Last Week for The Altered Alice "Tea Things" Challenge!

I couldn't resist making another project with this wonderful collage sheets from One Crabapple; this is a hybrid project that started off digital and soon moved into the paper and scissors realm! The challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your creation, and you need to get your entry in by Friday, July 29, to have a chance to win 5 collage sheets of your choice!

All elements shown are from these collage sheets - can you find all the elements?

 

I made a digital collage using Photoshop, which was lots of fun as I could resize or flip things to suit my composition. One of the elements was the fabulous nonsense quote, so I used that large in the background and small in the upper right corner. I thought it would be fun for Alice and the Caterpillar to have tea! I also wanted to include the frame as a nod to "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There".  I lightened up my image a bit as it prints darker than you see it on the screen:

Then I printed out several copies on my *new* color LASER printer - you can color me happy, happy, happy! I have wanted a color laser for years!  I took an 8x10 inch stretched canvas, painted the edges black, and then used gel medium to paste one complete printout to the canvas.  Then I cut up all the elements - Alice with teacup, frame, mushrooms, hookah, teapot, caterpillar, and monogram - after first pasting the sheets to cardstock to make them more sturdy. 

Then I went into a pop-dot frenzy, using both eighth inch and sixteenth inch foam mounting tape to get different levels of dimension. The frame is popped up from the background and other elements are popped up higher. I think this angled photo shows some of the dimension. No where near the dizzying heights that Donna of Popsicle Toes achieves, but still a lot of dimension! ;-)

The completed piece, I am very happy with how this hybrid project turned out. My two One Crabapple projects are my first attempts at digital crafting, and I have discovered that unless the digital project moves into the paper realm I'm not happy - I need the satisfaction of cutting and gluing and making a fine mess!

For those of you thinking about a new color printer, consider a color laser/led printer. I purchased a Brother HL 4570CDW from Amazon and I am thrilled with it. Amazon offers a good discount on the Brother toner cartridges, and the printer is sold from Amazon so I got free shipping and the assurance of Amazon's customer service.  This printer is about $100+ more than the same model without the wireless feature, but I wanted to be able to print from my iPhone and the freedom to place the printer anywhere without needing to hook it up to my router.  Brother has a personal line of color laser/led printers and an office line - this is from the more robust office line which ships with fully charged toner cartridges instead of partially filled starter cartridges. I also love it that it is a duplex printer - I have been making my own double-sided patterned paper!

I did not use my color ink jet very often, so every time I needed to use it I had to clean the print heads to unclog the nozzles, wasting a lot of ink. My cost per page was astronomical as I was only getting partial use of the ink cartridges before they dried up.The toner will be much more cost effective as the toner cartidges won't dry up or clog.  I also discovered it was just as easy for me to print photos through an online service like Wal-Mart or Walgreens, so I don't need an inkjet for photo printing. The other problem with the ink jet was that it was not craft friendly - I couldn't get any glue or decoupage on the prints as it would mar the finish. That is not a problem with the color laser printouts! The toner printouts are more durable - I can use gel medium over them, spritz them with Perfect Pearls, decoupage them, all things that would mar the finish of inkjet printouts.

Winners will be posted next Sunday so be sure to check back on The Altered Alice.  To see the rest of this week's design team inspiration pieces, click HERE, there are some fantastic projects to see!

I'd love it if you'd leave a comment before you go!

CHAPTER 5 Challenge: Tea-Things

`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask. 

The Mad Hatter's tea table was full of tea-things, with place settings all the way around and many teapots and teacups. Your challenge this month is to have a teapot or teacup on your project, and, as an option, to use something OTHER than a stamped image as your focal point!

That's because The Altered Alice design team will be showing off with digital collage sheets from One Crabapple [Etsy Store | Blog], which has of the most interesting and different Alice in Wonderland categories I've seen! The owner and artist is taking care of some family priorities, so if the store is closed when you visit, just put in your email in to be notified when it reopens. It is well worth waiting for I promise; most of the design team members had a difficult time making  their choices and a couple of us needed all of everything in the Alice category! The winner will have their choice of five collage sheets from One Crabapple!

