Skull Appreciation Day~June 2016

Today is the day we celebrate that torso topper under our skin, the skull!

Hop along in this the annual Skull Appreciation Day 2016! Feel free to start the journey at any point, here is the Map otherwise known as the Hop List:

Terra
Black Dragon
Jorgey
Susan S
Julia
Alex
Alison
Ike
Leigh
Lost Coast Portal To Creativity​
Katie
Deadly Little Witch
 ​Susan R​ Dream In Darkness

Asylum Anne:

What do skulls DO for us?  Well actually, it's the skin over it that keeps our brains inside the skull.  Lose the skull, and our thoughts can escape... tactfully or not haha.

And this month's sponsor, Rubber Dance, has an awesome series of "thoughts" that were rattling round in MY skull.

I do NOT do "scrapbooking".  However, I occasionally use 12x12" pieces of paper as background.
In this case, for TCW's Mexican Skull stencil.  Coloured with daubers pulling colour off inkpads.

SKULLS - HOW THOUGHTS LEAVE YOUR BRAIN

kim

Skull stencil by Panduro Hobby

Body stamp by Rubber Dance ATC Backgrounds 1

Shrunken Head stamp by Butterside Down

Background stencils:

 Dylusions, STAMPlorations Artplorations Old Rose Print

Stencilgirl Club set by Seth Apter

Do clothes make the skull? 

Well dressed skeleton!

That stamped face has some creepy imagery happening...

Granne

Not only humans appreciate their skulls, I bet...

VLV Antelope in a dreamy (or nightmarish) Stampscapes scenery... 

Asylum Anne!

And now for something waaaay different - give Flowers on Skull Appreciation Day:

Flowers - sweet.

Crochet flowers – double “sweet”

But... just as a cog or gear on a project means you can call it Steampunk, simply involving a skull makes it Dark or Creepy. Well, sort of.

First up: if you can't crochet yet, let me refer you to Auntie Google's right-hand man, Youtube for a lesson or three. It's a compact skill – a small ball of cotton, a crochet hook no bigger than a ballpoint pen and you are occupied in the dentist waiting room, the bus queue, and in days gone by, that 40-hour sequence of flights to get one from Middle Earth to Malta. (I wonder if bamboo hooks may still be ok)

Anyway.... Skull Flowers:

One can take any Irish Crochet flower pattern, and attach a skull in the centre. Or crochet a length and spiral that round itself. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can adapt the rate of spiral, and have far more “petals”. The tail of the cast-on end of the thread can be used to thread through a skull bead and hold it in place. The finishing tail can be used to catch-stitch the spirals to keep their place.

All these ones have the same Row 1, 2 & 3. Row 4 changes. I was brought up in the “English” tradition of labelling stitches, and really prefer charts.

Row 1: Chain 72 (or any multiple of 3)

Row 2: Skip 5 chain, Treble in 6th chain. * Miss 2 chain, Treble ch2 Tr eble in next chain * repeat until you run out of chain. Turn work

Row 3: Chain 1, slip stitch in ch2 loop. Chain3 (= Treble), treble, chain 2, 2 treble all in same loop. Repeat in every loop across.

Row 4 variation a: Chain 1. Turn work. Dc in treble. In loop: Halftreble, 3 treble, half treble, double crochet. Repeat across to the end.

Row 4 variation b: Slip stitch to loop. Chain 3 (= 1 treble), treble, chain 3, slipstitch in top of treble (=picot), 2 treble. * Chain 2, double crochet after 2 treble, chain 2. In next loop 2 treble, picot, 2 treble* across the piece.

Row 4 variation c: In each loop 3 treble, picot, 3 treble. Double crochet between 2nd and 3rd treble

Once you've done enough, use the cast-on tail to stitch the skull bead, then start winding the length round & round to form petals.  Use the finishing tail to catch-stitch them in place.

Thanks for Hopping, come back and link up your skully make with us *HERE* and 

you just might win some Rubber Dance stamps!! yes! and...

Dream in Darkness readers get FREE shipping in June and July, so go shopping! :)