You want a Valentine card as well???

OK, ok, rubber arm twisted.  Just because it's the last day of Leigh SB Design's My Dark Valentine hop.  You can have a card... AND an envelope!

A blank card made of kraft, sprinkled Paper Artsy Infusions and spritzed.  The card curled quickly, giving the 2-directional streaming

The inside I stamped the XXL Carabelle stamp, Steampunk Mechanique, and wrote a poem for it:

Valentine

When Cupid’s sharp arrow doth strike,

All thoughts of food are fled:

I am a sandwich short of a picnic,

A few noodles short of a chow mein!

In love and thus  blind.

No longer the brightest bulb in the box.

The lights are on, but I am not home:

Shipped but not delivered  - lost, so  lost for love.

Undelivered, Alack!  I am not the fastest ship in the fleet.

My heart  rends me a few keys short of a keyboard,

A few cogs short of the gear change

That would  bring together Toi et Moi

Cupid thou Nasty Cherub

I would change thine aim

But thou hast reft me of mine sanity,

Missing a few buttons on the remote,

A few keys short of a keyboard.

A few cogs short

In my heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the front of the card:

The Cheery Lynn die, Hearts #2  has 3 different colours of embossing powder. The cogs were diecut from a juice carton, alcohol ink-treated.
Stencilgirl S271 Angel Circle, L157 city scape, Club 05-2017
Carabelle stamp set :Textes:  Zoom sur 1 souvenir.  Sorry I can't find it on their website, nor the one I bought it from.

As for the envelope... I hope it's got enough postage - that 20cent one better not be prophetic.

That Mocking bird that took out Poe last month is back, aiming at the cat???

Maybe there's more to it than that - an winged easter bunny with an egg-bomb?

Some love-sick boy getting his come-uppance?

 Zoom out, we want to see the whole thing to make our own minds up:

Can you see the postie daring to deliver this to anyone's letterbox???

Stencil Girl's Mixed Media Mail stencil's words pop up in serendipitous places, to comment.  A Silver Crow Creations rubber stamp simulates an Addressee.  Digi stamps include Delicious Doodles for the postage stamps (Cranial Caress and Samhain), Bloobel the Sick Boy and Kitteh, Ike's "Greece" is the building-courtyard scene.  Smeared Ink's Winged Grumpy and our hostess, Leigh SB Designs have the Oddleigh Mocking Bird, the egg, and the quote.

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The Trap Called Love

We're still having fun in the Leigh SB Designs My Dark Valentine hop...
Of course one can be trapped by Love.  Stupid Cupid doesn't always get it right, in any period.  Steampunk, electronicpunk (?) got mashed up with Finnabair and Michael deMeng styles too.
I scored some mdf hearts about 160mm across (that's just over 6") earlier this week, just in time!

 Silly me didn't take photos during...
One of those heart valves is a romantic apothecary's bottle with a lock of hair from 2 lovers (?) entwined together forever (or until someone breaks the glass, or uncorks it).  The cork was painted a bit darker, and we are waiting for the Triple Thick to finish drying clear.

Cupid itself is hanging on by a thread - or is that a wire from the pacemaker!

Although most of the piece got the black gesso undercoat, the clear plastic odd shapes (rough-cut diamonds?) were left alone:

Instead of sprays and washes, most of the colour was interference paints (Jacquard's highlighter blue is particularly strong, so it got knocked back a bit).  I deliberately didn't paint up the trapped person much, leaving the deathly-dark a bit of a contrast to the colourful trap and surrounds.

Leave some love, then hoppity hoppity

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What are Little Boys made of? What ARE little boys made of?

Continuing the LeighSB Designs My Dark Valentine hop...

Let's take a peek into Cupid's Pantry:

Sizzix diecut apothecary bottles cut from beer boxes.  Amazingly, on one of them the picture of a bottle cap is in exactly the right place.  They're a lovely strong cardboard without being too thick for a journal page.
All stamps are from Lost Coast Designs, though you may not recognise some of them - heads cut off,  upside down... look for Norma, Stella and Adrien in the Mini flying ladies set.  The Doll border stamp made many a snail, and random background "texture".  I have found many different ways to use the Steampunk Profile face, from their sister-company, Carmens Veranda.

The whole Journal page, with hint of another page slowly evolving:

Also entered in the Lost Coast Designs Boys Boys Boys challenge.

