Frilly and Funkie Challenge #8; March Madness...Follow the White Rabbit!

             March has actually blown past us now, but at                         The Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog , you'll find several great takes on a "March Madness" theme that has us all -oddly enough- working forward in April.  )  Oops! You just missed the Cheshire Cat, but it seems he did leave a hint of his smile back up there. He's a sneaky LARGE thing! And from here on out; you'll just have to keep a look out for him in this project.  I tried to keep a hold on him in here, but, you know how that goes. 

 In all honesty; Alice In Wonderland has never been one of my favorites in the Disney Productions. I've always been a pure Mickey Mouse fan. Part of that old Original Mickey Mouse Club, and all THREE versions of the Club Song. Pluto and Minnie come in very close there, also. And, while it does seem kind of strange that I'm usually the one in the group of Crafters who is singing "I'm late! I'm late; for a very important date! No time to say 'Hello, Good-Bye,'! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!". Alice and her gang of strange tunnel fellows were just never on my list of "Must See Movies". I do know what it's about, however, and have a few folks I know of who are VERY fond of AIW- one is our Younger Daughter, the English Edu. Teacher up in Red Wing. And because of that; this is the one who will receive this little board-book surprise...if she'll have it! It was a very fun make and I went a bit overboard on my original "keep it simple" idea. But, oh well.      )     The Cat again!!!

            Let's "Follow The White Rabbit" down the hole and see where he takes us...

I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as the theme came out.

It was all a matter of finding all the printouts I wanted that would match what I 

would 'morph' them into. As a photographer who works with pixels, colors, light, 

and basically graphics in general; I have a very wide and deep file of already saved

art to choose from, as well as free printouts available as close as the keyboard.

give me endless refills on my Canon Printer (the only kind I will buy-

currently a Pixma with separate refillable tanks for each color), and I used

to go through a new one every year for the time my boys were in school.

I helped head up a Volunteer List of Moms for the Student Council, Faculty, & Staff,

 taking pics of the kids and using photography for any kind of educational use for the kids. 

So I know my way around a computer and programs, graphics, etc.

It can be as easy as just "cloning" to remake a line appear in another spot,

or as complicated as making an item fit to scale.

And don't forget Copyrights. Selling another's idea is a big NO-NO.

For the simple reason that our family has always been blessed with The LORD'S provision;

I've never taken payment for anything. As long as my ChiefHubby shelled out;

I produced as I physically could. And it's been quite a wild ride which has yet to end!! 

*NOTE* Printer ink will run if it's wet- even after drying it overnight (which I do).

To avoid this: keep your hands dry, and while Tim Holtz's Distress items CAN

be used easily; be sure to heat dry after each coat.

Glossing over with sealer is not usually workable, but if you want to seal it;

the best way is to use clear contact paper covering over it and THEN

add embellishment items. Clear Glossy Accents works very well for embellies!

Choosing a couple of free printouts was easy once I found card shaped posters!

Not all of the sizes matched up, so that's where making things to scale comes in.

Then, I needed some firm boards (I used my usual Mat Board from my still-tall pile)

and 2 of them easily made a front and a back for this 'board book' with each mat board

having 2 printouts for the front and back. Using a strong light can help match up the prints

by holding them up to the light and lining up the edges as closely as possible to the

ones that are already the same size. 

I used my Glider Tape gun to adhere the cardstock prints, leaving the edges on 

one side of each to meet in the middle for the book's spine.

Next- after all the trimming was done as closely as possible, I sanded the edges with my

TH sanding block. Then distressed it in matched-up Distress Paint on the edges

all around the outside in "GOLD" (probably the oldest bottle of TH Dpaint still around),

and my fave Distress Inks in regular Vintage Photo and Pumice Stone. Then heated all.

I found these stacks at a Tuesday Morning and fell in love with the shimmer

(but glitter-less!) texture and strength of this cardstock.

It served very well for the tea cups cut with the Sizzix Die,

as well as for the printed-pattern, fussy cut top hat of the Mad Hatter.

Those familiar with this tea cup die will notice that they are about half

as thick as the cut is supposed to be.

I merely cut the fronts & backs of the cups as usual, and then hand bladed

the middle piece HALF the usual size that holds the front and back together.

This resulted in a thinner stacking tea cup.

While the Mad Hatter 10/6 card was not very visible with the tea cups in front,

I still wanted as much detail -both front facing AND back facing- as possible.

This long-stashed-away clear stamp set still had the original package unopened!

So I got it out and used it to make the backside of the card look realistic.

Getting the card to really 'work' was one of my usual tricks; I make a small sample

of what I want to do and keep at it until it does what I want it to do.

I call that "LylaDetermination" aka

"If it won't work...work it till you make it work."

Sidenote: Alice here was a sample since the lines are still showing on her.

