Nature's Blessing: Dreaming of Wonderland

Our theme for November  at The Altered Alice 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!

Dreaming of Wonderland:

You can click the photo above 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!

I started by stamping various Nature's Blessings Alice stamps around the big word, coloring in each image with Prismacolor pencils. Nature's Blessing stamps used include White Rabbit, I'm Late, I'm Late, Hatter, Herald, Little Golden Key and Mad Tea Party.

I masked each image with cut-out post-it notes, and filled in the background with a harlequin diamond pattern stamped with red chalk ink. I thought the diamonds were very "suitable", get it? One of the card suits? The background looked too "flat" so once the ink was completely dry, I colored in the open diamonds with white Prismacolor pencil and then used a gray pencil to add a little shadow to the side of the red diamonds. This gave the background a lot of dimension!

Then I added some doodles with a super-fine tipped black Sharpie! I put "Alice" inside the "D" of Dream. I sketched in a row of card suit symbols under the word Dream, filling them in with red and black Sharpies, and then printed "Wonderland" beneath that. I scribbled "I'm late! I'm late!" near the white rabbit holding a watch in the upper right corner.

By this time the word "Dream" had diamonds all over it and was looking the worse for wear! With a silver paint pen, I added a "drop shadow" to the right side of each letter. Then I carefully filled in the letters with a Versamarker and heat embossed it with ultra-thick black embossing powder. I repeated this a couple more times until it was quite thick.

You can see the dimension of the embossing in the glare, and in the photo below. It really adds a lot! Then I added copper foil tape around the edges. The adhesive on copper foil tape is pressure sensitive, so I burnished it on firmly with a bone folder. You can click the photo below to make it bigger.

It still looked unfinished! I wanted it to be taller, not so horizontal. What to do, what to do? I was rummaging through drawers of stash and stabbed myself on a red push pin. Hmmmm. Yes, I was able to push in a row of pins across the bottom! Time for some tags! Gotta love the tags!



I started a bunch of manila shipping tags. I stamped the rabbit first and filled him in with Prismacolor pencils, then stamped the edge with the harlequin diamond stamp and filled it in with white and a gray drop shadow as before. I masked then stippled the background with several colors using Color Duster brushes. Then I made a tag that matches the one tucked into the Mad Hatter's hatband: "In this Style 10/6" which, for us ingnorant Yankees means ten schillings and sixpence, or half a guineau back in Alice's day! I started with the diamonds then mimicked the writing on Tenniel's original illustration. I liked the text so much I added "Down the Rabbit hole" to the first tag.

I stepped back and took a look. If I added anymore images like the rabbit, it was going to take away from the wood plaque. So text only - I thought of some short text snippets I could put on my other tags and the first one that came to mind was the Caterpillar asking Alice "Who are you?" and then of course the other size changing scenes with "Drink Me" and "Eat Me" finished it off.

I have temporarily added black and white ribbons to hang it, but I think I may look for some Tim Holtz type of chain or similar to hang it with in the future. A couple coats of clear and I was done for now.

One more view of the completed piece! Click the image to enlarge.

I hope you enjoyed my little journey through Wonderland and the sharing of a bit of the my creative process! I know it is not good manners to say it about your own work but I LOVE this thing!! And I love Nature's Blessings stamps!

FYI, this project won an Audrey Award too!

Please leave a comment before you go!

Alternative Wonderland in Smeared Ink

The October challenge at The Altered Alice is to create something that twinkles like a bat or shines like a tea tray! The challenge derives from this quote:

...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

Our sponsor this month is Smeared Ink, home of edgy, wild and fun designs in rubber and digital forms has released a Wonderland Collection; images are available individually or as a set. The randomly-chosen winner of this month's challenge will receive a $15 shopping spree in their online store.


