Week 1, 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!

Design Team Announcement
Retta Fox is stepping away from  The Altered Alice tea table; we wish her all the best in her future creative endeavors! Please join us in thanking her for all the fabulous inspiration she has provided to The Altered Alice and to me personally. I am SO GRATEFUL for her contributions each month, and I sure hope she'll stop in from time to time to participate as a player in our Challenge Chapters.  I know you will be inspired by her projects below; what a great swan song to her journey down the rabbit hole with The Altered Alice!

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, a series of teapots!

Tracy Evans created this wonderful "Time for Tea" teapot. I love the contrast of the black and white background paper with the rich warm golds and oranges, it really pops! Alice from the "Alice's Adventures" stamp set is gesturing towards the Mad Hatter and March Hare from one of the collage sheets. Look at that grinning Cheshire Cat on the teacup, what a wonderful face! The teapot charm tied onto the handle and the Tim Holtz watch face are the perfect bits to finish off  this great project. For a supply list and to leave a comment, please visit Tracy's blog.

Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog set a wonderful tea party scene with her teapot cutout. I love the vibrant red of the teapot and roses. Looks like we have a ticket to go to the party, and we had better get there before the March Hare eats all the pastries he is scrutinizing so intently! Fresh cups and spoons are waiting for us in each corner, and the tea party banner waving overhead will show us the way! I especiall love the pearl dripping from the teapot spout, what a neat touch. You will find the supply list and can leave a comment at Retta's blog.

Tracy Evans created another teapot, this one with an "I'm Late!" theme.  The stamped rabbit is complimented by the collage sheet rabbit. I love all the embossed heart cutouts, where the sponging has really brought out the details of hearts and watches. The open gear/clockface ornament over the open handle of the teapot is a really great touch! For a supply list and to leave a comment, please visit Tracy's blog.

The next teapot is from Caroline Ouzts-Hay, a Guest Designer from the Alpha Stamps Design Team! This teapot was created previous to the challenge using Alpha Stamps products. Isn't it gorgeous, with the background of gold lace? The words to the Mad Hatter's song twine around, finally emerging at the spout.

Collage sheet images of Alice and the Mad Hatter are in ruched lace medallions, lovely! The stars spangling the ribbon on the handle and scattered over the teapot go perfectly with the theme. Click here for more details.

Ok, enough with the teapots already! And now for something completely different:

Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog made a wonderful paper bag album using lots of Alpha Stamps goodies! The cover includes an image from the Alice Covers collage sheet. Can you see the row of flamingos stamped in the background? Love the teabag charm and the Dresden borders. This is full of eye candy, every page is a treat as you will see below.  You will find the supply list and can leave a comment at Retta's blog.

Paper bag album 2

Paper bag album 3

Paper bag album 4

Paper bag album 5

Hmmm. You know the thing that makes paper bag albums so cool is that you wind up with lots of fun pockets. You know Retta would not leave pockets empty. . . .

Paper bag album tags!

She filled them with tags! Retta used a variety of wonderful images from the new Alice's Adventures stamp set, and she penned in little pieces of the story to go along! Absolutely charming. What a treasure this album is, I would love to get my hands on it and just spend an afternoon absorbing all the wonderful details!

Since we are talking tags, I'll share this wonderful King of Hearts tag by Tracy Evans. The fun frog footman looks terrified, I hope the King is not mad!

The machine stitched hearts and the fan of collage sheet images are fun, and the wooden letters and partially embossed background add a lot of texture!  For a supply list and to leave a comment, please visit Tracy's blog.

The monochromatic sepia tones give this tag a fantastic vintage look; it was previously created by guest designer Keron Lee from the Alpha Stamps Design Team. I love the cut up strips of text!

I am not sure if this is a different tag or the other side of the Mad Hatter tag above, but Keron has created another sepia toned gem. I LOVE the dangles with all kinds of goodies, especially the typewritten quote from the story!

Spool album

Keron Lee has contributed a third project, which is sort of like a very long tag! I haven't seen a spool album for a long time. The long scroll wraps around a spool and ties shut with a ribbon.

I love the way she has pieced together illustrations and bits from the story, joining many pieces rather than one long smooth piece of paper!

The dangling beads and charms add the perfect finishing touch!

Now we will go from a very long and skinny album to a small one with bound pages!

Love the collage sheet cover and all the ribbons in this mini album from guest designer Kristen Bastel of the Alpha Stamps design team! It looks like she used her Bind-It-All to great effect; let's peek inside:

Notice the clever use of transparency!

What Altered Art challenge would be complete without artist's trading cards (ATCs)? Guest designer Teri Calia from the Alpha Stamps design team contributed these lovelies! I like the way they are united by the black overstamped ornamental devices, and the text on top makes them such fun!

Jeweler's tin - front

Jeweler's tin - back

Another project from Teri Calia showcases what can be done with an soldered jeweler's tin; you just have to stop thinking of it as a storage device and alter it! What a fabulous trinket! Now for another jeweler's tin:

We are finishing up with Retta Fox's last project; she glued an Alpha Stamps jeweler's tin to a mini canvas and embellished! I love the way she used the white rub-ons from her stash; with the warm color scheme it makes the center 3D medallion stand out like a sun. Be sure to visit Foxy's Weblog to say farewell to this inspiring member of The Altered Alice design team!

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 1, 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:

Tracy's Autumn in Wonderland Card

Tracy Evans made a lovely chunky ATC, also known as an artist's trading block, and a matching card! She used the soft golds, greens and browns of fall in these coordinated projects. I love the way the trees frame the tea party on this card!

Tracy's Chunky ATC

The IndigoBlu crackle stamp is the perfect background, I adore that stamp! The diecut leaves are a perfectly compliment to the stamped leafy tree.

Notice Tracy's trademark jump ring letters - she uses jump rings and dimensional glue to create these tiny metal-framed letters that look like little typewriter keys. Love that! This side features another rare image from IndigoBlu, the pensive Mad Hatter.

The opposite side features my ultimate fave March Hare stamp! The Alice in Wonderland stamp is also for IndigoBlu.

The sides are wonderful as well. Love the Tweedles on top, and the crackle stamp is also part of the Alice sets! Be sure to stop by Tracy's blog and let her know how much you like this great project!

Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog created three great fall colored projects, starting with this fun set of ATCs,  Love Retta's lively use of color!  The IndigoBlu White Rabbit stamp is so fun and different, as they have placed a gift in his hand and added a banner to the horn, with three different stamps to put inside the banner. "Art" is used above and "Happy Birthday" is used below on this fun card, and there is also a "Love" stamp to fit in the banner. Fun!

Love the parade of White Rabbits on this great birthday card! The brown background is perfect for the warmly colored rabbits, and that wild strip of color across the bottom is the perfect finishing touch!

LOVE this pocket organizer made from a file folder!  There is a tutorial for a similar project on Splitcoaststampers if you would like to make one; it is such a fun and useful project.

Hnmm. I see a familiar coupon in one of htese pockets, and I love that wildly colored "White" rabbit! The stitching accents are great.

Be sure to stop by Retta's blog to leave a comment on these fabulous projects!

The amazing Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes created this fabulous fall 3D teapot container with the tea party inside, embellished with cut and embossed leaves! Love these rich warm colors.

Once again, Donna has shown her Cricut title as the Queen of 3D!

The tassel on top is such a neat finishing touch!

Love these embossed leaves, stamped with that fabulous IndigoBlu crackle stamp. It sure adds great texture to the leaves. Be sure to stop by Donna's blog to leave a comment on her wonderful fall-colored 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!