March is The Octopode Factory Month!

I am thrilled to announce that The Octopode Factory, the slightly mad brainchild of 17 year old artist Lily Chilvers, is going to be the March Sponsor on The Altered Alice!

Lily is on a drive for followers of her Octopode Factory blog! To sweeten the deal, she has a wonderful giveaway which includes a bunch of her new rubber stamps! That's right - RUBBER STAMPS! The Octopode Factory will have both digital stamps AND rubber stamps on some of her most popular images.

Sign up BEFORE February 18th at midnight, UK time, which is Eastern Standard Time + 5 hours. So Lily's midnight is my 7 p.m. 

• Read about the giveaway and enter here.
• Read about the new range of rubber stamps and how to order.
• See Lily's digital images in her Etsy store.

And stay tuned for Octopode March on The Altered Alice!!!!

Stamped, Embossed, and Sponged Background Paper Technique!

I have a tendency to hoard patterned paper; after all, if I use it, I won't HAVE it anymore, now will I? So I really love stamping my backgrounds as I can endlessly recreate the pattern, or create endless variations of the design!

My dear little sister Janet (see how cute she is in the left sidebar!!!) has just started a Stampin' Up! business, which you can see at her nifty new blog, And She's Still Stamping. To celebrate the "grand opening" she is offering 15% on all solid colored cardstock, ink, and markers. Basically, if it is in the Shop by Color section, it's on sale.  Click here to see the Sale details!

To celebrate the special, I thought I would do some stuff with cardstock and ink, and I have had this design in mind since I first saw the fabulous Artistic Etchings stamp set.  Once I had my sheet fully stamped and clear embossed on kraft (Crumb Cake) card stock, I sponged part of it in rich deep Christmas colors and the other part just highlighted with white for a lacy look . Go to And She's Still Stamping for the details!

I really love Stampin' Up!'s cardstock. I think they have one of the most sophisticated color palettes out there, and the perfectly matching inks and markers are so cool!  I have a big wish list - I know I *need* Cherry Cobbler, which is such a fabulous rich red for Christmas!  I LOVE the new Cajun Craze, which is a wonderful paprika color! They brought back River Rock, Pink Pirrouette and Baja Breeze and I'm pretty happy about that too. And Concord Crush is the most amazing deep violet-blue, a really imperial purple!  They also have the most inexpensive re-inkers in the business, so I have all the new color family ink spots (love those little ink pad cubes) and refills on my wish list as well. The ink spots are a really inexpensive way to get a ton of colors at a great price.

2010 In Colors

Well, I am sure hoping some of you need to stock up on paper and ink with the Christmas card-making season looming ahead! We live in a very small town, so  we are hoping to get Janet's SU business launched through the internet with the Grand Opening Sale.

Savvy Sister Janet is a Stampin' Up! Demo!

My dear little savvy sister Janet has rejoined Stampin' Up!, and I have created a blog for her! Please go check out "And She's Still Stamping..."  at andshesstillstamping.blogspot.com.

She loves sunflowers, so I had fun creating this blog header for her to match a background we found in Blogger. And check out her cute shopping icon when you get there!

I still LOVE Stampin' Up! and I like the new catalog offerings better than I have in years, I have a huge list, LOL! They have done a "color renovation" and the new paper and ink colors are luscious and sophisticated - they still have the best color palette in the business. They have just stuffed a lot of wonderful items in the clearance bin, including many of the retired paper colors!

The Holiday Mini catalog was just released today. They have some wonderful new embellishments, dies, and embossing folders so be sure to check that out.

If you don't have a demo, please consider making Janet your demo for U.S. sales. This is our "soft opening" and we'll have some grand opening specials later this fall, so stay tuned.

Last, I'll be creating some SU only cards for Janet to feature on her blog, so that will be a lot of fun. I am nominating myself to her "design team" and I think this will be a fun bonding experience for the two of us, a design team of two!

Come back and let me know what you think of her blog design after you've checked it out!