Twinkle, twinkle

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!

How I wonder what you're at!

Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea-tray in the sky."

(Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The Altered Alice's challenge this month is to create something that twinkles or shines, and by happy chance Tim Holtz's tag for October uses glitter (Tim uses glitter!  Whatever next?), so it's one stone, two bats for this one.  I used a background stamp from The Artistic Stamper (Sequin Waste) as I didn't have a cobweb stamp (how did I let that happen?) but I think it works OK!

 

Hallowe'en is my favourite festival of the year.  When I was a child, the emphasis was more on Guy Fawkes night (we used to have HUGE bonfires in the village) and because legislation was a lot looser then going out at night was positively hazardous from the end of September until November 5th due to fireworks going off (usually "bangers").  It's probably just as well that we make a bigger deal of Hallowe'en now.  I've got all sorts of plans for this year..

 

Update - Honourable Mention at The Altered Alice - thank you so much!

 



Alice and the Caterpillar

You know how some children really latch on to a character from fiction - like Winnie The Pooh or Mickey Mouse?  For me, it was Alice.  I loved Alice from an early age.  I was an early reader and I remember reading the books to myself when I was quite small.  If I could have had everything Alice - like you can get everything Disney these days - I would have.  Never mind Barbie pink, I'd have had everything Alice blue. So of course, when I discovered the Altered Alice's blog challenges, it would have been rude not to participate.

This month's challenge is "Now You See it, Now You Don't" - inspired by the Cheshire Cat. So of course, I based my project on the Caterpillar.  It's a Pushmi-Pullyu card (you can find instructions here - a wonderful resource for all sorts of kinetic cards) made ATC size.  I do love kinetic cards so I really enjoyed this challenge.

The image on the front of the ATC is a Stamp Attack stamp.  The butterfly was a free covermount from the Craft Stamper magazine and I made the sentiment with my Imagepac (now that the sachets are being discontinued I am beginning to get the hang of the process - typical of me!) I coloured the butterfly with Twinkling H2O's and the background with Distress inks.  Alice and the caterpillar were coloured with Promarkers.

Thank you for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Update - I got an Honourable Mention - Yippee!  Thanks, folks!

Total Cattitude!

ANOTHER red, white and blue theme? We've been a bit overwhelmed with them here in the jolly old UK, what with the Jubilee and the London Olympics, you can't move for bunting. Still, a challenge is a challenge and I'd promised myself I'd give the Altered Alice challenge (sponsored by Simon Says Stamp) a try this month, so here we go.

I had a bad case of crafter's block on this one, probably because I wouldn't normally use red, white and blue in my crafting and as stated above, I've already participated in a couple of challenges that used that theme. It was time to dig deep into my resources!

As well as the "real world" crafting, I enjoy digital scrapbooking (it started off as physical scrapbooking, then I found Digital Scrapbook Artist - now Digital Craft Artist- and Photoshop). My digital stash is probably at least as big as my physical stash, it just takes up less space. Before Craft Austerity measures began to bite, I'd bought the "Portobello Road" CD from DoCrafts, so that's where I began. I printed off a few sheets for inspiration...still not helping....

OK, let's go and look at my Alice stamps. I've loved Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass since I was a small child, so when I saw Alice rubber stamps for sale you can bet I was going to buy some! I looked at the Cheshire Cat...and suddenly, no more crafters block!

'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!'

I stamped dear old Chessie onto a nice piece of paper and coloured him. As well as the label shape (from Portobello Road) I printed out some red-white-and-blue patterned papers (landscape orientation). I die-cut the label shape (a Go-Kreate XL die) and the rosette (one of Sir Tim of Holtz's Sizzlits dies, a favourite).

After that it was just a matter of assembling all the pieces. In a moment of whimsy, I attached Chessie with a spring so that he bobs about a bit. The sentiment stamp (from Inkadinkadoo) just seemed to fit - after all, the Cheshire Cat has cattitude oozing out of his whiskers!