Riding off into the Darkness

It seems everyone is socially distancing this year, even within the www, our Dark Dreams faltering under the weight of pandemic and indifference.  Maybe life is so scary there's no room for "imagined scary".  Whatever, Dear Reader, you have become almost extinct.  And so, this is our Last Post.

Asylum Anne has had time to find more random stuff in her stash, and this symbol of Georgette Heyer's Regency-period novel abductions, elopements and other social misdeameanours, reinforced by Jane Austen re-runs on tv, is a 7 Gypsies carriage.  Quite how it rolled in to the Asylum is not known, but it was there to be found, rather worse for wear:

The wheels have been hot-dipped in embossing powders several times to strengthen the rust, and texture paste scraped over the panelling to fill the holes.

Then the painting began:

Someone was slacking off for a while!

Doors rehinged and given "windows"

Inside, the carriage was fitted out with lace fabric, and bench seats recovered in leather:

A bunch of strange people turned up wanting a ride

 And were invited to travel with us:

 All aboard, and the Darkness Dreamers travel away from this blog, searching a more populous Community of Darkness and Creepiness:

Farewell.

The Final Winner of our Darkness Challenges is... Cathy with awesome entry number 34
Please contact us for your reward, choose either this very lonely skeleton:

or this set of cling mounted rubber stamps:

GONGRATULATIONS TO CATHY!!

And with heavy hearth I (Granne) also say goodbye to

this little blog I have so much treasured.

And with these movie inspired ATC's I wave to all you wonderful artist that

shared your art with us during these years.

See you in the blogland!!

Someone squealed.

And the world coughed and caught a pandemic.
But the world's dreams have been pretty dark this year, and Asylum Anne is safe in her covid-free country (apart from the returning expats who get 2 weeks quarantine in luxury hotels at taxpayer expense before being let loose).  But all those taxes are taking their toll (mentally, at least), so she has been using up random things in her stash:

AND shopping "locally" led to painting up some critters from Abstract Designs  When you go to their site, you will find her Prime Minister and Director of the Ministry of Health are cult figures honoured in laser-cut mdf as well!  They offer a choice of veneers, but that didn't stop paint sticking to the 2 I tried.
Wetas are a native insect of decent size, and will bite, so stay back!

 Only assume an insect is dead if it is upside down... MAYBE...

Not to be confused with Weta Workshop, who do all the wonderful and scary effects for movies such as Avatar, Lord of the Rings.

This dragon was found hanging to the back door:

With winter setting in, it's probably hoping for a feed!  The chippy pieces were covered in heat-gunned Jacquard Lumiere paint.

Owling

Had a great time yesterday making

this set of ATCoins.

Using a self made background

(stamped with real leaves and a branch stamp)

and wicked Katzelkraft owl stamps,

coloured with Zig pens. 

Sentiments are Dutch Doobadoo stickers.

Let's see your summer art,

there is only 7 links to go for a 

awesome surprise for some

lucky artist, so link your art there --->>

But the flu season is coming Down Under

Enjoy your summer Sari-Granne, but we've only just stopped Covid-19 before the flu season hits us.
Borders closed early, stringent lockdown and a small population of 5 million have kept numbers down, but there have been deaths, the great God Tourism has lost all his acolytes, and it's likely to stay that way until an effective knife-stabber (vaccine injection) is found.  We may think we have got through one set of dark days, but there will be more.

The stamps are both from Lost Coast Designs.  I rather like the AUD creature that looks rather like a kiwi!  The stencil is Carabelle and Paper Artsy infusions helped with the background.

YAY, summer is here

Schools out and summer vacations are

in, for kids right a way - mine; still 4 weeks to

work till holidays.

We have lots of birthdays during summer

and I made this "waterfall" card

that says: Have just terribly FUN Birthday

Card was originally made for The Male Room DT

post (that's why the watermark) but due the change

of themes, would not be used there.

Lets see what kind of art summer makes you create,

linking there --->

not much more entries till we hit 40 and

somebody gets something from other side of 

world (in my point of looking)

Lest We Forget

The Bubonic plagues, then Spanish Flu killed millions, and we still haven't figured out how to stop pandemics in their tracks.  Maybe the Gargoyles were right all along:

"After losing their sister to Spanish flu, the 2 Fates wondered if people would ever heed the Gargoyle's advice: social distancing."
So there you have it.  Surely The Fates could have kept one of their own alive.  But no, not evebn the Fates can dodge Fate.  So keep your social distancing up for the long haul rearing up ahead of us.

The picture of the girls turned up randomly and unattributed somewhere in facebook I think.  The period of their garb, and the room they were in instantly put me in mind of the Spanish Flu, elegant multi-storeyed buildings.  Somehow I managed to dodge Steampunking it.
This is another 8x8 fat page with a binding strip at left.
Stamps from Paper Artsy include the Zinski house, Hot Pick "Lest we forget".
Seth Apter stamps include a Spellbinder one no longer available, it is similar to the top one in this link.  Plus an Impression Obsession one heat embossed.  Dylusions Halloween set bats, vivalasvegas Gargoyle trio frieze, and Altered Art's Gargoyle.

We still have a prize to award to the most interesting dark-themed piece of yours between #21-40 so keep sharing your creations.

Mermaid Virus

Mermaids?  On a Dark Challenge blog?
Covid-19 is still around, and although we are down to Level 3, it's not much freer than level 4 was.  Social Distancing is still very important, as are maintaining our bubbles.  Even mermaids along our coast are supposed to comply!  The lighthouse normally sends out warnings to shipping to avoid shipwrecks on mermaid-infested rocks and caves.
On the one 8x8 fat page, here's the "before"

 Open out the flap of memory of how it was in 1865, and this is 2020:

Stamps all from Rubber Stamp Ave, the seagulls are from Silver Crow Creations.

So that's my spin on mermaids for the Mermaid Blog Hop over at LeighSB Designs - join them at
https://leighsbdesigns.blogspot.com/2020/05/mermay-blog-hop-and-meri-oddleigh.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR17fGJvOLWWThqbf8z9Zz8XXsMTXMt60dHMW-j05xweLcJ83EeoyuhQhI8



And share your dark takes on anything in life or dreams with the linky at the right.