July is a long month, so you have almost four weeks to enter your project! Plenty of time for even our stragglers to play along, just be sure to enter by 11:59 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC -4:00) on Friday, July 29. The winner and honorable mentions will be announced the last Sunday of the month on July 31.

My creation uses the Mad Tea Party sheet and the diamonds from the Go Ask Alice sheet, and since I was on vacation away from my craft room, I decided to make it a completely digital creation using layers in Photoshop. You could use any image editing program with layers, including Photoshop Elements, which is much less expensive, or GIMP which is free.

I loved all the head gear on the Mad Tea Party sheet, so I copied the oval portrait and duplicated it three times, matching the plaid backgrounds, then pasted different hats on each Alice!  I was really taken with the rich burgundy and gold of the Mad Hatter hat, so I colorized the teapot and teacups to match, and the background is a burgundy to gold to burgundy gradient with noise added for texture. The captions are also from the collage sheet, but I reduced the opacity of the text layers to 65% so it looks like vellum. Lots of drop shadows were used to give a sense of depth, just think of them as virtual pop-dots!  Please click on the image to enlarge it so you can see these details.

Scoot on over to The Altered Alice to see the Week 1 and Week 2 inspiration from the design team, and to enter your own creation. Please leave a comment, I treasure every one!

Please VOTE for my Creeptacular Witch!!!

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Edited to add: This month, you get one vote when you vote for your top pick, not three! Thanks!
I am entering the Amber INK INKredible Challenge, squeaking in just under the deadline! The theme this month is Trick or Treaty, Amber Inky, and my Creeptacular Witch is ready for the big day!  And YOU can help! Please go to the Amber INK challenge blog and VOTE for your favorite, and of course I am hoping that my witch will your top pick! Voting opens tomorrow, Tuesday October 12 and ends on October 14. The winners will be announced on the 20th!

I was totally inspired by this super cool Polka Dot Spider iPaper from Amber INK. Aren't those spiders fun? It was a black and white print until I sponged it with purple, green and orange. I loved the idea that I could make this paper any color I wanted! After sponging, I dotted the shine in their eyes with a white gel pen. I created my own large version of the spider with a ¾ inch circle punch and some twine I colored black. I drew in the eyes with a white gel pen and then added a clear dome of dimensional glue.  In retrospect this would have been a good time to whip out the googly eyes, but you know I don't use them very often and I'd have to find them first, LOL!!!

Then I turned to my favorite Amber INK set of digi stamps: Rainy Day! She is so much fun to color! I drew in some lines to turn her umbrella into a huge spider web, with one creepy spider dangling from the edge, whick I positioned so that they are looking at each other! I also drew in a witch's hat, and arched "Hope your Halloween is" text over the top of the umbrella.  Then I tucked the Happy Pumpkin in at her feet. Is this pumpkin cute or what? I got it while it was a freebie on the Amber INKlings blog, and it will be available for sale Oct. 20th, 2010. You can see her without all these additions on this card.

Next I cut out the "Creeptacular" word I had printed. I colored the strip eggshell with parchment edges and rolled the ends tightly, trying to make it like a little scroll that might have had a spell written on it! I cut out the witch with a fingertip craft knife - love the control this gives - and mounted it with dimensional foam tape on some mega-oval nestabilities. I adhered a strip of insanely bright orange ribbon around the card front - the ends meet under the witch panel.  The ribbon really IS that bright!!!  I tied a little piece of fine twine around the ribbon, knotting it where I intended to stick the center of the bow, pinching the ribbon as it would be if it was actually tied into a bow. Then I made the bow and stuck it on with glue dots. I mounted the witch panel, scroll, and creepy spider with dimensional foam tape and it was done!

So remember to vote! I know I probably won't be lucky enough to win the grand prize again, but if I do, I have plans!!! The winner gets a digi stamp set they design with Amber! I won last month and it is SO MUCH FUN! You can see the process on my posts here and here, and also on the developments page on the challenge blog! My new set, called Let's Communicate, will be unveiled on Oct. 20th and I can't wait for you to see it!  The second and third place winners also get goodies - I think they win a gift certificate to Amber's shop. That would be fab too because I've gotta tell you, I have this LIST!

