Helen's Crafty Shed: Alice in Wonderland

Curiouser and Curiouser

I thought I'd share something a little different with you today, another of my hobbies that is not crafting !! LOL I hear you cry does she do something other than craft? Well actually yes!!

I have always been a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, I love the story no matter how bizarre and the characters just make me chuckle and I often find there are many people you meet in life that have some or often many of the weird and crazy attributes of a Wonderland inhabitant. Oh how Alice must have loved to find herself in such and amazing world. I had a few books back in October and now I have about 30 and my collection in growing.

I blame all of this on a number of things:

Lewis Carroll
Me for liking slightly weird crazy stuff
Book illustrators
Karen Argent, the Director of The Letterpress Project. My Mum, friend Annabel and her Mum and I attended a talk by this fascinating lady who among other booky things collected Alice in Wonderland books. LOL they were just amazing and I got to thinking that OK I collect my fairies but what about one of my favourite books with incredible illustrations?
Annabel Haines... my friend not sister!!! who has a nose and eye for finding Alice books in every charity shop and bookstore in existence and who had helped add many more to get my collection going.

Did you know that there are hundreds of different versions interpreted by a variety of illustrators? There are also many version of the story.. I read one recently which combined lots of other fairy tale characters with Alice who had returned to Wonderland to stop the Ace of Spades who was taking over and removing the Wonder from everyone and everything to make Wonderland like the land where Alice came from !! Bit of a message there!!

It was called Alice takes back Wonderland by David Hammons.

So to follow here is my little collection so far...

These two are by the same author and illustrator but are completely different inside. The smaller has pages that are like boards and the larger is like a proper book. Both are amazing

This I saw in the Britsih Library last year and it was sooooo expensive until I came home and found it for nearly half the price. Beautiful illustrations inside.

This one I first saw in Waterstones but it was so badly damaged I just didn't buy it, then I had it from the lovely Susan for my birthday. It pull out all around like a star shape with a 3D scene in each arm of the star. Awesome

The above is a lovely jigsaw book, every illustration is also a jigsaw. A great find in Webbs garden centre

All the above are a selection of marvelous pop up books. I just love pop up books they intrigue me sooo much, they are just so clever.

Thats them all so far. I'm sure there will be plenty more to collect. Annabel and I are always on the look out for them. At least its not hard to buy me a pressie. This post will also remind me about which ones I actually have to. LOL bound to forget. I also have 100 Alice postcards that my Mum bought my for Christmas and a set of playing cards that Annabel bought me a few years ago .. OH and an Alice shopping bag, fridge magnets and torch!!

So... Why is a Raven like a writing desk?

I am going to keep adding to this page now as I get more cooks to add to my collection. As The King In Alice so rightly said:
"Begin at the beginning,and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

My latest book was in the children's section of The Works and only cost me £1, bargain.

My newest additions to the collection include a lovely illustrated one from a local garden centre for £4.99 and it has a CD with it to, the other is from my ALice hunting friend Annabel, it hasn't any illustrations inside but we like the cover photo!! so it counts YES!!

Here's my latest one sniffed out by the famous Alice book sniffer Annabel from a local charity shop for a £1 bargain!! Just love the illustrations in this.

Two more to add to the collection courtesy of the Alice book sniffer... Thank you. Just love them both but have to say the Disney one is my favourite I just love these images.

Here's my latest addition with fabulous illustrations from Helen Oxenbury. I just love these and how they bring Alice up to date with her little white sneakers on. Gorgeous.

Just love these new books, from the charitiarium. The jigsaw one is amazing with 7 jigsaws init. I daren't take them out and o them incase I can't get them back in again, LOL.