If you're like me, you get a childish glee out of bootfairs and charity shops. The trick, I find, is to see the possibilities in the objects there; as they are, they might be useless, or grubby or ugly, but what would they look like if you added a little paint? Some fabric? Took that painting out and created a collage?
With that in mind, I took out a selection of old glass bottles I had bought (for £3 the set) and looked at them, waiting for inspiration to strike. I especially liked the flatter, clear rectangle bottle; I could almost picture someone trapped inside. Following this whim, I traced around the bottle and sketched a little figure reaching as if trying to escape.
The figure quickly became Alice in Wonderland, because that would explain why she was so small (if she had drank the shrinking potion) and also because it is an easily recognizable character with a striking design.
Once I'd drawn her, coloured her in, and outlined her in black pen, I cut her out (carefully). I left a little rectangle below her feet; when bent at a 90 degree angle, for those of you who played with paper dolls will recognise, is a stand.
Because she was made of paper, it was easy enough to roll her slightly to fit her through the neck of the bottle. I had to finagle around a little bit with a chopstick because she was facing the wrong way, but I was really pleased with how the size turned out.
This label was a piece of card I cut out into a pentagon and wrote "Drink Me" on, like the potion in the story. If you are looking for interesting fonts to copy, go to www.dafont.com and explore their selection for inspiration.
So go ahead, see what fun finds you can dig up at secondhand stores and give new life to! It's great if you can make something completely different and unexpected, and even if it goes wrong you've not broken the bank on an expensive piece of art material!
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