Please think about entering next month's challenge, which starts Oct. 20th. You have to use at least one Amber INK item, but as long as you have that, you CAN use other stamps.  iPaper would be a GREAT way to start, it is only $1 and there are so many great designs! I love all the fall plaids and the cute gingham released last month.

In addition to the Amber INK challenge, I have also entered this in

• Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays: Halloween.
• By the Cute and Girly: Spooky
• Copic Creations: #36 - Orange
• Mad for Markers: #M4M Color a digi stamp
  

Please VOTE for for your top pick on the Amber INK INKredible Challenge Blog during the voting period, Oct. 12-14. Thanks for your support!!!  And please leave me a comment to let me know how you like my witch, or that you voted!  THANKS!

Oh, Alice! CHAPTER 28: Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow...

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Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.

I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter;
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life's hereafter -
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.

Taken from "Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow:
preface to "Through the Looking Glass"

Hello everyone! We are celebrating the wonder of childhood today at Oh, Alice! and are thrilled to announce this week's sponsor, Paper Pretties Stamps! Are you all familiar with Paper Pretties? If you're new to them, check out their darling images! If it's been a while, Paper Pretties is PROUD to announce that they're under NEW ownership and is pleased to offer you faster, cheaper shipping, WAY more reliable service, and lots of new items in the store. We are thrilled to congratulate Heather Lee-Reppen on her new endeavor and are honored to have her sponsorship this week! Paper Pretties is offering a Prize package of rubber stamps this week to ONE lucky winner!

This week's theme is simply to make a card with a LITTLE GIRL theme. :) Alice is such a whimsical free spirit and we LOVE that about her! Channel your inner girlie this week with this great (and free-to-be-you!) challenge!

I was inspired to go Victorian, as Alice was a Victorian girl! I love this image of Alice tempting her little black kitten with a ball of yarn! I know other members of the design team will be more whimsical in their offerings, but I love this picture of Alice curled up in her chair. I was a great reader as a child and this big chair brings back many happy memories of curling up with a good book! The other thing I love about this image is that there is nothing more playful than a kitten!

Click to enlarge

I did some cleanup on this image from Through the Looking Glass to erase the background, then printed with my black and white laser printer on color laser printer paper. I then colored with Copic markers (love love love my Copics) and glue-sticked it to a piece of white cardstock, so it would be stiff enough to cut out and pop up on dimensional foam.  I cut a Lattice Pendant from the same white cardstock. I cut, scored, and folded my card base and ran it through the Cuttlebug with only the front panel inside an embossing folder, then edged the front with a gold leafing pen. I ran ribbon through the lattice, adhered it to the card front, and then swiped the exposed embossed areas with a Versamark Dazzle pad to highlight the raised areas.  I tied a bit of jute string around the ribbon about half an inch down from the top to pinch it in. I made a double looped bow and adhered it with glue to the pinched ribbon. The chair was adhered with pop-dots and I colored some bling to match and stuck it on the pendant on either side.
Here's your weekly inspiration from our Twisted Tea Party:

• Jessica (our MAD HATTER)
• Erin
• Jen
• Kim
• Kristy
• Ky
• Lynne (me!)
• Margie
• Peggy
• Randi
• Sammi
• Sara
• Suzi
• Tasha
• Plus Stepanie, our August Guest Designer

Thanks again to Paper Pretties for this great prize! You have until FRIDAY, September 3rd at 8pm CST to play along this week for the prize! Submit your entry on Oh, Alice! and the winner will be announced next week!

Enjoy being young at heart and we'll see you soon back in WONDERLAND! Please leave a comment, I really love hearing from you!

Stamps: Digital image from Lenny's Alice in Wonderland website.
Paper: Stampin' Up! - Mellow Moss card stock; Georgia Pacific - white card stock; HP - color laser printer paper.
Ink: Copic - Sketch markers; Versamark - Frost Dazzle pad; Krylon - Pale Gold Leafing Pen.
Miscellaneous: Ribbon; Paper Studios - clear self-adhesive flatback rhinestones.
Tools: Spellbinders - Lattice Pendant die; Cuttlebug - Victorian embossing folder, machine; Fast Grab Tacky Glue (for ribbon); ATG - gun and tape.

Pssst - It's another Amber Ink Kiddo!