I'd gone in and worked her over a bit until she had no lines on her,

 and looked a bit pixel-sweeter.

Here's where we come to the fun part: the tiny deck of cards!

Ooooh! I so loved those as a kid and I think I even still have a couple of tiny decks around!

I remember buying them in bulk for the boys' class Holiday Parties since I was a Room Mother

every year also...(WHERE did I get the energy and time?!? And the physical stamina to still

handle all that with getting sick all the time?! I must be gettin' OLD... ER!)

                                                                        Anyway...
             You can see where I found a free printable deck online and sized it to what I wanted.
    I used the PrintMaster GOLD for this- on Windows 10 system. Very easy program for anyone!
                  The Soldier Cards are also free (via a Crafter who shared them specifically for
                                helping to make your own...I LOVE that about Crafters!!!),
                        and the Hooka….I just KNOW my kids are gonna give me the
                 what-the-heck-how-does-mother-know-how-to-fashion-her-own-hooka,
                                                but a Crafter does what she's gotta do.
               So I found a photo that wasn't "vectored" (copyright owned and watermarked)
         of the Walt Disney World daylight Parade (my own photos are mostly of all the Electric Light Parades since who wants to stand around in the heat for a parade...
             unless- of course- it's you very own Marching Band kids (3 of our 4 adult kids)
      in the WDW Parade (& 2 marched on the Indy 500 track before the 2010 race, also!)….
                                                                    ANYWAY!!!
               I took that photo and freehand cropped the hooka from the parade float of  AIW.
                 Then I Glider Taped it to the color of shimmer cardstock and just kept cutting
                            layers until I got all I wanted to add pop-dots to fill it out with.
       The TH Heart Punch, and a pair of heart hand punchers got the heart decorations just right.

Cutting the tiny deck of cards apart,

and then I mixed them up and staggered them to make them random.

Set aside about 10 of them for the ones that will be at the very bottom falling on Alice's floor.

Divide the rest of the deck in half...

Then using some floral green wire; 26 guage;

4 pieces twisted together for good measure, as well as some 'bounce',

run the Glider Tape over the wire all the way from top to bottom...

and simply start randomly layering cards from one half of the deck;

turn over the entire thing and retape another row of Glider Tape

(I actually made three runs to cover the cards on

both sides of the wire as well as the wire itself.)

Now it's ready to adhere the bottom to Alice's lap and the top into the top tea cup.

Hare it is; Follow the White Rabbit!

The Front Side of the board book...

… and the Back Side of the book.

Popped open!

A few curiouser and curiouser closeups... 

The charms were from a Bestie- a stash of jewelry she gave me for junk stash.

The TH Clock Hands are on the TH PocketWatch and Key Chain instead on on the clock's face.

Bottle made from clear scrap trash covering & cork stock,

with TH Alterations Apothecary Die,

free printouts made tiny scale,

and a middle fussy cut plastic played with TH Alcohol Ink in Salty Ocean

by coating extra layers onto the bottom half as I went downward

from the top of the plastic with only one layer of ink.

Made it look like the potion 'settled' down on the bottom of the bottle.

The incriminating hooka we thought was so cool in the late 60s and early 70s..

who knew our kids would have one just for a 'cool collectors item'?!

Are we THAT old??

I cut two Alices and 'pop-dotted' her arms, face and lower body to make her

appear to be surprised and suddenly bending down

to try to contain all the cards landing onto her lap.

Anyone notice those "spears" are real finger food spears from my kitchen?

This perspective is given of the book closing; you can see the detailed backside of everything.

The 2 Knaves trying to get away!

Extra tickets that I printed out and used my TH reg Alterations Strip Die Tickets.

The group of tickets were actually stacked together with many others.

I chose which ones I wanted by cropping and repositioning onto a template

I created just for making my own personal Tim Tickets!

I've made event tickets, Happy Birthday tix, and even Wedding tix; all personalized.

This was a VERY fun project- despite not caring too much for poor Alice. lol!

*UPDATE 4-11-2019

Due to being distracted by medical testing;

this VIDEO was mistakenly left out of the original posting...

Here's another SHOUTOUT of THANKS! for all the WONDERFULLY NICE

things folks have to say about my past projects- and the Top Pick on that last 

Frilly and Funkie Challenge!!

BIG THANKS always goes to the Design Team who put in quite a bit of time

and effort to keep the rest of us inspired to create our craft!!

There's always fun to be had when there's a PRIZE being dangled from

The Funkie Junkie Boutique

the Sponsor -and super store of every craft need!

Anyone can join in- no matter if you're talented... or challenged as I was here!

Please feel free to check out the rest of the projects as there is no limit to

the inspiration that comes from creating and sharing together!

THANKS! for checking in once again;

Be Safe &

HAPPY BLOGGING!!