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

Sunday, July 31, 2011

CHAPTER 5 Winner & Honorable Mentions


Our sponsor this month is One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has some of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland collage sheets I've seen! The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. Take a look at the Sold Items to see all the products while the store is closed. It is well worth waiting for, I promise! 


The Winner

Random.org selected #7 as our winner, which means Crafty Steph of Cardiff, Wales, is one lucky girl! Steph will have her choice of five digital collage sheets from One Crabapple! 


Steph, please email me (there is a link near the top of the left column) and I'll arrange for you to get your prize! I hope you will display this challenge winner blog badge with pride and link it to The Altered Alice!


Crafty Steph created an altered teapot welcome sign. I love all the details, including the real spoon at the bottom! My favorite part is the perfect quote for someone's front door: "At last! We thought you'd never arrive!"  What a great way to greet your guests.

Honorable Mentions

I have to say we had the most amazing variety of projects submitted for this challenge! We had an Alice doll, an actual party event, and a house slipper! Some included actual real-life tea things, including a collection of teacup characters and. . . yes, the house slipper!  All of this is making it amazingly difficult to select the honorable mentions!

Ok, we are just going to have to start with that amazing altered house slipper!


I guess it makes perfect sense that Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes would be the one to think of an Alice-themed house slipper to warm her cold tootsies!  This view shows the slipper head (or toe) on.  She has even created a needle-felted dormouse as a charming accent!  You will have to read her blog post to find out its secret!


This side view may help you make more sense of it! The slipper can actually still be worn; the brown vine wraps around the ankle to help secure this conglomeration of Alice elements to her foot!  Be sure to visit Popsicle Toes to leave a comment on this construction!


Our second project uses teacups and saucers in a slightly more orthodox way! Amy of Plucking Daisies created a handmade flower and decorated cup to represent Alice, the Queen of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter. Be sure to go to her blog post to see closeups of each flower, all the details are fantastic!


Hazel of Hazel's Creative Moments has zoomed forward in time to present Alice all grown up, serving tea! I had to mention this one as much for the idea as for her brilliant execution!


I love the stylized beauty of this piece by Nancy Smith of ShelbyDoodle Designs, like what if Alice took place a century earlier in France? This lovely Alice image is available on one of the collage sheets from our sponsor, One Crabapple!


Debbie of Arty Crafty created this handmade doll dressed to match Alice in the movie, and then sewed a teacup and saucer as well to meet our challenge! Even the eyes were handmade. What a treasure!


Lola Azul of Apuntes des Colores has submitted her original artwork of her version of the mad tea party, complete with tea-things headgear! Be sure to visit her blot to see each of the individual characters; the March Hare and the Cheshire Cat are my faves!

I really LOVED all the entries but have run out of time, so I am bestowing the Honorable Mention badge to ALL entrants this month. 


I hope you will display it with pride, as the participants have really made The Altered Alice a special place in the blogosphere.  Take a few moments to look at all these fantastic projects linked below! (If you are viewing this in email or a reader, you may have to click on the title of this post to bring you to the blog.)


And please leave a comment here for me before you go, your comments are what keeps my enthusiasm for this project high!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

CHAPTER 5 Challenge - Week 4: Tea-Things


`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask. 
It's the LAST WEEK of the challenge, projects are due on Friday!!! The Mad Hatter's tea table was full of tea-things, with place settings all the way around and many teapots and teacups. Your challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your project, and, as an option, to use something OTHER than a stamped image as your focal point!

That's because The Altered Alice design team will be showing off with digital collage sheets from One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland categories I've seen! The winner will have their choice of five collage sheets from One Crabapple!


The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. Take a look at the Sold Items to see all the products while the store is closed. It is well worth waiting for I promise; most of the design team members had a difficult time making  their choices and a couple of us needed all of everything in the Alice category, see for yourself:

 
 
 
  
It is the LAST WEEK of the challenge, so be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

Your Weekly Inspiration



Retta Fox of Foxy's Weblog has two more inspiring pieces for us, beginning with this wonderful canvas wall hanging. Isn't it fantastic?  The hardware at top and bottom is a nice touch - I think the top is a French Laundry hanger from Stampington and the bottom corners are decorated with Idea-ology.