It's time for another Amber Ink sneak peek! Yesterday I merged all the kiddos into one scene, and today I am using just one of these cute kids. My little gossip girl wants to tell you that you're the best!

I printed the image with a laser printer onto color laser printer paper and colored with Copic markers. I cut it out with a circle nestie and sponged pink around the edges using a makeup sponge wedge. Still in the die, I ran a black line around the edge using a Multiliner and ran a bright green marker around the edge.

Click to enlarge

Of course the whole card was inspired by Amber's amazing digital iPaper! This "Spin Pin Tiny" pattern is one of my favorites, so lively and fun! I printed it out and cut a piece to mount on my black card base. I printed the whole 8.5 x 11 inch page so I would have scraps, but another option would have been to copy a piece at the exact size I needed and pasted it in a new file - then I could have printed out just the size I needed with no wasted ink.

I computer generated the sentiments and cut them out. The bottom one was colored with Copics to go with the paper. I cut a slit in the fold of the card so I could slip a white ribbon through. I tied a big green button around the knot with some fine black twine. Everything was attached to the card with foam mounting tape.
Be sure to check out the other August torch-bearers creations!

• Shannan Tuebner (Coordinator)
• Lisa Coe
• Tanis Palmer
• Lynne Phelps (me!)
• Wendy Price
• Thanh Vo 

I have entered this in the following challenges:

• The challenge is "Back to School/School Days" at


• Our Creative Corner
• KAH-WINK-E-DINK
• Stampin' for the Weekend
• Stampin' Royalty


• "Anything Goes" is this week's challenge at


• Craft Your Passion
• I Did It Creations 
• Just Scraps

I'll have another sneak peek tomorrow with a whole different set, can't wait to show you! The iPapers are already in the store, and the new digital stamps we've been showing you will be in the Amber Ink store on Friday! August 20 is a big day - in addition to the new release we have a super-duper surprise for you so stay tuned!



Please leave me a comment, they really make my day!

I'm in the Amber Ink (th)INK Tank!

Check out the name on this custom design team badge! I have been invited by the brilliant (but not patient) Amber to carry the torch for Amber Ink for the month of August! Amber Ink features digital stamps, digital "iPaper" and clear stamps. We are saying farewell to Karin Martin, Nicole Anderson, Patricia O'Hagan (Pinky), Suzi McKenzie, and Taylor Usry. Shannan Tuebner, the design team co-ordinator, is providing some continuity as we welcome the August leg of the th(INK) Tank relay!

• Lisa Coe
• Tanis Palmer
• Lynne Phelps (me!)
• Wendy Price
• Thanh Vo 

We are starting the sneak peeks for the August release. Today I am sharing three darling first-day-of-school kiddos that will be available in the Amber Ink shop on August 20th. It is so much fun working with digital stamps because you can do all the compositing of images without having to do any masking. This card includes New Girl, Gossip Girl, and the Turned Head Boy; I don't know their official names yet!



Notice that fun background paper! Amber has wonderful iPaper designs that coordinate with each of the stamp lines, or you can mix and match! This design, Clutter Dots-Green, is actually from The Little Top Collection of circus-inspired designs, but I thought the primary colors really suited my first-day-of-school kiddos! Another really different feature is each design is available in three levels of brightness from full strength, as shown above, Whisper, which is paler, and Hint which has the faintest pattern.

I put my three kiddos together in Photoshop. The first thing I like to do with digital images is to select only the background and delete it, so the inside of each kiddo and desk, etc. still has white inside. I then save the files as a PNG, which allows transparency, as opposed to a JPG or TIF which does not.  This makes it so easy to put the images together. I create a new 300 dpi document that is 8x10.5 inches (letter-sized minus a quarter inch margin all the way around) then I copy or place each PNG file into the new file. It is easy to rearrange them, and I can change the order of what is in front or in back. Because each image is solid and the background is clear, there is no special masking needed.



I fill up the whole page with images, and it makes it easy to judge how to size each one and how much space to leave.  I like to print on my B&W laser printer onto color laser printer paper. The laser printer fuses the toner onto the page with heat, so the markers will not smudge the ink. The color laser printer paper is ultra smooth and thicker than regular copy paper, and it is easy to blend Copic markers and so much less expensive that a good quality card stock, plus it takes a lot less ink to saturate the paper. I die cut the image and sponged around the edges while it was still in the die.

