Down The Rabbit Hole with the Red Queen

I titled this latest Alpha Stamps project "Down The Rabbit Hole" because this little tyrant actually took me there. I had planned to use her as a book cover, in which I would use two of the cutouts to make the covers. Alas, though, this little queen would not let go of her heart shaped staff, nor would she not quit pointing in such a rude manner. I would have had to make a pretty thick book in order to assure that it could open correctly. I decided to just start painting Her Majesty and see what would become of her. Here's the story of our journey together.

I used an image from "The Red Queen" collage sheet as a reference for color, etc. and started painting just the shoulders and head of the queen. At this point, my plan was to use her as a back cover and make a tiny rectangular cover in front. Look how tiny she is! Once I got that top part painted, it felt weird not to have the rest painted, too, so I penciled it in and got to work. My solution: just keep painting and worry about construction later. Most times this works out for me. The queen, though, had a different plan. 

 

Once I got the entire queen painted, plus the front cover, so her the dress would still be complete with the cover closed, I glued a strip of card stock to the back of our queen, making sure there was room for the front cover to close under her right hand. Wow, great idea. Now, if you make a little book, it's going to cover up all that work I did painting her dress. Plus, there's no way the book will close, because the spine isn't thick enough to allow it. Luckily, I had the foresight to leave the strip of card stock long. Perhaps I could use what used to be the front cover to finish out the back of her dress, and then make a book on the backside. Genius! (*note: I painted the card stock brown because I did not prime the cardboard figure before painting it. If I had painted on the lighter card stock, the colors wouldn't match.) Alas, I had the same problem with the back of the "book" than I did with the front. It just would not close with pages in it. On to plan C.

After the step above, I attached a piece of cardboard to the non painted side of the card stock so I could continue on with the front of the dress. Here's Her Majesty at this point, completely painted: 

OK, now we're getting somewhere. I decided to just make a little scene from Alice in Wonderland and use that weird shape as well as I could. I put the Cheshire cat up in a tree, and used the Queen's pointing hand as a signpost to Wonderland. It's an odd little project, but at least something was made of it!

She is small, but mighty. And she definitely has a mind of her own. For supplies, click here.

Five Tiny Tins: Fairies, Mary, and Alice

How sweet are these little 1" by 2" tins? I made a couple shrines with the ones I had, and then begged Leslie at Alpha Stamps to send me at least 5 more. The tins come with a sliding lid, and I still plan to try a design incorporating the lid, but for now: tiny shrines. I started out making little fairy shrines. The backs of the tins are covered in scrapbook paper. Tiny wings from a collage sheet are added to create fairies, who dance on beds of moss amongst the smallest of mushrooms, made from floral stamens.

Here's a quick photo for scale. Adorable! 

 

All the fairies are attached with small pieces of foam tape to add dimension. This first fairy is friends with a lucky ladybug. Her crown is made from a sequin star, cut in half and glued together points up. For link to the supplies used for this tin, click here. A full list of supplies for all the tins is at the end of this post. 

 

Several of the tins have half-round toppers on them. I used a wide pair of pliers to gently bend round medallions in half. The pieces I used were very easy to bend. Just grip the medallion where you want to bend it, and push to fold. The flat side can then be glued to the top of the tin with E6000 glue. 

The ballerina fairy has caught a falling star. Make a wish! The word "wish" was cut from an old dictionary. I found a picture of a tiny flower and cut out two petals to glue on her back for wings. Supplies can be found here. 

 

 

I didn't want to use only half of the star for this next shrine, so I used some Apoxie Sculpt to adhere it to the top of the tin. Extra sequin stars add a little sparkle. This gentleman's supplies can be found here. 

 

 

 

Of course I also needed to make a shrine for Mary. After gluing the paper to the back of the tin, I covered the sides with beautiful glass glitter, plus some more sequin stars. I used two images of Mary for this shrine; the entire image is glued to the back of the tin, and then Mary alone was cut from the second image, and stuck on with foam tape. I did not like the way the medallion on top of this tin had a hole in it (see picture above where it's getting bent with pliers) so I added a metal rose to cover the hole. Mary deserves a little extra bling anyway. Here's your supply link! 

 

 

I have had this adorable White Rabbit charm (from Alice in Wonderland) for a while. I finally found the perfect home for him! I removed his hanging loop with wire snippers. Using some Alice themed scrapbook paper, I covered the back and the sides of this tin. Then all that was needed was a little moss, some polymer clay playing cards, and a tiny teacup on the top. The heart was painted on with a small detail brush and acrylic paints. Supplies for this tin (including that rabbit!) can be found here.