The canvas background is colored with Distress Inks, paint dabbers, and crackle paint. LOVE the way Retta has snipped up the quote into bits and pieces!


The bottom is gorgeous with Alice's portrait nestled into a teacup. Love the pop of red on the polka dot teapot!  Such a fantastic piece, any Alice fan would be proud to have this hanging on her wall! Be sure to stop by Retta's blog and leave a comment!


This wonderful art journal page is Retta's final offering for this challenge. Love the way she has used the image of the girl twice, with one flipped for symmetry. The rub-on letters are such a great touch and I love the caption! Visit Foxy's Weblog and leave her a comment about her inspiring projects!


Erin Leveille of Stamp Til U Cramp has created an absolutely delightful mini album filled with ettiquette tips, so we will all know how to behave at the next tea party we attend, LOL! I love the bright colors and festive ribbons, along with the textured "Drink Me" tag!


The front cover sets the stage for our entertainment!


These charming illustrations are from a vintage children's book!


One Crabapple images including the charming Alice decorate the pages!


Be sure to enlarge the pictures so you can read all this good advice!!!


Isn't this a clever, clever project? I remember having Emily Post's ettiquette rules hanging over my head when I was growing up, so this charming mini-album brought back some fun childhood memories of learning manners at the table with my mother!  Be sure to stop by Erin's blog to leave her a comment about this fun project!


Terri DeVine of DeVine Designs by Terri created this wonderful tag with hand-tinted images! Instead of printing the collage sheet in color, she printed it black & white and tinted Alice, the teapot and the TEA letters with Prismacolor colored pencils! The stack of teacups was left black & white and it is a neat contrast! The shimmer covers all including the textured background and hand-dyed seam binding ribbon! Be sure to stop by Terri's blog and leave her a comment!



Lynne Phelps (me!) of Savvy Sisters Studio created a hybrid collage project. The images were first composited in an 8-inch x 10-inch digital collage:


Then the collage was printed several times on my brand new beloved color laser printer! I took a stretched canvas, painted the edges black and used gel medium to adhere one complete image to the front of the canvas. Then I took the cut up bits and mounted them over the base image in a pop-dot frenzy, LOL!


This project was very satisfying. It is fun to make the digital image but more fun to print it out and get messy with paint and paper!  Please stop by Savvy Sisters Studio later on when I'll have more details up in my post!


Jess Marin of My Scrap Diary decorated this charming picture frame with playing cards she created from the One Crabapple images!  She and Terri must have been on the same brain-wave as they have both used images printed black & white then tinted by hand!


I love the way she jumbled the letters so "tea" and "time" both share the same "T". I also love the way she has wrapped the tick-tock sentiment from the collage sheet around the letter "a" and nestled the watch in amongst the letters.


I really LOVE the playing cards Jess created with the collage images, so creative! Be sure to stop by My Scrap Diary and leave a comment for Jess!

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 when you link your entry. The field is long enough that you can also put the title of your piece, but please, please, please put your name first. (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!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

CHAPTER 5 Challenge - Week 3: Tea-Things


`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask. 
The Mad Hatter's tea table was full of tea-things, with place settings all the way around and many teapots and teacups. Your challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your project, and, as an option, to use something OTHER than a stamped image as your focal point!

That's because The Altered Alice design team will be showing off with digital collage sheets from One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland categories I've seen! The winner will have their choice of five collage sheets from One Crabapple!


The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. Take a look at the Sold Items to see all the products while the store is closed. It is well worth waiting for I promise; most of the design team members had a difficult time making  their choices and a couple of us needed all of everything in the Alice category, see for yourself:

 
 
 
  
July is a long month, so you have almost four weeks to enter your project! Plenty of time for even our stragglers to play along, just be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

Your Weekly Inspiration




Donna/Meme of Meme's Art Place has created a really fun card for us in beautiful tones of aqua and gold, grounded by the ivory and black neutrals. The eyelash yarn she has used for trim adds a great punch of black texture for drama.



I really love this card, especially the way Alice is peering through the window of the elaborate frame. It looks like you are seeing the inside of the card but that is actually not the case - this view of Alice is part of the front of the card.