After that I just added ribbon, buttons, and a thank you sentiment. Remember to recycle - the bright green scalloped circle behind the sentiment is punched from a Windstream DSL broadband flyer that came in the mail!  I think this would make a fun teacher thank you card, and with a different sentiment it would make a fun birthday card, invitation, or thinking of you card.

Challenges:

• The challenge is "Back to School" at


• Our Creative Corner
• KAH-WINK-E-DINK
• Stampin' for the Weekend
• "Anything Goes" is this week's challenge at


• Craft Your Passion
• I Did It Creations 
• Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog!


• And "Create a Scene" is the challenge at Stampin' B's Design Team

Hope you liked my first-day-of-school kiddos, and I'll be sneaking peeks at another Amber Ink stamp collection in a couple days!  Please leave a comment, I LOVE hearing from you!
  

CHAPTER 24: Windows & Broken Glass - Oh, Alice! Challenge

`Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?'
`Sure, it's an arm, yer honour!' (He pronounced it `arrum.')
`An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole window!'
`Sure, it does, yer honour: but it's an arm for all that.'
`Well, it's got no business there, at any rate: go and take it away!'


There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers now and then; such as, `Sure, I don't like it, yer honour, at all, at all!' `Do as I tell you, you coward!' and at last she spread out her hand again, and made another snatch in the air. This time there were TWO little shrieks, and more sounds of broken glass. `What a number of cucumber-frames there must be!' thought Alice. `I wonder what they'll do next! As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they COULD! I'm sure I don't want to stay in here any longer!'

Hello friends...it's CRYSTAL CLEAR that today you're all joining us for a fabulous challenge here at Oh, Alice! We have all sorts of lovely techniques for you to try today! Your mission today with Oh, Alice!, should you choose to accept it, is to try a technique using cracked glass, crystal effects (or glossy accents), or a window stamp/technique. There are TONS of possibilities with today's challenge and we are SO ready to see all of the fabulous creations you enter! Here are my two takes on the challenge:

Clear Postcard: Alice has a really bad day!

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I used a piece of clear packaging that held clear stamps for this one! I edged it with a gold leafing pen and stamped the Herald Rabbit in the corner in white ink.  I printed both images with my B&W laser printer on color laser printer paper, which works really nicely with Copic markers. I die-cut them and edged them with the same gold leafing pen and adhered them to the front.

This is a postcard type flat card, no fold. I stamped a checkerboard in white on olive card stock and adhered it to the back of the clear acetate, being very careful to place ahesive where it would be covered by the images on the front side of the plastic.  I cut a couple slots and threaded a ribbon through, then added a small punched flower and stuck a bit of bling in the center!  By having the olive card stock on the back side of my clear postcard, it gives me a place to write a message!

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This photo is a little sharper, and I laid it on top of some brown and ivory card stock so you could see the clear areas. Fun!

Going Through the Looking Glass

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But I also HAD to use the two images of Alice going through the Looking Glass for this challenge!  I printed both with my B&W laser printer on color laser printer paper and colored them with Copic markers.

Then I used a glue pen to follow the reflective streaks across the glass and used an icy blue glitter. I colored over the whole surface of the mirrors with a versamarker and heat embossed with clear detail powder, repeating this step three times. I used detail powder so it would not spread into the areas like her face when it melted.  Next I gave the glass domes over the clock and vase the same treatment but used three or four layers of clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel.

Click to enlarge

Sure wish this glorious shiny finish was easier to photograph! Neither photo gives a good feeling for how glassy the finish is and how 3D the glass domes feel!

Remember to go to Oh, Alice! to enter your own creations in our Glass/Clear challenge! Here's some more inspiration from the DT:

• Jessica (our Mad Hatter)
• Erin
• Jen
• Kim
• Kristy
• Ky
• Margie
• Peggy
• Randi
• Sammi
• Sara
• Suzi
• Tasha
• Plus Emma, our July Guest Designer

I would love to hear your comments, it really makes my day when I hear from you! Everytime a comment pops into my email I get the biggest smile!

