Alice in Wonkyland (a playful take on Alice in Wonderland) was a suggestion from an Instagram friend that turned into quite an adventurous week! There is so much that can be done with that theme and so many favorite scenes to choose from that it could have easily turned into a two-week project.

Challenge of the Week

The first major challenge was creating the perfect tree. I knew making the tree itself would take a while and should correspondingly cover at least two days worth of scenes, so I planned on it having a rabbit hole and a large limb for the Cheshire Cat to hang out on. The skeleton of the tree is made out of cardboard and held together with hot glue. It’s really just an imperfect cylinder with some haphazard limbs protruding. I then covered the whole thing in felt–first with a layer of medium brown and then adding additional pieces to look like bark. There’s also a bit of Sharpie detailing for extra texture. I decided to leave the tree hollow, for the potential of a character popping out of the tree or even just a storage opportunity later.

For the hot dog version of Alice, the hair was the most challenging part. I tend to avoid making wigs for the hot dogs if I can. Most of the time it doesn’t sit well on the their head and ends up looking weird. I used a somewhat different design for the hair for Alice that ended up looking okay, albeit a little flat and cartoony. (But hey, the Disney movie was the artistic inspiration, so maybe that’s appropriate!)

Favorite Parts

Two of my favorite parts of the Alice in Wonkyland week were also some of the more simple things to make. The first was the Cheshire Cat’s smile. After making the Cheshire Cat himself, I decided that to be fully accurate, I needed to also make him disappear, leaving just his smile remaining! I set up the full Cheshire Cat scene up in the morning at work and swapped him out for just his smile at lunch. My other favorite part was making the goodies for the Mad Hatter’s tea party! The table itself was made using one of my favorite craft bits: whimsical paper straws. I then quickly fashioned some felt cookies, treats, and even some cups of tea to complete the scene. All-in-all, it was another fun week on the floor hole!