Smeared and Smudged is an online community of rubber stampers and crafters who enjoy using alternative, gothic, edgy, and unique stamps in their designs. They thrive on different and unusual. They welcome the macabre and devious side of things, and most of all, embrace ALL types and styles of art. Whether or not you “come to the dark side”, your creations should be a reflection of you. At Smeared and Smudged, the most important thing is being yourself. There are lots of ways to interact with the community!
[ Ning Community | Challenge Blog | Facebook Group ]


I created a two-page spread in my Alice art journal. I loved the way the Alice image on the right is also seen through the looking glass in the scene with the Queen of Hearts on the left, such a clever touch. Although the images are FAR from my usual style, I do love to color and these incredible detailed images provided hours of coloring fun! These images are racy and a bit on the wild side; an alternative "Smeared and Smudged" Wonderland.

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Here we see Alice in distress with watching eyes, tortured tree and carnivorous plants. The small box contains the "Eat Me" cake and the "Drink Me" bottle is a bright green, but the layer of clear sparkling Gelly Roll Stardust reflects the light and obsures the detail. I also added sparkle to the teeth of the carnivorous plants and to Alice's tears. I adored coloring this with my Copic markers. You can see the 3D black glittered bat, a nod to the challenge and to Halloween!

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 Aside from the obvious, this image has so many great details. I colored her gown in a warm scarlet red to contrast with the cool violet red of the large rose beneath her. Playing cards are scattered around her and a skull keeps her company as she monitors Alice's progress through her looking glass. I added sparkle to the gold frame of the mirror, it really gleams! A lot of people colored the roses red on this image, but I decided these were the white roses in the process of being changed to red with dripping paint.

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I hope you enjoyed this month's walk on the wild side of Wonderland with The Altered Alice! Please leave a comment before you go!

Mad Hatter from The Stamping Boutique

You have a few days left to enter the monthly challenge at The Altered Alice, so get busy! The Stamping Boutique is sponsoring the challenge, and I chose this fabulous Mad Hatter image to color. Isn't is a wonderful image?

The theme is garden or flowers. I worked that in with my punched border and botanical patterned ribbons, which remind me of the ribbon swatches on the Mad Hatter's jacket pocket in the movie.

I colored the image with Copic markers and highlighted below the eyes with a white gel pen, and I used a clear Stardust Gelly Roll pen to highlight the twinkle lines in the background and on his hat. I adore the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie, so I was thrilled that The Stamping Boutique offered this movie version of the Mad Hatter character, I love it! It was so much fun to color.

The image was trimmed out with a Label Eight Nestability by Spellbinders. The edge punch is from Martha Stewart, and the wonderful rich paprika colored card stock is Cajun Craze by Stampin' Up!

So head over to The Altered Alice to submit your garden or flower inspired image, this Friday is the last day; you could win three digi images from The Stamping Boutique!

Alice is Going Postal with Stamp Attack!

This month at The Altered Alice the challenge is go go postal - postage, letters, stamps, however you choose to interpret the challenge. It is based on this quote:

The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, `For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.' The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, only changing the order of the words a little, `From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.'Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together.--Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The sponsor is Stamp Attack, a British company that produces some of my favorite Alice stamps ever! They just released the new Alice Faux Postage set and the Mouse Tail stamp. The design team has had such fun showing them off! I also used stamps from the Stamp Attack "Alice 2" plate, including the Fish Footman and my fave, the Alice Scrabble tiles!

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Other supplies included a McGill Envelope punch, the Tim Holtz Postcard embossing folder, a postage edge scissors and punch, plus two crown stamps from Stampin' Up. All is shown off on a little Maya Road chipboard square accordian album; each panel is three inches square.

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Here you can see the back, with the pattern made by repeated stamping of the Mouse Tail stamp! I began by painting each panel a different color; the first panel was metallic gold. I stamped the Mouse Tail stamp with black ink on the lighter panels and with Delicata Gold on the dark panel - what a brilliant gold!

Then I used tiny envelopes I made from a mini envelope punch, stamped them with a tiny crown, and tucked a larger crown into one of them. All the wonderful Stamp Attack stamps were colored with Copics. I cut apart the Alice Scrabble tile stamp and put one on each of the stamp panels. I also embossed a sheet of manilla card with the Postcard folder. It tore the paper up the first time, so I started over and heavily misted the paper with alcohol before embossing. This made the paper pliable enough to make the sharp bends without tearing. And here are all the individual panels:

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I hope you have enjoyed my Alice Postage project as much as I enjoyed making it! Come play along, you have until this Friday, June 22, 2012, and Stamp Attack is giving away a great prize! See you at The Altered Alice!