Clear Postcard:
Stamps: Free digi images from Lenny's Alice in Wonderland site; Waltzingmouse Stamps - Off Beat Backgrounds; Nature's Blessings - white herald rabbit.
Paper: Stampin' Up! - Old Olive card stock.
Ink: Palette Hybrid Ink: New Canvas (white).
Miscellaneous: Krylon - Pale Gold Leafing Pen; Ribbon.
Tools: EK Success - small daisy punch; Spellbinders - Labels Eight Nestability dies.

Looking Glass Card:
Stamps: Free digi images from Lenny's Alice in Wonderland site.
Paper: Papertrey Ink - kraft; Stampin' Up! - burgundy card stock; Old dictionary page.
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink - Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, Walnut Stain.
Miscellaneous: Ribbon; Buttons.
Tools: EK Success - scallop border punches; Bow Easy
    

Oh, Alice! CHAPTER 21: Breaking All the Rules...

"At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled out `Silence!' and read out from his book, `Rule Forty-two. ALL PERSONS MORE THAN A MILE HIGH TO LEAVE THE COURT.'

Everybody looked at Alice.
`I'M not a mile high,' said Alice.
`You are,' said the King.
`Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen.
`Well, I shan't go, at any rate,' said Alice: `besides, that's not a regular rule: you invented it just now.'
`It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King.
`Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice. "

Hello everyone! Today we have a fun and rather rebellious challenge for all of you out there in WONDERLAND! We start out with a lovely sketch by Sammi. The catch? You must RE-CREATE this sketch somehow. Switch out a panel or two, flip on its side, upside down, etc. There are no rules except to BREAK them, meaning you can't follow the sketch exactly! Makes no sense right? GOOD. :)

Today we also are thrilled to announce another wonderful sponsorship from SPESCH DESIGNER STAMPS! [Blog | Etsy Store] Thank you so much to Tracey Feeger for allowing the DT to work with your adorable images! Tracey is offering a prize of a VERY generous $10 Gift Certificate to the Spesch Designer Stamps Store! Be sure to check out all of her cute designs and be sure to play along this week for your chance to WIN! Go ahead...BREAK all the rules...you KNOW you want to! Just go to the Oh, Alice! Challenge Blog and link your creation!

I was totally inspired by the new movie - I loved the mushroom landscape and wanted to capture some of the feel of this poster on my card. I also adored the Cheshire Cat and the way he swam through the air. As soon as I saw this adorable cat and saw that it would work well horizontally, I knew exactly what I wanted to do! I traced the mushrooms from the poster, and added the text from chapter six, when this scene takes place.  Then I colored in the scene with Copic markers.

I colored the cat to be similar to the Cheshire Cat in the movie, warm gray with turquoise stripes and eyes! I cut both figures out after coloring and mounted them on thick dimensionals - they actually are raised quite a bit above the background. Then I added some light blue-green swirls to indicate the Cheshire Cat's "swimming" trail -- or maybe I should say the wake left by swimming through the air!  The flowers I made by coloring circles of color on cardstock and then punching them out with two sizes of daisy punches. I curved the petals by hand, which gives them so much dimension!

So how did I break the rules? I ditched the diagonal background, the mat for the focal image goes all the way around, and instead of having my sentiment in the corner, I spread it across the three embellishment spots. I edged three tags with light and medium warm gray, slipped ribbons into the holes, and handwrote the quoted text from chapter six with a Copic Mulitliner SP pen.  To be sure the coversation bounce was clear, I decided to write the name of the speaker across the end of the tag, which added a more graphical element.  They are mounted on the cards with really thick dimensional foam. 

Here are some samples from the rest of our amazingly Twisted Tea party:

• Jessica (our MAD HATTER)
• Erin
• Jen
• Kim
• Kristy
• Ky
• Margie
• Peggy
• Randi
• Sammi
• Sara
• Suzi
• Tasha
• Plus Emma, our July Guest Designer

Good luck to all you rebels out there, and be sure to link your creation on Oh, Alice before July 16th at 8pm CST to enter to win!

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think about my movie-inspired card! I love to hear from you.  And be sure to check out all the WONDERful images from Spesch Designer Stamps. Other Wonderland images available include the Rabbit, Mad Hatter, White Queen and Queen of Hearts. They are all great, and I *NEED* them ALL for my collection, LOL!

