Paint Party Friday: Altered Alice

"Alice"

Altered Cook Book with vintage ephemera 

Happy PPF!

I brought my new book to the party . . . 

It all started a few years ago with an Alice in Wonderland inspired quilt that I bought from an artisan who, like most of us, was also an art supply and ephemera hoarder. Thankfully for me, she was selling some of her old junk er, vintage collectables, and I got to take said blanket home.

The perfect opportunity to use it came when I decided to try and capture the Lewis Carroll tale by creating an altered book in Alice's honor. I thought it could be cool to tackle the project from the perspective of a child of that era, as if she had put the book together herself. I used both vintage materials and modern clip art and did my best to blend the two. This is what we came up with:

Page One

Packing tape transfer peeks out from the back of a piece of the quilt featuring that famous Rabbit

Page Two

The vintage letter asking for a "play date" that gave me the idea

Tucked into an envelope and guarded by an altered tag attached with a child's bobby pin

Page Three

Here I used a vintage photograph, bingo card and pages from the book itself

Page Four

A pretty napkin that I stole from my Mom used as an accent

Page Five (my favorite)

Mad Hatter multiplied 

Page Six

The Queen's silhouette added to an old mini playing card

Last Page

I added another vintage photograph - this one representing our girl as she grows up - put in a frame enhanced with silver leaf

That's it! It's a lotta pictures I know, thanks for hanging in there with me . . . 

See you at the party,

Kristin xo

Sunday Postcard Art: "Quirky"

"Fabulous"

4 x 6 Postcard

Okay, um, sorry about the unexplained absence: I didn't expect to be away for so long, but I can't think of a better reason for return than to play guest host over at Sunday Postcard Art. This week's challenge is to create a piece of postcard-sized art with the theme of "Quirky" in mind. . . .

If my little Alice-inspired lady looks familiar, it's because she was influenced by this piece I created earlier in the year. I love playing with the varied eye shapes (and colors) and thought she would look rather fetching with the Mad Hatter hat that I found in my collage stash. Once that was placed on her head, the rest of it - including the tiny Alice silhouette as an earring - all seemed to come together. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit and thank you to Mandy & Donna for making me feel so welcome at  Sunday Postcard Art. I'd love to see what you do with the "Quirky" theme; why not give it a try? 

"Certain aspects of my personality are always going to come out on-screen. 

I guess that's just me - if they say I'm quirky, I'm quirky. It's better than being boring." 

-- Zooey Deschanel

I'll see you there,

Kristin xo

SPA: No. 1

"That there ought!"

4 x 6 Postcard

I had a lot of fun with this week's theme - No. 1 - at Sunday Postcard Art. It's been a while since I've done any collage, and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to get out some of my Alice sheets and play . . .

"That there Ought" started life as a piece of painted card stock that was first treated with a Gesso Relief technique (you can go here to see it first hand). To that, I placed several #1 stickers over the surface and used them as a mask for bright green acrylic. Once peeled off, I added images From Alice in Wonderland that spoke to me and enhanced them with white gel pen. Final touches included a border of bold paint pens to create a scallop (still into them from last week ;), colored pencil, black ink and two forms of glitter. The quote reads, "There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I'll write one."

Thanks for your time! I look forward to seeing all of your "No. 1" postcards this week . . . 

Kristin xo