Please leave a comment before you go, it really makes my day when you are kind enough to leave a remark!

Alpha Stamps, meet Daily Window Bags!

Daily Window Bags - Classic Tote

The challenge this month at The Altered Alice is anything goes, and we have been sponsored by Alpha Stamps, [Store | Blog], suppliers of amazing collage supplies, exclusive rubber stamps, and wonderful collage sheets in card stock, transparency and digital formats.

In the meantime, I was contacted by Daily Window Bags and asked to decorate two of their wonderful bags. These bags are really special, as each has a clear window in one side made for stamped inserts! I love my bags; they are so well made and have beautiful apple green linings with pockets. I chose the Eight Days a Week purse and the All Around Classic Tote (plenty big enough for scrapbooking supplies of course), and naturally I wanted to decorate them with a Wonderland theme!

I decorated the straps of the All Around Classic Tote with all kinds of Alpha Stamps goodies, glued with E6000 onto black felt strips which are affixed with velcro over the bag's stitched straps.

I had so much fun picking out items for the bag: there is a royal crown for the Queen of Hearts (red added to the brass with a Copic marker); the keyhole and key for tiny door into the garden; a brass filigree fan for the White Rabbit; clock buttons for the White Rabbit's and the Mad Hatter's pocket watches, a brass butter knife for the March Hare who tried to lubricate the watch with the best butter; small silver-plated teacup, teapot and spoon charms; miniature playing cards for the Queen of Hearts subjects; card suit buttons which fit perfectly into lots of sprocket gears and mini-gears to represent the Mad Hatter's clockworks; a chunky corked bottle with the "drink me" potion, a larger clock face and game spinner instead of hands because time is broken and  it's always tea time at the Mad Hatter's, a large wooden teapot and teacup (handles and rims colored with a Copic marker), and an ornate chipboard-reinforced label at the top that is stamped with "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" from the Alice's Adventures stamp set and then stickled and coated with Glossy Accents. A wire pin holds another key onto the bag handle.

The inserts are a generous 5 3/8" x 7 1/2" size. I used recycled chipboard from packaging as a backing. The background is a page from last chapter of Alice where the King of Hearts is talking at the trial, which seemed perfect for my King of Hearts insert. Images from various collage sheets in their Alice in Wonderland section are in the background. The King of Hearts in the lower left corner is a stamp from the Alice's Adventures set, which has been stamped several times and layered for dimension. All has been sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Daily Window Bags - Eight Days a Week purse

I love the Eight Days a Week purse; the buckled straps add a lot of style, and the pockets on both ends are so useful for cell phone and sunglasses! For this window insert, I went with a flamingo/croquet theme. I made the background by stamping the row of flamingos from the Alice's Adventures set then sponging. I love how it turned out, and it is one of my favorite stamps in the set, so different.

I colored in an image from the "Alice Herself" collage sheet. The label is stamped and embellished with tiny brass flamingo charms, as is the ribbon bow at the bottom. The Queen of Hearts in the lower left corner is from the Alice Characters collage sheet, and Alice has been stamped and colored from the Alice's Adventures stamp set.

I LOVE these bags and you will be seeing them again in the future as I make many more inserts for them! Because I glued all my embellishments on the tote bag to black felt strips which are attached with velcro, I can even remove the embellishments to display other themes. I would love to make some Christian-themed inserts based on favorite scriptures for example, or Christmas and other holiday inserts to celebrate the seasons!

Thanks so much to Alpha Stamps for sponsoring this month at The Altered Alice, and thanks so much to Daily Window Bags for introducing me to this fabulous product line!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this project!

Stamping Angel for Terri's Birthday

I had a lot of fun making this birthday card for my best friend Terri!

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Did you notice that this crafty angel is scattering rubber stamps to all below? What a great card for a fellow stamper! I started by coloring the angel with Copic markers and cut it out with an oval Nestability. Then I cut the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Rectangle from black card stock. I needed something to break up the black corners that showed, so I cut a red rectangle to fit within the Fleur de lis rectangle and embellished the corners with a white Viva Decor Pearl Pen.

