Challenges have been discontinued, but I hope you will enjoy browsing through this wonderful archive of Alice-inspired art!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

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.

Design Team Changes!

When Terri DeVine stepped down, it left an opening on the permanent design team. It will come as no surprise to our followers that I asked Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog to fill the position. Retta has been a guest for the past few months and I am thrilled and proud to announce that she will continue to inspire you each month with her splendid creations! Please stop by Retta's blog to welcome her to The Altered Alice!

It is also time for a new guest designer: Amy Bowerman Stucki is joining us for a few months! Amy loves painting and "up-cycling" all kinds of items and I love her "out of the box" approach to the past challenges, or maybe I should say out of the drawer, or out of the pinata? You never know what you'll find on Plucking Daisies! Please stop by Amy's blog and welcome her to The Altered Alice!

Your Weekly Inspiration

Altered book cover - click to enlarge
Tracy Evans has outdone herself this month with this gorgeous altered book! I can't wait to visit her blog post and find out how she textured this cover, it's amazing, and I love the embedded letters.

Click to enlarge
The sepia tinting of the IndigoBlu images gives it such a charming vintage look!

Niche carved in block of pages - click to enlarge
The piece de resistance is this fabulous niche Tracy has created by gluing together a block of pages and carving out a window. LOVE that, especially the ragged edges! The March Hare image is one of my favorite IndigoBlu stamps, doesn't he look great on this page?

Closeup of niche - click to enlarge
I really love the way Tracy has used the depth of the niche. By placing Alice near the front of the opening, it really does look like she has turned to look at the Mad Hatter! Stop by Tracy's blog to leave a comment on her wonderful creation!


Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog is created a charming Mad Tea Party shadowbox which began its life as a box holding K & Co. chipboard elements. It's enough to make you look at packaging in a whole new way!

Inside the box - click to enlarge

It looks like Retta was inspired by the Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat song, and those red eyes add a whole new dimension to this mad tea party.

Cover of box - click to enlarge
Inside lid of box - click to enlarge
Be sure to stop by Retta's blog and leave her a comment about this spooky scene, and to congratulate and welcome her to the permanent design team!


Click to enlarge
Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes has created a wonderful bat-infested 3D teacup! Love the teabag detail. The pleated black rosette really sets off the watch, and how can you not love a project with bats soaring aloft?

Click to enlarge
The IndigoBlu


This side view shows the way she has supported the bats with wire attached to the frame, made with two layers of fun foam! I love the way Donna thinks in 3D, I am always surprised and full of pleasure whenever I see what she has created for us. Be sure to stop by Donna's blog and leave her a comment!

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!

3 comments:

  1. As always it's a pleasure to read your lovely blog and dream a little bit seeing de wonderfuls works!. Thanks for your blog!!. :)

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  2. Wonderful design pieces, hope I get time to join in again :)

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  3. AT LAST I have some Alice stamps, great theme, fun to play along!

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THANKS so much for participating in the experience that is THE ALTERED ALICE!!! Your comments mean the world to me, so thanks in advance for taking the time!