Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Altered Alice! This month the design team brings you their holiday wishes, and we invite you to send your holiday greetings to The Altered Alice. You have until Friday, Dec. 23 to enter. The winner post will either be a little early or late, as the last Sunday of the month falls on Christmas day!

The window was designed by the stained glass artist Geoffrey Webb,  a must-see for anyone that loves Wonderland. A wonderful Christmas poem by Lewis Carroll is shown in the center three bottom panels, which include characters from Wonderland – the White Rabbit, Dodo, the Caterpillar, Mad Hatter, and more!

I was so inspired by this beautiful stained glass window I decided to recreate it.  I have been working on this since the end of November and am so excited to share the finished piece with you today!

A few years ago a friend of mine did some remodeling to her house which included an upgrade to energy-efficient windows.  I’ve always admired other artists work with old window frames so I grabbed a few to try it out for myself.  This window has been in my studio since just waiting for the right project to come along.  You know what they say….”All good things come to those who wait!”

How to Create a Faux Stained Glass Window

STEP 1-

My first step in turning this discarded window into an Alice in Wonderland Christmas Window was fresh paint.  The windows were taped off and the entire frame was given a coat of Krylon White Primer.  Next came Krylon Champagne Satin, Krylon Glitterblast Gold, and Finally Krylon Glitterblast Sealer (this is the fourth project to be completed using the Krylon Glitterblast sealer….big things come in small packages!).

STEP 2- Embellish with Glass Gems and Mosaic Glass Chips.

There were cut outs on the sides of the window frame so I used Mosaic adhesive and a mix of Mosaic glass chips and stones to line the sides and fill in the gaps.  Gives it a bit of regal bearing don’t you think?  I used up the leftover mosaic glass chips to line the bottoms of each window where my paint job ran a little shy.  I was quite pleased with the extra sparkle and shine this step added to the front of the window.

STEP 3-  Create faux stained glass panels with tissue paper.

I resized and adjusted the color of the original panels in Photoshop to fit the size of my window and printed them out on vintage parchment paper I had in my stash (it’s from the 1950′s I’m pretty sure). The Alice in Wonderland Characters were colored with Copic Markers.  This step took a bit of time.  Although it doesn’t look like it many different shades were used to create an appropriate match to the original stained glass images.  For the stained glass portion I stamped and embossed tissue paper and adhered the pieces to the back of the image.

Here you can really see the embossed tissue paper used to create a Faux stained glass effect.  My favorite Flourish Stamp from Indigo Blu was used here.

Here I used some lovely patterned tissue paper I had on hand to create the same effect.

STEP 4- Add Filmstrip Ribbon to Muntins with glossy accents.

While in the beginning stages of this project and quite frankly a bit of creative block I received a package in the mail from a friend of mine in My All Things Tim Group.  I opened the package to find a Tweety Jill Alice in Wonderland Collage pack with a handmade Wonderland Tag and a note from my friend Lisa.  In the note she suggested that the thumbnail images from the collage pack would be great filler for Tim Holtz Filmstrip ribbon.

At this point I had only painted the window frame and was still unsure of how I was going to recreate the stained glass images so I broke out my filmstrip ribbon and glossy accents and got to cutting.  After mounting the Alice in Wonderland Filmstrip ribbon on the muntins (just learned this word today thanks to Lynne from Savvy Sisters Studio) I knew what I had to do and the ball really got rolling from there.  I can’t thank you enough Lisa for your kindness and inspiration!!

STEP 6- Adhere faux stained glass panels with Glossy accents.  Add Enamel accents (black) to the sides to fill in the gaps.

I love this panel with The Queen and King of Hearts it looks like she’s shouting “Off with their Heads!”  The Cheshire Cat seems quite amused by this.

STEP 7- Embellish with Beads and Charms

On top of the window latch I used a mix of Blue Moon beads and charms from the Fairytale Collection.  I’ve been obsessed with this collection and have used them on every project I have created for The Altered Alice.    Notice the tiny Dormouse I placed in the tea-cup?

This may be a bit of a non traditional approach but this IS a Window Frame so I will also be entering it in the LESSology “Frame of Life Challenge”.

The SSS challenge this week is “Through the Looking Glass” so I couldn’t resist entering my Alice in Wonderland Christmas window with an Alice reference like that!

I do hope you have enjoyed your walk with me through this winter “Wonderland” and invite you all to take part in the Holiday spirit of Wonderland at the Altered Alice!

Wishing you a blessed Holiday season!

Amy*

Our prize this month is a $40.00 gift certificate to Custom Crops, the premier online retailer for crafters of all kinds. From Accuquilt to Zva Creative, adhesives to vinyl and everything in between, Custom Crops offers a huge selection of the products you’ve been looking for at competitive prices with fast, friendly customer service. Thanks to design team member Donna for organizing this Christmas prize!