Oh no,
it looks like Hatter has stolen the Queen’s sleigh and she doesn’t look happy
about it. Of course, she’s never happy
about anything. Isn’t it a beautiful
sleigh all decked out for the holidays pulled by 4 flamingo reindeer. Flamingo reindeer make more sense to me
because at least flamingos fly!
The
fish driver better watch out as the Queen is apt to make him supper.
There
is Hatter pontificating on something; in love with the sound of his own voice.
Of
course in Wonderland tea pours itself, oh the magic of Glossy Accents!
The
Dormouse is peeking out of his door wondering what all the fuss is about.
The Cheshire
Cat is looking festive in his hat and the Caterpillar is as inscrutable as
always sitting on a mushroom.
There’s
the Queen climbing the playing card steps but I think it is too late as the
flamingo reindeer are already in the air.
INSPIRATION – From one
of my other pieces
A few
months ago my niece Hana and sister Lee asked me if I would help with Hana’s
birthday party (which was Mad Hatter themed) by creating artwork for the
party. The main piece I created was a
centerpiece (see below).
The
sleigh project is just a reinterpretation of the large center piece I created
for Hana’s Birthday. The
card staircase is made using chess pieces.
The cards are the large ones in the new digital image set. All of the characters are from my older Alice image
sets.
The hat
and teapot are made of paper mache. The
cups and saucers were clear plastic that I sprayed with plastic spray paint and
applied rub-ons. I used chipboard swirls
for the handles. Once again I used the
Glossy Accents trick to make the tea pouring out of the teapot.
Lots of
E6000 glue holds everything together. I
found the crooked candlestick online and it worked perfectly as a way to
suspend the teapot. For the sleigh I
made my own crooked candlesticks using bead caps, beads and filigree.
I also
made some umbrellas and signs for the outside plus something to jazz up the
party favors. The clock and hat are on the new collage sheet. The teacups are holding a bath bomb. The cup is silicone and can be used to bake a cupcake (another great find on the Internet).
I used
one of my umbrella templates (supersized) to make the umbrellas. The flamingo head is the same one on the new
collage sheet.

Smaller
versions of all of the images seen below are in my Alice image collections.
I even
made custom invitations for all of her party guests. The papers I used for both covering the books
and for the invitations are in the new Tea Party Alice digital image set.
The
hardest part of this project was that I live in Arizona and my sister and niece
are in Oregon. I had to make all of the
pieces here, pack them in my suitcases and then assemble and finish them once in
Oregon. Lots of work but it was a labor
of love! My sweet niece Hana pictured below.
NEW COLLAGE SHEET
& DIGITAL IMAGE SET
To go along with the sleigh project project, I’ve created a new Alice themed collage sheet and a companion
digital image set which includes all of the images on the collage sheet and
tons more. All of the image I used for the sleigh project (except for the Cheshire’s hat) came from the new Tea Party Alice collage sheet and image
set and from my older “We’re All Mad Here” collage sheet and “Wonderland”
digital image set.
This
sheet is filled with fun Alice inspired items.
Some of my favorite images are the umbrella with the pink flamingo
handle the red heart chair and the playing cards.
This set includes all of
the images found on the Tea Party Alice collage sheet plus an additional 39
images for a total of 66 images.
- Additional images
include:
- 7 unique patterned
papers in two sizes (12x12 and 6x6) for a total of 14 papers
- 8 large Alice standard
sized playing cards
- 3 additional mini
playing cards
- 4 playing card suit
bushes
- The Caterpillar
character
- Checkered pattern paper
with a center frame
- Down the Rabbit Hole
framed sign
- 4 colorful direction
signs
- A blank cream and red
bow tag
- A table
- An additional flamingo
handled umbrella
- An additional heart
chair
TUTORIAL - HOLIDAY SLEIGH
In the
tutorial below I’ll cover how I made the Alice themed Holiday Sleigh. At the bottom of the tutorial is the supply
lists and links to all of the Alpha Stamps products I used.