Stamps: Spesch Designer Stamps - Alice and Cheshire Cat digi stamps. Background by me!
Paper: Papertrey Ink - Spring Moss, Ocean Tides card stock; HP Color Laser Printer paper; Manilla card stock (unknown).
Ink: Copic - Alcohol Sketch markers, Multiliner SP pens.
Embellishments: Ribbon; Marvy Daisy punches - hand colored flowers.
Tools: Janome - Sew Mini sewing machine; Marvy - medium and small Daisy punches; Tag Punch (unknown).

   

State Fair - Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #85

NOTE: I have two posts today - if you are looking for my Oh, Alice! post, please scroll down.

Can you believe that we are up to week 85 of movie-inspired challenges?  It seems like just yesterday I heard about this blog featuring a Jane Austen movie as inspiration. . . . and this week I have the privilege of being the Cinema Satuday Guest Designer! Our movie this week is the 1945 musical, State Fair, about a family who comes from the farm for the big event! Dad has his prize hog, Blue Boy, entered and Mom has been perfecting her mincemeat pie and pickle recipes (separately, not together!) and the two kids, a young lady and her brother, are ready for romance! It is a charming bit of Americana, no depth at all but loads of sweet charm and humor.



This week the challenge, other than a creation inspired by some aspect of the movie, is to use pennants! You see them everywhere at a fair!  I created mine on the computer. I drew a triangle, copied and pasted it until I had nine of them, and then put a letter into each one. Then I printed out the page on color laser printer paper (great for Copics) and had great fun coloring each triangle with a different color and pattern using Copic Sketch markers.  I trimmed them out and glued each word to a piece of hemp twine using a Zig 2-way Glue paint pen.

Then I needed some pies! I did not have any pie stamps so I did a Google image search for pie.

• TIP #1: Once the Google Image Search results came back, did you ever notice that you can narrow down the results by image type? It is in the left column - just check "Line Art" and you will find drawings perfect for coloring! You should also select "Large" because you need them to have enough pixels to be able to print them at 300 dpi.  You can see the settings in this screen dump I made for you at right. >>>
• TIP #2: There are a lot of sites that offer free images to print - they are designed for children to color! I think we all love Copics so much because they are grown-up crayons! You can use these images without infringing on anyone's copyright because they are designed for this very purpose - to print and enjoy yourself coloring it in!!! Just search for "free drawings for kids to color" and you will find a ton of sites with great images. That is where I found my various pies!

I copied my pies into one file, sized and arranged them, then colored them in with Copics. I did the front pie separately as I knew I was going to want it popped up on dimensionals.  Then I found a lovely piece of paper from a K&Co mat stack which was perfect to put my pies on. I trimmed the bottom edge with a border punch, drew a light pencil line across and shaded below it with warm gray Copics to make it look like the drape of a table cloth. Then I trimmed from my pencil line to about an inch in from the top corner on each side to give it some perspective.

Of course it's all about winning with the best pie, right? So I made a mini blue ribbon and edged it with a gold paint pen. I did not have the right color ribbon, so I colored it with Copics to the perfect shade. Love that!

I wanted it to look like you were in a tent looking out. I trimmed two pieces of striped paper from in the shape of tent flaps pulled back. I shaded again with warm gray Copics to indicate the folds of the fabric and added a red tie-back.



Now for assembly. You can see all the dimension in the angled shot above!  The top of the card base was sponged with blue. I used 1/16th inch thick foam mounting tape for the tent flaps and 1/8th inch thick pop-dots for the table. I draped my pennants across to see how they would fit and it was missing something. I cut out a couple clouds from leftover embossed white packaging from THIS and THIS project. I put a tiny piece of foam mounting tape behind each pennant so I could control where each letter was placed, then I glued the ends of the string down with Zig glue.

I now had a good idea about the amount of space left for my sentiment - "Thanks for being such a Sweetie Pie!" seemed perfect! I generated it on the computer, cut it out and colored it with palest yellow, edged with warm gray, and highlighted Sweetie Pie in pale gold. Then I stuck it on (more foam mounting tape) and plunked the mini blue ribbon over the left end!

