Was Lewis Carroll a secret crafter?–an Alice in Wonderland Altered Tin

Was Lewis Carroll a secret crafter?–an Alice in Wonderland Altered Tin

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Becoming a professional crafter has changed my life. Monday mornings? Couldn’t be better! Daily commute? No sweat! I. Love. My. Job.

Admittedly though, it has made me a little odd. I am often going out in public with dyed blue fingers or traces of glitter in my hair. And seriously, who besides me makes frantic dashes to the dollar store before it closes for the night in order to buy cheap dolls to dismember?

Ummmm…Apparently several of you. When I asked fellow Alpha Stamps Design Team Members that question, more than one had done the same thing. One, who shall remain nameless, coughTristancough had bought 12.

Scary.

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This is not the first time I have dismembered body parts in the name of crafting…

The public has sometimes questioned if Lewis Carroll’s odd storytelling was due to psychedelic drug use–I have a different theory–maybe he was secretly into crafting.

Ok, probably not. Instead of crafting, he produced art by weaving fantastical stories. Whether famous or not, those of us who use our creative brains on a daily basis begin seeing life through different filters than the rest of the world. Sometimes those filters seem a little askew fucking nuts to the perfectly manicured people of the world.

At this time, me and my raggedy manicured blue fingers would like to introduce you to my altered Altoid Alice in Wonderland Tin. This tin depicts the scene when Alice grew too big for the White Rabbit’s House.

Below is the front of the house. The White Rabbit is checking his watch, the lizard (shhhh, don’t let on it’s really a frog) is climbing the ladder to retrieve Alice and the Cheshire Cat is looking on.

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To make the ladder that the lizard frog is on, I first altered, then painted the teeny tiny fence from Alpha Stamps Mini Ducklings and Fence Set.

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All is quiet at the back of the house. Inside, however, is a different story. Alice, having taken a bite of the cake on the table, has grown bigger than the living room.

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Damn those calories and what it does to our thighs!

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I made Alice’s shoes from an old high-heeled Barbie shoe from my childhood. I simply cut off the heel. I altered what was a blue mini skirt that came with the doll so it instead reached a modest length. Then I cut some eyelet fabric from one of my daughter’s childhood dresses to make Alice’s apron.

The furnishings all came from Alpha Stamps Collage Sheets. You can find a supply list with easy-access links here. The  wood flooring is actually made from the pages image in the Looking Glass Hidden Book Box Part 1 Collage Sheet  that I then colored with a marker. The only supplies that didn’t come from Alpha Stamps were the plastic packaging, Beacon Adhesive Fabri-Tac, matte medium and some acrylic paint.

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As you can see, I attached clear plastic packaging to keep the furniture upright.

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To make the chandelier, I threaded wire through three Vitrail Bell Flowers, braided them together and threaded the wires through an antique filigree, all available from Alpha  Stamps.Alice-Tin-by-Paper-Calliope-121141

Altered tins remain one of my favorite art projects. There’s something about the imposed limitations of size and materials that make them an especially fun project. Well, that, and dismembering body parts…

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