Down the Rabbit Hole

At last we are back to normal following our disastrous holiday: not only have we replaced the car but two large boxes of our possessions were delivered this afternoon and I feel complete once more! The things I have missed most were all my dance instruction cards - fortunately stored on the computer so I've been reprinting as required when I've been teaching over the past three weeks - and my beloved SLR digicamera. It was a wrench leaving it behind, but those two boxes weighed 36 kilogrammes, or 75 lb....very nearly the maximum allowed for two air passengers! I don't know the weight of the suitcases we brought home by train but it was more than enough to persuade me that I could manage without my camera for a short time.

And in anticipation of its arrival I made this birthday card yesterday for my niece.

She produces her work's annual pantomime each December and this year it is to be based on Alice in Wonderland (I have been asked to choreograph the Lobster Quadrille which will open Act 2 - a considerable challenge compared to my usual dancers). I've always loved the book with its classic illustrations by Sir John Tenniel and have quite a lot of rubber stamps so decided to make a card incorporating as many as possible. I first thought of doing a neverending card like this one but the largest stamps were a bit too big for use on an 8" square card, and increasing the overall size would have made it unwieldly. I went for a 3 panel card instead, using as the base two 7"x5" blanks stuck together.

All the stamps were from whole plate sheets bought from an American eBay seller called Red Eowyn about 5 years ago and are the best reproductions I've come across - I'd like to get some more in the same series but she doesn't seem to be selling at present (ETA: Not on eBay, but she has a website). Because they look just like the book illustrations they didn't need colouring after being stamped with Versafine Black Onyx but I then added the quotes using red Versafine. It was fun using words out of context - I was particularly pleased with the 'No room!' for the Dormouse being stuffed head first into the teapot :) The brads on the greetings page were newly purchased just a couple of weeks back.

The page with the greetings panel opens to reveal two more illustrations.

And the back has a back view of Alice as well as my logo. Now I just have to hope that D doesn't read my blog.