 

 

 

I really enjoyed making these little tins. The projects were quick and relatively easy. Placing the stamen mushrooms was a little tricky, but once you cut them to the desired height and run the stems through some glue, they stick easily. I often used a toothpick to straighten them up once they were inserted into the moss; it can be difficult to stick a finger in such a little space! Finished tins can be hung up with removable mounting putty or glued to small magnets. They don't stand on their own, but it would be easy to mount them on a medallion or small block of wood if you want to display them on a flat surface.

 

For a list of supplies used on all the tiny tins, click here. 

Dum and Dee, the Tweedles

This month at Alpha Stamps, it's all about Alice. My favorite characters from Alice in Wonderland happen to be the Tweedles, both Dum and Dee. Guess who got star billing on the two works I did this month? 

First, I made an altered tin. I removed the lid before covering the outside with polka dotted paper, and the inside with a beautiful background image from a collage sheet. The outside mushrooms are a chipboard insert. I used colored pencils and Copic markers to paint the mushrooms to match the background. I wanted the largest two mushrooms to extend outside the boundaries of the chipboard, so I painted those two tops separately and then attached the new caps. The white spots on them were added with Gesso.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had on outfits that were fairly muted, so I bumped up the color a bit with Copic markers. Now they look more at home in their bright surroundings. I also used a marker on Alice's hair. After all, blondes have more fun! Look at the sweet little hedgehog peaking out from behind the mushroom in front. He was so adorable that I just had to include him.

Butterflies were folded and glued down the center to make them appear as if they just landed on the edges of the tin. I love that big silver teapot; it's the perfect topper! It really made the piece come together. Silver beads made for little feet for the tin, and echoed the silver of the teapot. In the picture below, you can see that the Tweedles are mounted on foam tape for extra dimension. Alice is also mounted on foam tape so it appears she is actually peaking out from that giant 'shroom.

  

Yes, we're all mad here!

In addition to the altered tin, I made a tiny book box, which also features the Tweedles. I used the same polka dot paper on the exterior, and used washi tape to attach the cover to the sides. Washi tape is pretty, but it's not really sticky enough for a project like this, so I used a thin strip of double stick tape under the washi tape to make sure the cover is on securely.

 

When you open the cover, you find the infamous Queen of Hearts, and a teeny tiny deck of cards.

Remove the cards, and there's Alice, all crammed into too small a space.

Even though they're tiny, that's a full deck of cards. I'm holding them here so you can get a sense of scale:

 Hooray for the Tweedles (and Alice)!

For a complete list of supplies, click here!

More Alice

Here's the other Alice project I mentioned in my last post. I took a 2" chipboard cube and a couple of great Alice collage sheets and this is what happened: a little Alice trinket box. I used metal hinges for the lid, and a brad for the front closure. (I clipped the prongs off the brad and attached it with E6000 glue.)

Back image:

When you open the box, you find the instigator of the madness that was Alice's trip down the rabbit hole: the White Rabbit himself. This tiny white rabbit used to be grey, but I painted him with gesso and gave him a nice red bow tie. He's inside a 1" chipboard box, which is supported by a tiny spool in order to give it the appearance of floating. Alice was living a relatively boring life up until she met the rabbit, which is why I made the inner box bright and colorful within the black and white interior of the larger sized box. Wouldn't you want to follow that rabbit too?

For a complete list of Alpha Stamps supplies, click here!

Alice at Tea

It's been too danged long since I made altered an Altoids tin. I had forgotten just how much I love doing that! Luckily this month at Alpha Stamps, it's all about Alice in Wonderland and tins, which is just the kick in the pants I needed.

I selected the perfect image of Alice at the tea party from this collage sheet, and then found fun papers that went well with the image. I removed the lid of my tin and covered it with the papers. Need some tips about this covering tins? Click here for my tutorial.

The base of the tin is made from letters from an old spelling game. The porcelain hand on top holds a tasty looking tart, and is surrounded by the White Rabbit's pocket watch and a key. I used Apoxie Sculpt to adhere these items.

The die cut cardboard insert with the Cheshire Cat on it is great for adding extra dimension. The details on the trees and cat were done with colored pencils, while the insert border was painted to match the color of the background paper I chose. I used a tiny brush to apply bright white paint to accent the cat's eyes and teeth. Here's a little closeup.

The figures from the collage sheet are attached to the back of the tin with foam dots to give the scene even more dimension. I used pink pom pom fringe because I liked the 50's sort of color vibe it added. 

I always like to make sure my tin backs looks good, too. I used the perfect crazy Alice-like patterned paper for the back. You can see here that the letter cubes are attached to a base of scrapbook paper-wrapped cardboard up under the tin. That's so the pom poms in the front don't hang down and obscure the letters.

More Alice art coming up, so check back soon! Meanwhile, for a complete list of supplies, click here.