, featuring Rick St. Dennis' wonderful illustrations plus her own "tangled" hand-drawn embellishments!

January

Feburary Queen of Hearts

March Hare!

April Fool - The Mad Hatter!

We will feature May through August next week, and September through December the week after! Aren't these calendar pages absolutely wonderful? Be sure to visit Bonnie's blog to leave her a comment and let her know what you think!

Remember we said Rick had many styles and creepy was one of them?

Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes created this neat "Don't get mad, get even" card featuring a zombie Alice! I love the curved text in the background, what a neat touch.

Woops, it looks like this delightfully gruesome zombie Alice was pretty hard on the white rabbit! Donna's coloring is really wonderful! And I love the use of alphabet beads and typewriter key style letters:

Be sure to stop by Popsicle Toes to leave a comment for Donna about her creepy crazy card!

I really love this special fold card created by Barbara Washington of Magic Delights! I am so impressed with the mechanics of this card. I have seen cards with one swing panel, but this amazing card has four! Barbara colored her panels with distress markers and they look just great!

Barbara had actually colored more panels, so the ones that did not make it into the flip-flop swing card wound up in this charming wall hanging! Bravo Barbara; be sure to stop by Magic Delights to leave a comment for Barbara about her great projects this month!

Submit your creations by Friday, January 25th for a chance to win three digital stamps from Rick St. Dennis. 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!

Winner & Honorable Mentions, CHAPTER 21 - Gratitude

Our theme this month was GRATITUDE. 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.

NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, my gratitude project will be shown in December. However, I wanted to share the project that started my love affair with Nature's Blessings stamps!

Design Team Inspiration:
For all the details on how this was made, please visit my blog: Lynne Phelps of Savvy Sisters Studio.

You can click any photo to make it bigger. I had a wood plaque in my stash that had the word "Dream" on it. The natural, unpainted wood surface was already sanded and coated with a soft clear gloss, all ready for altering!

Nature's Blessing stamps used include White Rabbit, I'm Late, I'm Late, Hatter, Herald, Little Golden Key and Mad Tea Party.

Please visit my blog: Lynne Phelps of Savvy Sisters Studio. to read all the details of the creative process and to leave me a comment!!



Winner:
And now, drum roll please, it is time to announce the winner of the $30 shopping spree from Nature's Blessings!

Congratulations Alison, of 21st Century Pillow Book! Alison created this charming thank you card as her project. I love the colors and patterns, and of course my favorite element is the snipped up text! Alison, please email me (there is a link at the top of the left column) so I can get your contact info and forward it to Nature's Blessings!  I hope you will also want to display this blog badge with pride:

Honorable Mentions:

I love the mix of new and vintage in WendyLynn's Thanksgiving card!

I love the sponging on this fun thank you card by Leintje. I am NOT a pink person, but I do love the pink and green color combination!

While I am not fond of zombies (or rotting flesh in any form, LOL) Monique has done the most amazing job coloring this Alice zombie image and I absolutely LOVE the background with the card suits!

Mrs. Beez made this neat tip card, to be left for hotel staff after a visit. There are pockets inside for tags and cash; be sure to visit her blog to see the inside!

This thank-you jewelry box by Nazneen was upcycled from a cardboard product box. I love how the quilling along the sides was used in a bold modern motif along the sides!

Thanks to all the participants. We hope you will display this blog badge with pride!

Thanks again to Nature's Blessings for being such a wonderful sponsor! Be sure to visit the Nature's Blessings store to see all the wonderful images available in wood and cling cushion or unmounted.

Please leave a comment before you go!