Go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall! (Caardvarks Challenge)

"I'm late! I'm late, for a very important date!"

Two more days to participate in the Caardvarks Challenge: "A tall order!"

When I heard that this challenge was a tall card challenge, the song lyric "Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall" jumped into my head and stayed there. This loverly image of Alice is from Mo's Digital Pencil & it's aptly named Alice in pencil because it's such a nice soft rendering:

Can that Mo can draw or what?!

Sorry for the convoluted "tutorial"--(if you can even call it a tutorial!) :-D I changed my mind about the 'style' during the messing about process...

1...the Caardvarks Challenge
2...embellishing Alice (with stamping & stitching)
3...digital freebies (Photoshop brush link & background elements)
& a sheer crackle background

Clickable pic (for close-up):

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Tall card challenge

Sponsored by Niki Sivils, Scrapbooker
Niki & her team have some amazing work on her blog!

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...embellish a digital image
(with stamping/embossing resist & stitching)

• Alice in Pencil (rendered by Maurie Manning-Mo's Digital Pencil)
• printed on Neenah white cardstock
• Alice in Wonderland/miscellaneous background stamps
• Versamark, Clear embossing powder, & heat gun
• Water colour crayons, water, & paintbrush
• Sandpaper/sanding block
• Copic markers
• Paper piercer, thread, & needle
  

Step 1} Print 'Alice in Pencil' & heat set her with a heat gun (helps prevent smudging of printer ink.)



Step 2} Emboss over Alice in clear ink & embossing powder. (These are a bunch of Alice in Wonderland stamps I had, but in the end they just add subtle texture, so you could use any old stamp you like!)



Step 3} Trim away paper (not necessarily with cuts that match the edge of your paper, but with cuts that match your stamping (if there are lines in your stamp like there were in mine--keeps you from having to stamp straight--I still find that so tricky!)

Hopefully, this picture will give you an idea of the texture you can get with the clear embossing over the digital image:

click the pic if you're wondering what I'm ranting about ;o)


The texture shows up more vividly when you add colour...



Step 5} Colour Alice--I coloured the background with watercolour crayons & a damp brush:

but as you can see by the finished card, I wasn't happy with my colour choices, so I just cut Alice out.

Before cutting Alice out...



Step 6} Sand the embossing (if you'd like a more matte look.) Leave it if you want it shiny, of course.



Step 7} Add some deep bold colours with Copic markers, if you like. They'll also let you tint the clear embossing a little.



Step 8} Pierce & stitch areas of the image. I did a cross stitch on her hem & white faux french knots on her apron:



At first (until I decided it was sm'ugly) I was stitching the background...

Before I hacked it all up, I pierced & stitched a horizon line both sides in brown stitch, but then I cut the side stitching off (with it still intact on the cardstock) and used it as an embellishment on the left side of the card:

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Backgrounds (sized to fit a tall card for a
#10 envelope 4-1/8" x 9-1/2")

Wonderland King & Queen (mirrored) PDF
Wonderland King & Queen (mirrored) JPG

To get the mirror effect (so it was sufficiently tall), I just flipped the image & used the brush a second time more translucently)

Then, to get this weird (very distressed & sheer) cracked glass effect,
I did this schtuff:

A) Printed the image on neenah white cardstock & heat set it
B) Distressed the edges with ink & Covered the printed image in Versamark
C) Applied clear embossing powder over the wet Versamark (any clear e.p. should work--a nice thick coat)
D) Heat set the embossing powder with a heat gun
E) Repeat the process to get a thick layer of clear embossing
F) Ran the image under water to get the paper wet (to rub it off the back & make the image sheet)
G) When rubbing the paper off the back, the embossing powder layer cracked & tore a little
H) To remedy that, I just stuck it all down with strong glue & set it under a stack of books to dry flat (in clear plastic to prevent it sticking to the books

Can you tell there was no method to my madness? Don't you love messing about?

If you'd like tall turquoise text paper,
just print this on white cardstock:

Carroll's handwriting PDF
Carroll's handwriting JPG

It's a paragraph from the first page of the book in Carroll's handwriting--
from Wikimedia commons here (turned into a Photoshop brush)

More Alice Resources:

The king & queen background is made with these Fantastic (free) Photoshop brushes by olliesan --Direct link here) Don't use photoshop or gimp? Here are the illustrations in jpg: click galleries in list at bottom for Tenniel images

Thank You so much for dropping
down the rabbit hole to visit!