Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Altered Alice Chapter 23: We're All Mad Here, So Anything Goes

Sit back and grab a cuppa because this post is gonna take as long to read as it did for me to finish the project, but I must say, I haven't been this excited about crafting in a LONG while. We'll be having a little reminder post over at The Altered Alice a bit later, but in the meantime, here's another little inspiration from me. There's still time to enter.

 
`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'
`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
-- Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

 
"We're all mad here" is the favorite Alice quote of artist Rick St. Dennis, so in January, anything goes! Be mad! Get cute, get creepy, get crazy, because Rick St. Dennis has amazing digi stamps in all those styles, including many wonderful AIW images! Submit your creations by Friday, January 25th for a chance to win three digital stamps from Rick St. Dennis. All projects are welcome, but those featuring Wonderland will have two chances at the prize instead of one. Multiple entries are welcome, but to be counted as separate entries they must be on separate posts.
The one thing I have been able to do during my crafting slump is color, and the fabulous AIW images are so much FUN to color that I wanted to use as many as possible.  My thought was to have Alice fallling down the rabbit hole and seeing all the characters on the way (wasn't initially sure how I was gonna pull that off ) but I didn't really have an Alice that fit my vision.  Rick to the rescue!  I mentioned it to him and within an hour he sent me this fabulous Alice, exactly how I had described her.  What a GUY!  Now I'm not saying he's gonna go cranking out custom stuff every time, but he does welcome suggestions.  I was particularly thrilled when he put her in the shop with a little mention.  You can grab her HERE.  Thanks ever so much, Rick!  She's just perfect, so I printed her in three different sizes to give the illusion that she's falling and used an ancient Sizzix Spiral die to cut the hole.  I colored it in a checkerboard motif and and thought "Now what?"

My initial thought was to make a book with a page for each character and holes of descending size on each page as Alice fell further and further down.  Yeah, right.  Choosing DP sends me into fits of indecision so that was DEFINITELY out! Besides, having them all together has such greater impact, don'tcha think? My solution was to do a step card which conveniently allowed me to stretch out my hole for the depth I was imagining with room on the side for all the other guys.  I didn't even use DP because I thought the black and white background scheme showed the colored images to better advantage.  Just a bit of embossing for texture and I was good to go. 
 
So on the way, Alice encountered The March Hare,
 

 
 
 
They're all colored with Copics and fussy cut, mostly with a craft knife so as not to clip off any of the fabby details.  (A little tip here.  I use my old Cricut mats to cut images with my knife because the little sticky that's left keeps them from slipping and protects any surface).  This took FOREVER, and imagine my dismay when I realized that because of the cheap crap paper I use to print my images, the bleed through required I back them and do it all AGAIN!  (I seriously considered skipping that part and making sure the pix didn't show any of the mess, but once I laid the colored images down on black and saw how the colors popped, I decided it was soooo worth it.)


But wait a minute.  What about the Cheshire Cat?  I'd run out of steps.  Hmmm...  He did seem to appear in the trees so I used a Crafts Too folder and embossed and fussy cut a tree for him to sit in.  I did flip him in my Printmaster Program because he looked better facing the opposite direction of the March Hare and his swirlies are enhanced with metallic gel pens so he sort of sparkles.


My only problem now was making the tree strong enough to hold him and not collapse on the rest of Wonderland.  Fortunately, I planned on backing the tree with black too and inserted a skewer up the trunk before attaching the layers.  Then I folded up the sides (thank God I left the bottom sides long) and glued that to the last step. The black ground is taped directly to the bottom of the last fold and then held on each side with adhesive foam to keep the tree upright. The banner in front was computer generated and cut by hand and I colored some of my pink metallic hearts red, with a Bic Marker to embellish it.  DONE!  and let me tell you I was doin' the "Happy Dance"! 

Now, if you're not snoring, I invite you to pop over to The Altered Alice for more inspiration with Rick's wonderful images.  There's still time to enter and it doesn't even have to be an Alice project, although those who do get a double chance at winning.  I might also mention that Rick has just added some new Wonderland images to his Etsy SHOP so be sure and check those out, too.  I've already snatched them up and can't wait to color some more.

Finally, I'm also entering this in the Sparkle and Glitter with Rick St. Dennis current Challenge which is Anything but a Square.  Pretty sure this qualifies,  the Totally Papercrafts It's Embossing Time Challenge, A Gem of a Challenge Emboss It, The Simply Create Linky Party #18, and the Glitter and Sparkle Sentimental Challenge. Finally, I'm adding it to the Octopode Factory Friday Mad Hatter's Tea Party Challenge because I didn't get a chance to do one with my fabulous Octopode stamps.  So sorry Lily, you know I love you and your work.  Thanks for hangin' in there with me.

28 comments:

  1. This blows my mind! I would love to hold it and examine each and every detail. All of the coloring is beyond wonderful! Way to go, Donna!!

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  2. Tee hee, you said, "stretch out your hole". Sorry for the gutter mind. Can't be helped. THIS IS AMAZING, DONNA!!! All of the characters are just perfect and the layout is brilliant! I didn't even realize it was a step card until you mentioned it! I thought it was all held together with magic. Just perfect!
    If this is your mojo on full force, I had better get my booty in gear and my craft up to snuff! You now hold the HERO card, my dear.

