Wonderland Box - Altered Eclectics Challenge

It's a brand new month which means a brand new Anything Goes Challenge at Altered Eclectics. If you have been following my blog, you know that I have been altering playing cards into fun atcs following a course, The Spoken Soul, that I took with Mary Jane Chadbourne. What you may not know is that I took a second course with her in order to make a home for these altered cards. The focus of Mary Jane's second course, House of Cards, was similar to the first in that it used layer upon layer of colour and papers plus wonderful collage to tell a story. I will not go through all of the steps out of respect for Mary Jane's  copyright but I will happily show you the end result.

I started with a plain kraft coloured papier mache box with a removable lid (the roof)  which I found at Michaels. The entire box was covered in torn papers which are very visible on the roof section. Layers of watercolour, gelatos, Big Brush pen and Distress ink were used to build up colour and achieve a gradient effect. Stamping and stencilling as well as inky rings were added to create the background. I just kept adding colour and texture until I liked what I saw. Then I started fussy cutting images...and fussy cutting....and...you get the idea.

Front

 The masonite windows come from Retro Cafe Art and this one has a moon face peering out.

 The door is a piece of chipboard covered with stamped DP. The handle is a blingy brad with a metal rim and the key is metal. The images are from various Etsy sources.

Right Side

White Rabbit on his hurried journey

The DoDo is peeking out this window. The border is from Tumble Fish Studio.

  The clock is a metal sticker, and the gloves and fan are from the internet.

Back

 The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

 The cards on the roof  and the tickets came from Vectoria Designs' Etsy shop. The Word Band is from Idea-ology.

 The tiny letter chips are from Doodlebug Designs.

Left Side

 The queen and her gardener who is painting the roses as fast as he can.

 You can see Absolom, the butterfly, on the chimney.  He has a straight pin body and a bead head. The March Hare is peering out the window which is covered with Glossy Accents to create a shine for the glass.

 The words were made on the Dymo Labeller. The little rose is metal and has a pearl center.

 The feet were made from wooden checkers painted black and dotted with Viva Decor pen. The ball parts are wooden doll heads which are flat on the bottom so they could be adhered to the checkers upside down. They were painted with blue and  green acrylic paint wet on wet to blend them.

 The inside was watercoloured and then stamped with blue ink script, green ink harlequin and white gesso splotches.

This is a view of the top of the roof. You can see the collaged papers through the colour. All edges were darkened with black Big Brush pen to frame the inside and create contrast to show off the architecture of Mr. Rabbit's house.

There you have it...the new home for my altered playing cards. It was a delight to complete this project. I enjoyed every step of the process. If you get a chance to take a course from the wonderful Mary Jane Chadbourne, snap it up. She teaches each summer at Artful Gathering, an online retreat, and is such a generous, creative woman and fabulous teacher. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you made it this far through this long photo heavy post, congratulations and a giant hug from me. If you get a chance, pop by the Altered Eclectics blog to see the amazing creations from the rest of the talented team. It's worth the trip.I'd love to see what you have been up to...why not link up?

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie