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!