Celebrating The Mad Hatter with Twinkles

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
You know the song, perhaps?'
`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.
`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle--"'
-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

At The Altered Alice we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day twice a year as the date is taken from the price on his hat - ten schillings and a sixpence or 10/6. That means it is on October 6 here in the United States, and on June 10 in the United Kingdom. But mainly it is just a great reason to party with the Mad Hatter twice a year! Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

My project this month is the Hatter's tea cup made from a Sizzix Bigz die run through my Big Shot. Because there were no layering features, I cut the cup several times and added layers of DP from the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland stack and also popped the rims and handle. Instead of using the saucer from the die, I substituted my Oval Nesties to more easily layer that as well. The Hatter Stamp is on the Alice II set from our fabulous sponsor this month, IndigoBlu. I've added a small bat brad and gem to the center of the clock and a black rosette made from a Tim Holtz die and Stickled around the edges for some "twinkle".

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessential English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are huge!
I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout! Thanks Alfie!

On the tea bag tag I've added a glittered bat cut from a large EK Success border punch and another gem for more sparkle.

The frame was cut twice using my Nesties Fleur di Lis Squares from adhesive Fun Foam and stuck together to hold the wire for my purple glittered flying bats. These were also trimmed from the border punch, run through my Xyron and sprinkled with Doodlebug Sugar Coating.

They were backed in black for a shadow effect and WooHoo, more gems! "Twinkle, twinkle" little bats..." Be sure to stop by The Altered Alice for more inspiration from the DT and welcome Retta as a permanent member. She, Tracy and I make up the first week's offerings. We have new ones every week so don't forget to pop in every to The Altered Alice every Sunday. October is a long month with five Sundays, so you'll have no excuse not to join us in our Mad Tea Party celebrating Mad Hatter Day, US style! Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Just make sure YOUR watch is not two days slow! Go get your "Alice" on!

I also entering this in The Corrosive Challenge Blog Purple Passion challenge, the Forever Night anything Goes Challenge, and the new ABC Anything Goes Challenge where my dear friend, Leah, is a new Design Team member. WooHoo, Leah and the newly relaunched ABC Challenges!

A Haunting We Will Go (Making a Scene for Macabre Monday)

This week at Haunted Design House we're "making a scene" with the help of some fabulous images from this week's sponsor, Make it Crafty. Here's an opportunity to do some serious coloring! Mine was with Copics, of course. I had a ball making a shadow box card using the Haunted Halloween House as the back drop. The window frames were cut with my Nesties Grand Labels One.

Looking on is the adorable Mini Frankenstein. He's available on his own, or part of the MonztaBoyz collection. Trust me, you'll want them ALL! He was a bit of a challenge to fussy cut, but I managed with my trusty Exacto knife.

The little diva is Mini Morticia. And yup, she's got some gal pals too in the MonztaGalz collection. Don't they make a cute couple?

I've completed the scene by using a variety of MS punches including Spooky Fence, Spider Web, Graveyard and Drippy Goo, and popped them from the window frames for added depth. I've used Alpha Beads to spell out my title and some music note brads so you can all be singing this little song all day. HeeHee! If you'd love to sin some Make It Crafty images of your own, bop by Haunted Design House and grab some additional mojo from the Minions and come on and play along. I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Challenge Blog Punches and Dies challengeand the Paper Sundaes Anything Goes challenge

Macabre Monday P.M.S Challenge

This week our challenge at Haunted Design House is P.M.S. Heck, what do I know about PMS. It's been 10 years since I've ridden the crimson wave, but hot flashes? Yeah, I'm your GAL! Actually P.M.S stands for Psychotic Miss Silver. Your project should feature a whacked out chick and the color silver. No problem! I found my fabulous images on the web by Googling "Woman Screaming" and "Bloody Knife". Yeah, Baby! I'm particularly fond of the woman screaming. LOVE that perspective, and haven't we all been stressed enough that we even screamed through our eyes? But finish off my chocolate and you're taking you life in your hands. My silver is foil and I've crunched it to look like a chocolate wrapper beneath the sentiment and as a mat.

I cut the image with my Nesties Wonky Rectangles and backed it with additional cuts and popped them for dimension. Lots of fun, this one. The rest of the Minions had a blast with this as well. Please check them out HERE and don't forget Creepy Glo's post on Wretched Wednesday for mid week treat. I know this is a subject familiar (if not dear) to every woman's heart, so I can't wait to see your interpretation of the theme. Don't forget to link your project back to our challenge so EVERYONE can play along. I'm also adding it to The Corrosive Challenge Blog Funny or Punny Challenge (I think it's funny!)