A is for Alice, A Vintage Mum Project

My friend DeeDee threw down the creative gauntlet.  Her challenge, to create a "football" type mum that incorporates a vintage aspect or two.  Or more.  I accepted that challenge.  And here is what I created for my swap partner Brook.

For Halloween a few years ago, Brook's son went as the Mad Hatter, so I thought that she might be somewhat fond of Alice in Wonderland.  Since I had recently found a vintage copy of the book at an Estate Sale, that was what I decided to go with.  I love AIW as well, so this was allot of fun to create.

Using several of the books pen and ink images, I began to lay out the shape I wanted.  I knew I wanted to have white roses (that had been painted partially red, as Alice did in the book), rather than a mum.  I could not find the roses that I wanted, so I ended up using "soap roses" that I found at Dollar Tree.  With flat bottoms, they were easy to affix, and I just added some vintage velvet leaves.  I even included a paint brush with red paint on the brush end.  Alice at the top is affixed to the brush.

As the top began to take shape, with vintage playing cards, pages torn from the book and a letter "A" from tinsel, and characters from the book, the bottom streamers followed along.

I painted one streamer with red stripes and added a quote about painting the roses red.  I added a small Hatter hat (that had been a Christmas ornament), that I adorned with pink ribbon, a small feather, the tag that reads "in this style" and tiny hat pins.

I also made a streamer of playing cards.  Stamped a mylar streamer with the words, "though the looking glass".  I also created a streamer from punched hearts out of the book pages.

Details, I wanted loads of details.  On one streamer, I added a small vintage bottle and created the tag that read, "Drink Me".  After attaching it to the streamer, I added the description from the book of what the drink tasted like.

I even added a tiny tea cup, with a wee Hatter illustration.

I had orginally planned to stop at Alice and her paint brush.  But it felt like it needed more at the top, so I added the red heart doily, and then the book pages, then the cards and the rabbit...and it just kept...growing... larger.

And it was good that it did.  The top seemed to small and now its a good balance for the bottom.

Here it is, all in one piece.

Thanks DeeDee for hosting a great swap that was allot of fun to participate in.

Now, I've got to get decorating for Christmas!