I hope you enjoyed my State Fair card! I live in Perry, home of the annual Georgia National Fair, which is absolutely amazing!!!  My favorite part is the exhibit halls where you can see quilts, artwork, knitting, spinning, photography, flowers, the creative 4-H pumpkin head scarecrows, it's great! The livestock barns, not so much for me, LOL! And of course there is the fair food - did you know you can get any kind of food you can think of mounted on a stick at the fair???  I decided to go for Melissa's mincemeat pies as my inspiration instead of Abel's gigantic hog, Blue Boy!!!

Go to the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge blog and play along with us this week!  It is such fun and the winner receives the prestigeous Audrey Award blog badge! You can see mine in the left sidebar, and of course you can read my "acceptance speech" HERE!

Paper: Stampin' Up! - Caribbean Blue; October Afternoon - Thrift Shop (stripes); K&Co - Mat Stack (tablecloth); HP - Bright White Color Laser Printer Paper (pies, sentiment, pennants).
Ink: B&W laser printing (pies, sentiment, pennants); Copic Sketch markers.
Embellishments: Hemp twine; double-faced satin ribbon.
Tools: Cuttlebug - Tiny Bubbles embossing folder

Happy Birthday Hannah: Reverse Paper-Piecing with Digi-Stamps

My neice Hannah just had her 19th birthday, and I thought this fun digi image from Amber Ink suited her perfectly! Hannah is very a very smart, stylish, funny young lady with loads of personality and I love her dearly!
 

Have you heard about Amber Ink?  The artist, Amber, and her mother have started up a new company. In the "Amber Girls" line, she is offering Digi sets - just like you might find in a clear stamp set. I only used the main image, but there are also shoes, purse, tote, etc. plus a sentiment: "But I need it. . . ." And for a limited time, several of the Amber Girl sets are FREE! They are just darling, and I can't wait to use the other sets. I also LOVE her Love Bunny stamps, they are so cute and expressive! She also has coordinating digi-paper, and clear stamps will be coming.  Plus Amber Ink is perfect for me, because I'm brilliant, not patient!!!! ;-)

Back to my card. I knew I wanted to paper-piece her dress.  In the normal way when you paper-piece with a rubber stamp, you stamp once on your base paper and color as usual, then you ink up just the part of the stamp with the item you want to paper-piece and stamp it on the patterned paper, then you cut it out and glue it over the corresponding spot on the base image.

There are some issues when you try to do this with a digital image:

• I was using Basic Gray "Indian Summer" paper which comes on 6 x 6 inch sheets, which would have been an awkward size to try and run through my printer.
• I did not want to print the whole image again which would have wasted the whole sheet of patterend paper.
• I would have to do some image editing to print only the area with her dress.
• It was too much of a hassle!

My solution was reverse paper-piecing! I used a craft knife to cut out her dress from my printed and colored image.  Basically there was now a dress shaped hole in the middle of the image. I put glue stick on the back of the image around the opening, making sure every edge around the cut-out dress was covered. Then I put a snippet of patterned paper behind the opening and made sure all the edges were pressed down firmly. I drew the hem lines back on with a black Copic Multiliner.

Unless you run your finger over the image, it is very difficult to tell that the patterned paper is behind instead of in front!



TIP: Try the new Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife. The handle is a ring which goes around your index finger and the knife becomes an extension of your finger. I was very pleased at how much more dexterity and control I had when making intricut cuts - it was easy!  Here is a short product demo I found on YouTube:

I hope you will go check out Amber Ink, and also consider getting the fingertip knife. They also have a version with the tiny swivel blade.

Stamps: Amber Ink - But I Need It digi set; Waltzingmouse Stamps - Fancy Phrases.
Paper: ValuePack - 5 x 6.5 inch white card & envelope; Basice Gray - Indian Summer 6 x 6 inch pad; Stampin' Up! - Bravo Burgundy card stock.
Ink: Copic - alcohol Sketch markers, 0.5 MultilinerSP; Ranger Distress - Worn Lipstick, Scattered Straw; Memento - Rich Cocoa.
Miscellaneous: Spellbinders - Fancy Tags die, Petite Ovals and Scalloped Petite Ovals; Ribbon; Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife; Glue Stick; PopDots.