Chasing the White Rabbit Half Scale Theatre

I love little things. I also love Alice in Wonderland. But what I really love is little Alice things! 

The Half Scale Theatre Cabinet w Facade - Deep from Alpha Stamps is a perfect size for miniature things whether they are Alice or not. The theatre is approximately 3-1/2" tall x 4-1/4" wide and 2-1/2" deep when the doors are closed. That's pretty small! I could see a Halloween scene inside - tiny tombstones and creepy trees or maybe a pumpkin patch with a scarecrow? 

Halloween will have to wait a bit longer because this deep theatre is all about Alice.

I started by painting the theatre edges black, then papering the entire thing using the Alice 8x8 Paper Pad. One of the sheets in the set has a collection of frames that happened to fit nicely inside the doors of the theatre. The rest of the paper is perfectly wonderful.

On the left is Alice herself with a key in her hand, curious as to where the White Rabbit could be going! Something else that worked out with this project was the size of the doors from The Garden Of Books Chipboard Set of Doors. After painting it with diluted ink, I added paper hinges to the back of the door and stuck it right in the center. The checkerboard flooring from the Tiny Alice Wallpaper Prints collage sheet was glued in at an upward angle to cover the gap between the door bottom and theatre floor. The same thing was done on the other side.

The center portion of the theatre was devoted to the White Rabbit's cottage mostly because it is one of my favorite parts of the book. I chopped up a Creepy Tree - 5 Inch to fit inside and used bits of Variegated Green Vines for leaves and bushes. The cottage is a Little Bird House chipboard kit with collage sheet windows and door, raffia roof, and wooden step. The "hill" used to be a foam pumpkin, but it was an easy transformation. 

To make the hill, cut your foam pumpkin in half. Measure and cut part of the pumpkin off so it fits inside the center of the theatre. Remove the stem.

Paint the hill and slather it in glue, then sprinkle on Green Turf Grass. Tamp the grass and add more if needed. It helps to use lots of glue! Once dry, glue the cottage on top. 

I also like to make things as simple as possible, so oftentimes I choose to wrap 3D chipboard kits with paper vs gluing and cutting each side individually. For the cottage, I cut a length of paper the height of the chipboard and glued one side down. Cut off any overhanging paper (the peak of the roof in this case). Roll the chipboard to the left and crease the paper along the fold. Add glue to the side and adhere it to the paper. Cut off excess. Repeat. 

Okay, story time. The outside of my theatre is basic and maybe a bit dull, however, there were plans to decorate it, too:

Those plans were thwarted by the disastrous effects of old, cheap paper glaze and my Alice collage image. Sigh. See the blue? Yeah, it's not supposed to be blue. In the end, I told myself the theatre doors would be open all the time anyway, so it wasn't that big of a disappointment.

And, lastly, I nearly always forget to take a photo for scale. Luckily, Chief Operating Officer Minicus Moo takes her job seriously.

Hope you enjoyed the miniature theatre, now go glue stuff to stuff!

Don't forget you can go HERE where you'll see the supplies used in the Chasing the White Rabbit Theatre (cat not included).

House of Alice Theatre

Alice in Wonderland intrigues us all, doesn't it? We love the curious little girl that dives headfirst into a strange rabbit hole, looking for the next adventure. We love the absurd language and strange characters and the nonsensity (is that a word?) that has us laughing and at times guessing at what silliness is going on.  I thought of Alice when I learned Alpha Stamps had these spectacular new shadowbox theatres and decided to put the book on stage, so to speak.

The shadowbox theatre is 1" wide, making it the perfect depth for some interchangeable chipboard scenes. The scenes are built on panels that look like this:

Thick chipboard panels

Thick chipboard panels for backgrounds

The length along the top edge of each panel is 5 1/2", the length along the bottom of the panel is 5 1/4", and the height from top to bottom is 4 5/8". The width of the panel legs are about 1/4". After cutting out a bunch of these from chipboard, I painted them with red, black, and pale grey acrylic paint. Then the fun began! Several Alice images, selected from this massive compilation, were cut out and glued on the panels, creating entertaining scenes.

Here you can see, just barely, three panels that make up the "I'm Late" scene: the dotted background panel, the suspended clocks panel, and the I'm Late panel. The clocks came from the Clock Faces collage sheet and were suspended from the center chipboard panel with invisible thread. I glued two clock faces together, sandwiching the thread in between. The "I'm Late" banner hangs from black satin ribbon on the front panel.

I love this image of a squashed Alice. I've had an old 1978 Castle Books publication of Alice in Wonderland for an eternity and this illustration fit exactly right in the theatre. The window came from the More Old Windows and Doors collage sheet.

Can't have Alice without a tea party! This particular collage sheet (I used a resized digital download) is a favourite because you can play with the characters. The Hatter, dormouse, and rabbit are removable which doubles the fun.

"Off With Her Head" includes three separate panels and uses adhesive pop dots to achieve the 3D effect of the playing cards.

Here's some pics of the individual panels I created for House of Alice. The background panels are double-sided, so I ended up making 12 pieces.

The End.

 The list of supplies can be found HERE. Happy New Year!