An Altered Alice Clock

The theme at Altered Alice this month is hearts. It's a bit late for Valentines, so here's an altered clock for your delectation :-)

"it's heart o'clock"

The original clock is one of those £1.99 jobbies from a famous Swedish furniture store. After taking apart and removing the paper clock face, the shell was decorated with Adirondack alcohol ink and gold mixative. To get into all those nooks and crannies, I stuck my hand in a plastic bag to stop it getting stained with ink and used it to dab an inked felt pad all over the plastic.

"The clock"

Some hammered gold card is decorated with the same ink colour combination and die cut into various gears which are fixed in place at different levels inside the clock using glossy accents and pinflair glue. A weathered clock chapter ring is also cut from the same card, and lots of small hearts punched from the waste. The hearts can be seen decorating the clock hands and any remaining are glued in with the gears.

I have to confess to going through four coloured versions of the rabbit before finally settling on this one! This original John Tenniel illustration  is printed on white card before colouring with distress inks and decorating with Perfect Pearls for plenty of shimmer to match the rest of the clock. He wears the chapter ring like a garland, and has a hole punched in the middle to hold the clock spindle and all the hands.

"Alice"

Images from Indigo Blu's "Alice I" set are stamped around the outside of the clock in black archival ink.

"Rabbit"

Stamping with an acrylic block doesn't really work on curves, so I just hold the inked stamps in my fingers and bend them onto the surface.

"Pendulum"

This heart is cast from UTEE melted in a melt pot and poured into a heart-shaped cookie cutter. A length of thin chain is wrapped around the heart and a layer of gold UTEE added to embed the chain into the heart, leaving one end of the chain at the top. A sentiment is stamped onto the heart with archival ink. A jump ring is added to the free end and used to join a length of thicker chain, which is attached to the back of the clock. A few charms hanging from the chain complete the decoration.

Ingredients:

IndigoBlu unmounted stamp set "Alice I"

Adirondack alcohol ink: watermelon

Adirondack alcohol ink mixative: gold

Ranger archival ink: black

Cardstock: gold, hammered for diecuts & white, stamping for rabbit print

Distress inks: Barn Door, Antique Linen, Scattered Straw

Perfect Pearls: Gold

Adhesives: glossy accents, pinflair dimensional glue

UTEE: clear, gold 

thin chain, thick chain, jump rings, beads

I nearly forgot, here's a pair of earrings to match :-)

"Alice Earrings"

Entered for the following challenge:
Altered Alice - hearts

Picture Frame

Back to "normal" today (whatever that is!). After all those Christmas cards, it's great to get out some non-Christmassy stash for a play. This week's theme for Simon Says Stamp and Show is "Something Old, Something New", so what better than some altered art to kick off the new year?

"Altered picture frame"

A plain wooden picture frame was sanded and the edges coloured with Pine Needles distress ink.

"Left hand view"

The faces were covered with panels cut from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante paper pad, the edges sanded and distressed with more ink.  Individual images were cut, shaped with an embossing tool and adhered to the panels with Pinflair glue. A couple of butterflies were added; their wings shaped up and just the centres of their bodies glued. The image on centre panel was decoupaged for extra depth.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... something old something new (old frame, new papers)

Altered Dressing Table Set

This dressing table set started out life as a £2 wooden box from a sale, a 99p alarm clock from Ikea and a small hardback journal that was lying around the craft room...

"Altered Dressing Table Set"

Matching Tim Holtz papers were used to cover each piece before distressing the edges with ink and decorating with stamps, lace and charms.

"Altered box"

I was careful to match the papers on the edges of the box to the top, so that the design flowed around it. Similarly, stamps cover the joins where the box opens.

"Top of box"

The paper for the top of the box was positioned to show off the fabulous dream bird in the top right, and the stamp "In dreams we catch glimpses of life larger than our own" used just above the bird. I'm really pleased how that part turned out. The lower edge is stamped with various meadow grasses and all sorts of other stamps, mostly from Tim Holtz' sets, were used to create a scene. It was all stamped with Pumice Stone distress ink, which gives a lovely, soft effect on the pretty papers.

"Side of box"

The sides were decorated too...

"Back of box"

...and even the back :)

"Journal"

Well, a girl needs a nice journal by the bed to jot down all those crafty ideas! The lace makes a handy disguise for the join in the papers.

"Alarm clock"

Most people need an alarm clock - keep it on the dressing table and you have to get out of bed to turn it off! I couldn't resist this in Ikea at 99p - it started out as boring, plain, white plastic. Luckily, there is a circle in the new Sizzix framelits set that makes a hole exactly the right size for the clock face.

"Two minute gift tag"

Last, but not least, a quick matching gift tag made from a bit of left-over paper.

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon says stamp and show some upcycling / recycling
If the Shoe Fits Scrap It try something new
Crafty Ribbons anything but a card
Stampavie and more - anything goes