CHAPTER 1: Changing Form/Feb 2011 Challenge--Week 1

"Alice crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.

It was so long since she had been anything near the right size, that it felt quite strange at first; but she got used to it in a few minutes, and began talking to herself, as usual. `Come, there's half my plan done now! How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another!"

-- Chapter 5, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Well, just like Alice we have been through quite a few changes! But our familiar Alice challenges have arrived safely in at their new home, The Altered Alice blog, although in a new monthly form.

To reflect all these changes, the challenge is to make something that features a dress form, OR to make something that changes in form! While it is not required that your project include Alice in Wonderland, we do encourage it. If your project features Wonderland you will get two chances in the prize drawing instead of one, and what a prize it is!

STAMPOTIQUE ORIGINALS is sponsoring our first challenge with a generous $30 gift certificate, and their fabulous design team is going to play along!

Here is my project to inspire you:

My first project as Design Team member is a dimensional one. The idea came about as a combination of items just fell in place. The modified shadow box was made from a kit from Club Scrap. It was the monthly project from a few months ago, which I never got a chance to work on. The paper dolls were a gift to me from my sister who knows I love Alice. Combining these items, my Alice image stamps and sentiments, and some related ephemera, I created an Alice lover's wall hanging. How does this relate to the challenge? There are images of Alice in various sizes, and the whole idea of paper dolls is to change the clothing. Most of the ephemera relates to Alice changing in size. What is hard to see from the photos is the contents of the shadow box area. Inside, there is an image of the Mad Hatter in the background, a glass bottle with the "Drink Me" tag, and a crown.

Now let me explain how this new monthly challenge works:

1st Sunday of the month: The new challenge will be posted with the link tool, and a few of the design team samples will be posted.

2nd Sunday: Additional design team samples will be posted.

3rd Sunday: The last of the design team samples will be posted.

Last Sunday of the month: A winner will be announced and some of your projects may be given an "honorable mention".

We are starting a week early with the February challenge because we didn't want to leave you with a gap, so we will spread the design team samples over four weeks and the winner will be announced on February 27th. You have a whole month to submit your creations, so we are hoping that a lot more of you will decide to play along!

Enter your links on The Altered Alice before 8 p.m. EST (GMT - 5) on Friday, February 25th. A winner will be announced on Sunday, February 27th. Check back at The Altered Alice each Sunday between now and then for more inspiration!