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  3. OMG, GLO! I can't stop laughing now. Should I change that? Naaa! But seriously, I'm in tears! Thanks so much for pointing that out to everyone. what would I do without you? ;D xxD

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  4. I agree with Glo on every point....guess WE are all mad here in bloggy land too! This is seriously lout of this world amazing. You should be SO proud! I would have given up after cutting layer 1! Your patience must be never ending! Seriously sick and amazing. I'd love to see it in person too...I bet it's even more fantastical!

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  5. Gee Whizz this is amazing, what a brilliant creation and so much work has gone into it. I adore everything about it!!! My fav quote is the same one as it fits my house!!! Thanks for sharing, I truely adore this one, (thanks too for joining in Sparkle and Glitter with Rick this fortnight,) Love Hazelxoxo

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  6. OH. MY. GOD. Glo is such a bad girl, which is why I love her! ROFL This is totally awesome, Donna, such depth and the coloring is amazing. You go girl. xoxo

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  7. Can I just say Ditto? The gals have said it all (and more, lol). I am delighted that you managed to put "stretch out my hole for the depth" and "inserted a skewer up the trunk" in the same posting. After all, what good is a deep hole if the trunk is not strong enough support your "cat"? The trunk must be strong enough to keep the tree upright to prevent it from collapsing on your Wonderland mid "project". Now that would be a damn shame! I love you gals! You crack me up! Thanks for the laughs and thanks for sharing your fantabulous project with us at Sparkle and Glitter with RSD :)

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  8. OMG... You ladies are cracking me up! But seriously Donna, this is AH-MA-ZING! All of the details. I love everything about it.
    Kim

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  9. OMG! I will take this one for the craft room too. My four year old screamed AWESOME about 50 times when I called her over to see it. She loves Alice:) So cool that the artist designed that special for you, and its in his store now. Way to go Donna..this is a masterpiece:)

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  10. Amazing - wow - so AMAZING! Did I say AMAZING?

    Hat's off to you, Donna!

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  11. Well everything has been said i think. This is so awesome. Drooling all over the keyboard here. Brilliant project. Thanks for sharing at sparkle and glitter

    Mo

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  12. Absolutely over-the-top magnificent!! You have soared to the moon with this one! Words just can't describe it!

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  13. Unbelievable! This project is so amazing. I love these stamps...have some but see the purchase of the rest in my future. The design and engineering of this step card is brilliant. Love your colouring and all that fussy cutting. Spectacular!

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  14. This is just so amazing Donna - love the Alice theme and all the wonderful Rick St Dennis images!!! WOW a spectacular creation!!!

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  15. Well, I am down here in nah nah land, trailing behind all of the glory reports and rightfully so. I laughed my way down here to this spot, loved the story, loved the comments, and this project is absolutely typical of your ideas coming to fruition. It is mind-blowing AWESOME.
    Wow.
    Hugs
    Carole

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  16. okay my dear, just take a chair and enjoy the adulation, my goodness this is amazing, stunning, remarkable, do you think I like it? I LOVE it, hugs

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  17. This work is simply brilliant-its like some amazing theatrical concoction-I hope you have entered it everywhere you could-talk about exposing an artist work---WOW----thanks for using all of those digis in one enchanting project
    RSD

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  18. This is ABSOLUTELY the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen! You totally rocked this challenge and the group post. I am working on Feb now, so if you post it should only need to be your own stuff, LOL! You are one talented designer, but I gotta tell ya, you need a Cameo for fussy cutting all the digi images, it totally rocks at that! And at mats for them too!

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  19. Super Job! Ditto to what everybody has said!
    You knocked this out!

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  20. Holy (insert bad word)! Woman! This card is beyond amazing. Just to be honest you always "wow" me, but this is beyond even the normal levels of "outstanding Donna work". I love every single detail! You are a goddess amidst mortal papercrafters!!!
    Susan

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  21. I'm going to do a "Squaark, Squaark, pieces of eight, pieces of eight" parrot impression because I can only repeat what every one else has already said. This is one masterpiece and a half, even if you did stretch your hole lmao. LOVE IT!!!!
    Thank you so much for sharing your awesome talents over at Sparkle & Glitter with RSD again. xxxx

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  22. wow, what an amazing creation! Thank you so much for joining us at Sparkle and Glitter with Rick st Dennis and good luck in the challenge!

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  23. I'm afraid, I can't add anything to what has already been said!! Thank you for joining us over at Glitter Sparkle this week, good luck

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  24. wow that's brilliant. Love all the colours and the detail is brilliant. Thanks for sharing at glitternsparkle hugs trisha x

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  25. What a fabulous creation, it is stunning. Thank you for joining us at A Gem of a Challenge.

    Pam x

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  26. Wow, wow, wow! Donna you are brilliant and amazing!! This is so amazing that I'm speechless! How can one person have so much talent?!! LOL I love your coloring of these characters and the characters are really cool too!! But the way you put all this together is brilliant, amazing, stunning...wow!!! What crafting slump????

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  27. This is crazy cool, Lady!! So fun to look at and a spectacular blog post to boot :-) Thanks for the inspiration!! xx

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  28. Well now that I've finally stopped crying and peeing my pants over Glowbug's and Lady B's comments, I think I've composed myself enough to comment :)
    Donna, I can't even imagine the patience this required. The coloring and characters are amazing and the design is nothing short of SPECTACULAR! But now you have an awful dilemma....how are you going to top this?! No worries, I have no doubt you will!

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Thanks for making my day!