I
started by gluing 5 of the sleigh parts together (front, back, bottom, and sides). I did not attach the two scrollwork pieces at
this time. Next, I painted the parts of
the sleigh that were not being papered (scroll work and the inside of the
sides).
I also
painted the two separate scrollwork pieces.
One of
the best things about this kit is that it comes with a template that matches the
dimensions of the side of the sleigh.
Imagine, trying to cutout a piece of paper to fit the sides, while trying
to avoid all that scrollwork. With the
template it was a breeze to trace and cut paper for the sides.
Next, I
attached the paper and then attached the two separate scrollwork pieces.
I then
added paper to the front and the back pieces and to the inside bottom piece.
For the
ledge that the fish driver stands on, I used a narrow matchbox covered in
paper.
So that
the driver would stand, I glued a flat toothpick between the two sides of the
character. All of the characters in the
project are double sided so that they look the same from all angles.
Using
the matchbox as the ledge gave me something to poke the toothpick into. Below you can see the matchbox glued to the bottom front of the sleigh.
WREATHS
To decorate
the sides of the sleigh I made two wreaths (one for each side). I started by making a circle using wired pineneedle stems.
Next, I wrapped the
circles in rose ribbon braid. Then I
attached the flowers and mushrooms.
Lastly, I added the red heart stickpin and silver heart bead.
Once I
had the sleigh decorated with the wreath, I decided it needed one more touch and
added the Dresden crown with rhinestones.
After all it is the Queen’s sleigh so it needed a crown!
In
addition to the wreaths, I decorated the sleigh with ribbons and holly
berries. I also used part of a heartcupcake wrap to dress up the back of the sleigh.
TABLE
To make
the table I used two 1" wood blocks. I choose the blocks as they were a perfect fit for the sleigh. As legs and to make the table higher I used two wooden finials.
I glued
the blocks together, glued the finals to the blocks and then painted everything
white.
I
covered the blocks with white lace from my stash and wrapped the table with red
bow wired ribbon. On the top of the
table I added a piece of gold Dresden.
One of
the main pieces on the table is the pair of crooked candlestick holders. I started with the bead cap and glued the
first bead on at a slight angle. This is
definitely a job for E6000 glue. Once
the glue was dry, I added the next bead and so on until finally adding the
filigree to the top. It’s really
important to let the glue dry thoroughly between each piece before adding
another piece. When I was finished I
decided I needed a large surface on the bottom to glue to the table so I glued a flat back bead underneath the bead cap.
Lastly,
I glued the teapot at an angle on one of the candlestick holders and a candle
on the other. The candle is a piece of
plastic painted white and tipped with yellow paint. In the picture below, you see the two candlestick holders glued to the table on top of the piece of gold Dresden.
As you
can see from the picture above, I glued together a stack of plates and cups in
a staggered fashion, again using E6000. I
painted the cups and saucers bright colors using Patina Paints. Unfortunately the tea set I used is no longer
available but Alpha Stamps is now carrying other great options. Below are pictures of the options.
To make
the tea pouring into the cup I used Glossy Accents. On either a piece of rigid plastic or wax
paper dispense a ribbon of Glossy Accents.
The length depends on the distance between the spout of the teapot and
the top cup. I did a few so I could
choose which one to use. Once the Glossy
Accents is dry paint it with Alcohol Ink and glue it to the spout of the teapot
and presto you have tea.
The tea set
also came with a tray which I painted and then attached some sweet treats. The cake is made from two buttons. I removed the shanks then glued them together
to make the cake look more 3D.
Below you can see the finished decorated sleigh.
FLAMINGO REINDEER
I
started with a set of 4 chipboard reindeer (they come 8 in a set).

First, I painted them a pink shade that was close to the color of the flamingo head
images on the collage sheet. Next, I
rubbed them with Fire Brick Distress Ink to give the color more variation and
to add more of the color of the head image.
I then added gold stickers to serve as the harness and Dresden red hearts function as the saddles. I used Distressed Glitter Dust (Vintage Platinum) to give the antlers sparkle.
To
connect the reindeer together I cut two wooden dowels 2” long, painted them gold
and glued them in between each pair of reindeer.
Next, to
connect the reindeer pairs together, I used a wooden skewer (painted gold) that I glued underneath the dowels.
In
order to attach the reindeer to the sleigh and to make them fly, I used a piece
of balsa wood. I choose balsa wood
because it is easy to poke a hole in the soft wood. The hole is at an angle in the wood so that
the reindeer will tilt up as if flying.
To
attach reindeer to the sleigh I glued the balsa wood underneath the sleigh and the drivers ledge. The sleigh and drivers
ledge (made from the narrow matchbox) hides the balsa wood.
BASE OF BOOKS
To give
the piece more interest and height I decided to create a base from books. I have a large stash of old Reader’s Digest
Best Loved Books that I use for altered book projects.
I
started by covering the spines with torn and crumpled tissue paper (for
texture). I’m not going to go into
detail on this technique as I have covered it previously with a video tutorial.
Next, I
painted the spines, one green and one gold. I rubbed gold on the green spine and black on
the gold spine. Using paper from the TeaParty Alice digital image set, I covered the rest of the book cover.
As a
final touch I added gold stickers and images from the Tea Party Alice collage
sheet.
By using real books it gave me a place (in between the pages) to insert
the cards that makeup the staircase. I
also added the Dormouse peeking out of his door
TREE
The
tree is a twig from my yard that I glued into two layers of foam core that serves
as the base. I’ve attached images from
the collage sheet as well as large and mini mushrooms.
The
large mushrooms are made of foam so I attached a flat toothpick to the Caterpillar
and stuck it into the mushroom. The
foam core base is covered with leafy green underbrush.
DETAIL SUPPLY LIST WITH NOTES NOTES
COLLAGE SHEETS & DIGITAL IMAGE SETS
SLEIGH
TABLE
Metal
Patinas – Weathered Copper (Jade & Verdigris) – Used to paint tea set
REINDEER
TREE
Fancy
Gold Holly Berries Mix