Only scary in a thunderstorm

What could be more ordinary than a duck paddling in the pond that is Asylum Anne's studio extension.  Steampunked with this great stamp from Chocolate Baroque.
Over the years and throughout the year, Tafta Fibre Forum hold week-long retreats at various places in Australia, and I've been wanting to go for 20+ years.  Got to one in Lismore a few years back, this September-October  it was off to Geelong for 5 days with Jen Crossley.  One of the Tafta traditions is for people to donate a piece of art 15cm x 15cm, and the other attendees to buy for $15.  The funds raised provide scholarships for others to attend these forums.  This is my offering:

What was scary was the builder taking part of the house roof off to blend in the Studio roof on the last fine day before a forecast of thundery squally rainy week!  As you know, a duck looks pretty relaxed on the water, no-one can see the feet paddling away at a great rate.  But a flash of lightning reveals the sweat dripping off this duck!

The heat-embossed stencil over the multi-colour painted background is from Artist Cellar.  The embossing powders are from both Seth Apter and Andy Skinner's ranges.  The sizzix die cut multiple cogs from a range of fabrics.  Note panne velvet curls under itself.
As for the sweat, that is 6+ layers of embossing powder - Seth's Antique beeswax is translucent, and builds up as though you were doing encaustic waxing.

You know we're always encouraging you to share your dark, offbeat makes with all our Dear Readers - just look right!

Mad Hatter

'Tis the first day of Spring, and wonderland beckons -post steampunk, and into electronic-punk?  Or cyber-punk?

Bobble-head seems a bit of a greaser.   What does Alice think about him?

Nope, neither look very impressed with each other.
Hatters went mad from poisoning, but this one should have had a long and productive life ahead of him:

But it's time to put some colour to him.  He has retained his lead-free status, but  zombifaction attacked.  His crepuscular disease has erupted out of a jar of Andy Skinner's lava paste.

It's even worse on his back, and it looks like he also had Alice's bug growing under his necktie.:

All in all, he suffered in life, and resurrection has been no kinder to him. Wonder what his wig was made from.... it and his hat seem to have survived best.

May the rest of us live long and prosper!

Meantime, we're still providing a forum for you to post your dark, weird creArtions.  WITH the incentive (?) of a prize every 20 entries.  Look right.

When rubber balloons haven't been invented...

In Jane Austen's day, there were no balloons, so what could one fly?  Plenty of skulls around... so let's take our protest of over a week of frosts to the skies with one - we're freezing to death after all!

All stamps are from Blank Page Muse.  I sprinkled embossing powders over Andy Skinner's Lava Paste for both the clouds (Peppered chantilly enamel) and frosts (Fractured Ice)  for some subtle colouring, before heating it up.  And because it's such a colourful "balloon, here's what it looks like in rubber:

We are sooo close to rewarding one of you with some goodies - 2 more dark and weird show'n tell on the column to the right......>

Blood at the Opera and the music on...

What happens when you hit that Top D note?

Escaping the Asylum at the start of winter was so imperative, Anne was even willing to suffer a 10-hour then 13-hour flight to attend 2 days of Andy Skinner workshops at Lets Be Creative in Rogate - about an hour's drive south of Heathrow airport.  Except I was driving from the Fens, and the GPS decided to take me back into London instead of taking the M25 - adding 2 hours to that drive.  So my own singing could have been a little sour by the time I got there.  But Lovely Brigitte had organised a "billet" with, would you believe it, another kiwi!!!  Thank you Lois for the comfy bed, good company, I hope you still have some pineapple lumps left :) 

Below is the class we did on day 2, with plenty of Andy's new product, lava paste, in use.  I didn't dare stay to the end of the class in case of holdups somewhere along the motorways, but as it turns out the baggage queue at Heathrow was "short-staffed"  - would you believe once we barged through the queue to get our boarding passes, we then spent almost 4 hours in the queue trying to hand over our baggage, with barely time to get some nibbles before the boarding call came.

Such a sweet image, but of course once I got home to finish it off, there had to be blood and destruction - wine-glass-shattering music can have that effect, even if they are plastic, from Silver Crow Creations

So why on earth didn't I grab another flight across the channel to visit Sari while I was "in the area"???

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Ohh, why indeed!!!??? That would have been totally, absolutely brilliant!

Anne would have been very welcome to my humble hut.

So Anne made a Opera art piece, and the culture off arts

continues with music:

Sentiment from Visible Image stamp set and the skull

from La Scraposphére's range.

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So what has the summer heat made you create?

Let us see!

Looks like froggy there----->

needs just few more links and these

goodies are of to someone among entries 21-40.

Man cries his grief

I saw this poem, made by Lauri Pohjanpää,

poem is called "Metsän puhelu"

 (Forest Talk says the Google translator)

Very touching poem and I used part of it

for my ATCoins with Gecko Galz images.

Translation (using Google) is about this:

Old bird that have seen the world,

slowly sang from it's branch:

Be quiet, silence, when a man cries,

man cries his  grief,

they have been bad to him.

Translation is far from perfect but maybe you'll

get the idea...

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It looks like after 7 more entries is time to mail

some goodies:

So do link your art there ------>>>>

and let us see your creations.

No Half Measures.

  Is the glass half full, or half empty, and depending on the contents, will it really matter?
Maybe what really matters is that at time of posting, we only need 3 more dark offerings, to award a prize.  Only THREE!!!

Journal page used a Seth Apter/Stencil Girl stencil, stamps from Chocolate Baroque, Paper Artsy, Andy Skinner

Belated Birthday Poe!