Inside is a humorous take on the old "coffee, tea, or me" line. Donna/Meme said she thought this high-heeled Alice had a sultry look and she is right! I wish I had thought of posing her in a teacup like this, it is absolutely brilliant! I also love the way she has set the whole tabletop scene, it has a real sense of depth and scale. Be sure to stop by Donna's blog to leave her a comment. 


Several of the design team members are running late for this very important date, so I will have a HUGE inspiration post for you next week.  There are some AMAZING creations headed your way! You still have time to make something for this challenge and get it in before 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.


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 when you link your entry. The field is long enough that you can also put the title of your piece, but please, please, please put your name first. (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!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

CHAPTER 5 Challenge - Week 2: Tea-Things


`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask. 

The Mad Hatter's tea table was full of tea-things, with place settings all the way around and many teapots and teacups. Your challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your project, and, as an option, to use something OTHER than a stamped image as your focal point!

That's because The Altered Alice design team will be showing off with digital collage sheets from One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland categories I've seen! The winner will have their choice of five collage sheets from One Crabapple!


The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. Take a look at the Sold Items to see all the products while the store is closed. It is well worth waiting for I promise; most of the design team members had a difficult time making  their choices and a couple of us needed all of everything in the Alice category, see for yourself:

 
 
 
  
July is a long month, so you have almost four weeks to enter your project! Plenty of time for even our stragglers to play along, just be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

Your Weekly Inspiration


My piece (Lynne Phelps of Savvy Sisters Studio) is completely digital, however the same thing could have been created the traditional way. I was on vacation without my craft room and color printer, so it was a lot of fun to cut and paste and layer digitally; my Alice is having an identity crisis, as you can see! Please stop by Savvy Sisters Studio for details and to leave a comment!



Tracy, a.k.a. CuddlyBunny of Not a Moment to Spare, has created a fascinating floating Alice by mounting images on both sides of a piece of glass! Don't you love this high-heeled Alice in anklets? It looks like she is waitressing these days at the Teacup Cafe!



Whatever color or pattern is behind the glass becomes the background, and some elements are printed on vellum to make them somewhat translucent like the glass. The words were written on one side in black and on the other side in silver paint marker.


Tracy/CuddlyBunny has really leveraged the thickness of the glass in this piece! Look at the effect with the frame on the front side of the glass and the teacup on the back! Please stop by to leave a comment on CuddlyBunny's blog.



Tracy/CuddlyBunny also made a wonderful tri-shutter card! These are really easy to do, it is just three score lines and two cuts and they always have a big "wow" factor! You can see the whole layout here:


I really love the ivory and black papers she chose! The diamonds and damask work beautifully with the One Crabapple images!  Please stop by to leave a comment on CuddlyBunny's blog.



I adore banners, so Barbara Washington of Magic Delights really wowed me with her project this month! It's a lot of photos, but I need to show you the closeups so you can see all the delightful details!


Isn't this banner fantastic? Please leave a comment for Barbara to let her know how you like it! 


I love what Sue Roddis of JABBERWOCKY has done with these images on her "Anyone 4 Tea?" art journal pages! All this warm color is so inviting, so be sure to enlarge to see all the details; after all, how often do you see both a high-heeled Alice AND a high-heeled caterpillar?


Isn't this a wonderful page? I love the way the word "TEA" is coming right out of teapot! Be sure to stop by JABBERWOCKY and leave a comment for Sue.


This was Sue's "unofficial" art journal spread to announce the challenge on JABBERWOCKY!  I absolutely love the way she has related all the images to each other. The sentiment hanging from the hat  by a string is like a teabag tag, but it actually reminds me of that old country singer, Minnie Pearl who always had a price tag dangling from her hat! I know I am showing my age, most of you have probably never heard of Minnie Pearl.


I think this raven queen is worried about all those feathers on the Mad Hatter chapeau, she doesn't look too happy!  Be sure to stop by JABBERWOCKY and leave a comment for Sue.

I hope you are now as inspired as I am by these wonderful entries! Be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

To enter your creation, use the linky tool below - just click the red link below the thumbnail images. Please list YOUR NAME or YOUR BLOG NAME when you link your entry. The field is long enough that you can also put the title of your piece, but please, please, please put your name first. (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 here before you go; we love reading them.  Let me know what you think about these fabulous collage sheet images and what my amazing design team has done with them!