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I love the Heartfelt Creations wide lace border die and this card seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it! I cut it from white card stock and mounted it on a square card base of Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry gold card stock. Some ribbon to jazz it up added a festive bit of fun, but it still needed something. I rounded the top corners and it seemed complete. The rounded corners echoed the oval cut of the angel panel and the curves within the lace design.

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Inside I used this fun birthday stamp by Stampin' Up! The card was a big hit with Terri. It is a lot of fun to make cards for other stampers as they really appreciate the work you put into it!

I WON Blog Candy from Christine Creations!

I am feeling truly blessed. One of my favorite blogs, Christine Creations, offered this very special blog candy when she reached 400,000 unique visitors to her blog. Congratulations to Christine on reaching this milestone! And congratulations to me for winning this amazing collection:

Please stop by Christine Creations and enjoy all the inspiration. Christine is a talented colorist, working in Copics, watercolor, and colored pencil. I learned a lot from her when I was refreshing my rusty coloring skills. Christine is a talented member of the Flourishes design team. Thanks to Flourishes for enriching this blog candy! I love their stamps; they are famed for their beautiful florals but they have other interesting sets, take a look! In particular, the Moments in Time set and A Guiding Light have been near the top of my Flourishes wishlist and now they are mine!!! If you are in need of Father's Day inspiration, take a look at A Guiding Light.

Christine is responsible for many of my Flourishes purchases; just take a look at what she has done with my all-time favorite Sunflower stamp set by Flourishes here, here, and here!

This is what I created with the Flourishes Sunflower stamp set, combining it with their innovative Seeds of Friendship set in this wall hanging for my sister's birthday:

You can read more about my Sunflower Seeds wall hanging HERE.

Thanks so much to Christine, and to her sons who drew my number out of the hat!
;-)

Ace of Rabbit!

Ever since I saw this wonderful Alice stamp set by Stampendous, I wanted to make an Ace of Hearts card with the White Rabbit holding the heart! I finally had some time to make it happen and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  This is my second entry for our Stampendous sponsored challenge on The Altered Alice to show us your Sunday best with a splendidly dressed project!

I began by stamping the White Rabbit and Alice on scraps of Kraft card stock and then coloring them in with Prismacolor pencils. I love this look as the pencils are thickly pigmented and fairly opaque. I trimmed out Alice, leaving a margin of the Kraft showing all the way around, and I trimmed the White Rabbit and chomped the corners for the middle of my playing card. I love it that this stamp set includes the card corner stamp, the A with the heart underneath! I sponged the edges of everything with Fired Brick Distress Ink. I tucked a real playing card behind just for fun and to create some interesting angles.

I cut a Spellbinders Fancy Tag and sponged it with Antique Linen and Fired Brick Distress Ink, and stamped the beautifully lettered stamp from the set that says "Sorry I'm late. . . " and threaded some red ribbon through.

For the card base, I made my own patterned paper on Kraft by stamping most of the fun small images in this set, alternating the heart and Queen of Hearts mini playing card in Lady Bug Red Memento ink and the cute Cheshire Cat and the pocket watch in London Fog Memento. I stamped the tile floor stamp across the bottom in Tuxedo Black Memento ink. I embossed a strip of black with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder with the card suits, which I colored with Copics and sponged with Fired Brick Distress Ink. I mounted Alice, the cards, and the fancy tag with dimensional foam tape. I finished it up with criss-crossed ribbon and a multi-loop bow.

Be sure to hop on over to The Altered Alice and see all the amazing entries in this month's contest. There is still time - show us your Sunday best with a "splendidly dressed" card, using ribbon, lace, frills, however you interpret your Sunday best! Stampendous is going to one of these fabulous Wonderland stamp sets to each of THREE WINNERS, so get busy and enter the April contest at The Altered Alice! And check out the Stampendous blog and website!

I hope you enjoyed my Ace of Rabbit playing card! I'd love to hear your comments!