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Be prepared for Valentine Day

Enjoying the Leigh SB Design My Dark Valentine hop?
Are we sending/receiving Valentines?  If you're worried Evil Froggie might make a snatch for them, I have a couple of Card Guards ready for duty.  Whaddya think?  This fella turned up a day early - he's #13, and Valentine Day is 14th.  So even in my time zone he's well ahead of EF.

Here they are, keeping an eye the letterbox

Thanks to Michael deMeng's online class "Altered Alice" for sending me down this path!

The heart a-top #11 does spin (radar?  Windsock???) , and his spear has already seen effective action.
I'm sure I have ordinary cards, but could only find minis, looong oval, round, or Shakespeare-quoting packs, so had to go shopping for a pack of cards, and what I got had numbers up to 13 as well as the trad court cards.  C'mon, this is supposed to be  a Dark blog, so of course #13 was perfect for the this Red Queen's guard.

and continued like this

Yes, genuine oyster shell and sand pen shells were used - this guard has given the shirt off his back In Service - and is down to the bare bones of his arse!  So he got some coats of paint to warm him.

I have to thank Elli Jenks, of Rubber Bandit Stamps, and Brightsea Village for this other Guard's head, she's fantastic at making polymer clay pieces so I hope she's ok with how I used this one:

This post has been hijacked to participate in Leigh SB's Valetine blog hop, so leave us some love, and off you go.

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Queen of Hearts and Two Hearts

Since it is the month of Valentines day,

I choose to alter few cards with hearts...

Queen of Hearts and Two Hearts:

Images are from Gecko Galz and stamps from

The Blank Page Muse, some paints, Gesso,

wire, paperflowers...

Let us see your creative makes for this month,

(remember, the theme is optional) by linking them HERE.

First Winner of the New Year! January 2018

Hello Hello!

Welcome back and thanks so much for coming over today!
This day brings the first creative challenge winner for 2018! Yay! So let's keep this short and sweet :)

For January 2018, this wonderful artist took some (un)common "junk" and made a richly textured and oh-so-intriguing Treasure Box! So shiny and sure to hold the rarest most priceless treasure known to all, surely Cap'n Jack will be hunting this one for sure, hide the map!

January 2018 WINNER:

Gina 

is an amazing artist, 

so please hop over and check out her art, she is so creative and inspiring!
And Gina, a little skelebirdie whispered in my ear that a wee bit of happy mail might be around...

Thanks again,  we offer all of you our sincere gratitude

 for playing along each month 

and for creARTing! 

C'mon back in a few days for some new treats to gaze upon!

See you soon, HERE is the link back to this month's Challenge, the optional theme is Playing Cards! You are welcome to stack the deck and show off your stash, errr reduce your stash and create!

Play your cards...February New Challenge

The words for this month is Playing Cards,

when you think of that theme the possibilities are endless!

Hearts <3 , Joker, Alice, cards themselves ...

But to tell you the truth, I've been running like a "headless chicken"

with this theme; TOO much possibilities and so little time...

then I just picked The One idea and went with it.

I painted one of the giant Playing card I got from a Tiger-store,

then added a skull image for a napkin I got from a dear friend of mine,

some stamping with The Blank Page Muse Stamp and finally 

black paint with stencils and few chippoards 

... and the first piece was ready

*****************

Playing Cards, says Granne, any way you like...

There's not exactly a corporate ladder for Asylum Anne 

to climb at her current workplace, but in other places, 

it's a matter of playing your cards right in your climb to the top, 

overcoming setbacks, and once at the top, 

as Death looks on, was it all really worth it?

 Left of spread above.  Centre spread:

At the top, or is it at The End?

Put on your best suit:

Stamps:  Paper Artsy  Words Plate 6 (for the shorthand writing!)

Stencil Girl stencils: Faces in the Crowd, On the Edge, Subliminal skull, 

Ribbons & Circles, October 2016 Club stencil.


*____*

Hello from Kim!

I have a sneaky peek...I'm having fun burying cards as we speak. The direction twists and turns and rounds about upon itself! Honestly no clue where I will wind up, but that's the fun right???

Come back soooon I promise I will have more to share!

After the Poe blog hop (did you have a jaunt through our offerings?), 

a not-so-little Raven tells me there will be a Dark Valentine hop 12-16 Feb, so there could be something here with the emphasis on DARK!

Meantime, our challenge to you is to share your dark, creepy, weird makes with us. 

Theme is optional - you create what your heart tells you to do and we'll love to come and see.

Link Up b e l o w....

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