Welcome to my belated Practical Magic Blog Party

We take any party seriously at my house, and especially so when it's in celebration of a wonderful event such as this weekends' Practical Magic Blog hop!

You're surely not surprised then that this post had to wait for our blender to stop spinning and the afterglow to subside.

Please, whenever you have a few moments to sit comfortably with a cup of tea or a cocktail take a look at what our fellow bloggers came up with for this years' celebration. It has been, well, magical.

My own Practical Magic Blog party became a real party, albeit a small one, with margaritas, planting of terrariums and the lighting of a candles.

As each candle was lit we made a heartfelt wish for you and for our Practical Magic friends and for ourselves. Those wishes were: Health, wealth, happiness, joy, laughter, creativity, clarity, peace, honesty, fairness, friendship, insight, nourishment and beauty.

Inspired by the kitchen and apothecary scenes from Practical Magic we planted two glass jar terrariums with a fern and a ficus and we found an enamelware chamber pot in which now lives some more creeping plant friends and three wee begonias (which might not survive the winter, even indoors, but we'll see).

Finally, we found at a thrift store the perfect glass jar to house a bushel of limes: Not only pretty and green and reminiscent of the Practical Magic movie ... but damn convenient for our bar, too!

Thanks to everyone who participated, and I'll be 'round to comment soon: I hope each of you finds yourself filled with an abundance of magical inspiration!

Get well/thinking of you: A Drunken Stampers Challenge

Hi again Drunken Stamping friends!

The newest challenge at Drunken Stampers is all about those people who could use a little attention from you! A wish to get well, or a reminder that he or she is in your thoughts: Create something that is for that person.

My piece is for someone special who has lately been feeling stressed and disjointed and not at all confident.

The project began because this friend of mine ogled a lovely, vintage-look French chic over-the-door hanger at World Market.

So, I made my own version for my friend: The flowers are Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals in aluminum and grunge paper, each layer coated in inks and embossing powders then bent and beat into obviously organic garden shapes before being attached to the rusted steel hanger.

I added a crystal curtain rod end found at a garage sale and hung a sign "Live well" made using the faux crazed porcelain technique found at The Inspiration Journal (owned by the Inspiration Emporium).

Don't go there yet, by the way, or you'll never get back here: Believe me, The Inspiration Journal is very, very aptly named.

Though my own crazed porcelain plaque isn't as good as the one found at the technique link above, it's certainly a good start and can be easily improved as I make more items like this one. You absolutely must try this technique, too!

The final news of the day is that this is my last post as a Drunken Stampers design team member. Later this month I'll share news of what you can expect to see on this blog in the future.

In the meantime you should drop in at the DS blog to check out what they're doing and join in the fun: Challenge blog owners Peggy and Spike are an incredible, creative pair worthy of your participation!

Guest designer project for The Altered Alice Chapter 7 Week 2: Text as nonsense

My guest designer piece is after The Altered Alice challenge information!

Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: `-- and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill -- ' `When you say "hill,"' the Queen interrupted, `I could show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.' `No, I shouldn't,' said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: `a hill can't be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense -- ' The Red Queen shook her head, `You may call it "nonsense" if you like,' she said, ` but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!' -- Chapter 2, Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Using text as pattern is a trend right now that I really love. Your challenge is to use text as nonsense - not to read but as pattern on your project! Of course you can still have words or sentiments, but we also need to see text used in a non-reading way. I have a stack of old books and dictionaries that I use for this purpose.

Our sponsor is Stamp Attack, a British company that is well known (among other things) for their fantastic Alice stamp plates which have sold to customers all over the world. In fact, Helena Bonham Carter, the actress who played the Red Queen in the Tim Burton Alice movie, purchased sets of Alice stamps from Stamp Attack, which were then delivered to the studio!  Enabler alert: Stamp Attack offers speedy worldwide shipping for only £1 on unmounted stamp orders, so go on and check out their beautiful stamps!

The winner will receive a Stamp Attack gift certificate for £13.50, which is equivalent to one of the stamp plates that the design team will be using!

You have until Friday, September 23 to enter your creation at The Altered Alice and the winner and honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday of the month, September 25.  All kinds of projects are welcome, they do not have to be "altered art" and as always, entries that feature some aspect of Wonderland are given two chances instead of one in the random prize drawing. You may enter multiple times as long as each project is on a separate post.

We are also saying goodbye to our current crop of guest designers, so please leave them some special love this month as their projects have been FABULOUS! Thanks so much ladies, you have added so much to The Altered Alice! And stay tuned, there will be some special design team announcements next month too!

Hi again folks, thanks for dropping by to visit me, CuddlyBunny, especially today as I post my final guest designer piece for The Altered Alice!

Wow! What a fun group of wonderfully inspiring artists! Should you ever be asked to join the designer, as a guest or full-time member, say YES!

So, my piece with beautiful stamps from sponsor Stamp Attack is a triangle easel flip-top book.

Each page features different techniques and colors, so to keep things realistically short here ... let's see the photos and you can drop a question if you want to know how something was done!

OK? Okay!

Have a wonderful day everyone, hug the people you love!