Life is full of intentions... good and bad.  So Poe's birthday was celebrated in January, and I started... but missing the blog hop deadline, it morphed into Other Innuendo

in her diaphanous mesh dress, and over-stated headdress.
And some digi beasties got in on the act, all dressed in their shiniest Lindy's warpaint

Whilst a Raven (at last! a Poe reference!), heat-embossed, clatters his shiny beak, and speaks that immortal line...

 And of course, the Cautionary note spelled out to Poe by the raven and actress...

Background includes Stencil Girl Tribal Leaves,  stamps from Carabelle which I can't find on thier web site, but got from here,  Andy Skinner's Birds and Bones, Blank Page Muse, digi stamp  Bizarre Beasties from Leigh SB Designs.  The two trees are Cheery Lynn dies, now known as My Makers Movement.

Hopefully your feathers have been ruffled thoroughly, and set you down another dark art path - do share!  We have Treats LOL

Bridge-Building and the December 2018 Winner!

Welcome back to one and all! Today we have an awesome journal layout from Asylum Anne.
Please read to the bottom and find our December Winner, too!


Three years ago, I broke a tooth so thoroughly it had to be crowned.  A few months ago, it fell out, got cemented back in and told 1-2 years before something more would have to be done.In that no-work season between Christmas and New Year, I left a message on my dentist's phone... guess what?  Yep.  I got seen the first day they re-opened.  He cemented it back as a temporary measure only, and once "The Lab" opens, moulds, extractions and design of a bridge will get under way.   For those of you who shiver and quake at the mere though of going, I bet your mouth resembles the Kaisercraft candelabra below (split to provide upper & lower teeth.)

Isn't that a great dentist's challenge? And of course, You Can Trust Me... I'm a Dentist.  So there's the story within the story.  See you all at The Murder House!

Much as I love my dentist, there are times when "building a bridge" just doesn't fix life:

There are so many ways for the bridge to "fail".

The page started with Stencil Girl subliminal skulls, incorporated stamps from Blank Page Muse, Mad Rat, Andy Skinner and various die cuts.


I can thoroughly empathize with Anne and I do dread a dental appointment, how about you?

Our fantabulous WINNER for December 2018 is...

ready PLAYER 1----- Tina with your wicked straw topper! Please email be your snail mail info so some happy mail can start the journey! Email dreamindarknessblog@gmail.com

Don't forget, we are waiting with bated breath to give the 20th dark sharing above, some goodies.

Happy Birthday EA Poe - again!

What is Poe reknowned for?  Writing.  How do we know that?  Because his writings were published as books.  Where do we find books?  In a library.  How do we get to read them in our own time?  Borrow them from the library of course.  Is my questionable Librarian Past catching up with me?  Am I overdue????

You can't tell?

I'm not sure either, largely due to the weird date stamp of Andy Skinner.  According to his stamps, the book has been borrowed by Mr O'Neil, T Rope, and various other weirdly-named personages, including Mr Two Balloons - perhaps Monck Mason's alias?  Carabelle's creation et reve secret set gave me both the book title on the card, and the pointing hand. Leigh SB Designs provided the only digi stamp:  Poe I printed out, then smeared with interference paints for that subtle "je ne sais quoi" !

Keep hopping through the Poe blog hop:

An InLinkz Link-up

Death

It's inescapable.  And after hopping on my soapbox in mid September, but not published until end of October as Halloween Mojo, I have really been tested.  Heading off to Auckland (3 hour drive) for a 3-day weekend with Andy Skinner (UK) & Tracey Weinzapfel (USA), I detoured via the Emergency Dept to catch up with dad, who had been admitted that morning after many chest pains.  Turned out some of it had been another heart attack, and he died Saturday night.  At 94 he was still driving, greeting nurses by name every shift, and discussing articles I read to him out of NZ National Geographic.  I got to do the Friday and Saturday classes, but skipped the evening ones, and Sunday class.  Then mum took a turn for the worse, and we were expecting a double funeral.  But no, she rallied somewhat.  In the meantime I also had a hectic period at work, so my time and inclination to make art was minimal.  I did NOT lose my mojo, nor did I do much creating, I was immersed in other aspects of Life.  Mum died 5 weeks after dad, and I am creating this journal spread between death and funeral, a week ahead of this publication date.

So I apologize that I didn't visit and comment on all the pieces entered in October's challenge.
And here's a reminder that run fast, fly high, but seek immortality in other ways, because the Grim Reaper will get you.

One of those ravens diecut for the last post has carked it.

Seek immortality in celluloid - aided and abetted by a Lego packet with a batman character in it.  It was on my desk, need I say more!

You can tell I used plenty of die cuts - from Seth Apter, Spellbinder, Sizzix, Elizabeth Craft.
 The soulful face came in a package from Teesha Moore,  stencils from Andy Skinner (seems discontinued) and Kaisercraft.  The flying pig is from Silver Crow Creations, and various other stamps in the background from vivalasvegas stamps, Third Stone stamps.  I guess I've been buying Treasure for too long - some of these are no longer available.

Leave us some love below, and show us your dark makings here

The Circus calls.

Everyone loves a good old-fashioned circus, full of death-defying acts, wild animals, and... clowns!!!  Whizz through some tags with me that are to be bound into a book now I've found my Zutter AND bought a new camera!!!

 The cover tag is a size larger than the rest.

 The Trapeze artists wires are still free-floating - with microbeads glued to them for grip haha.

 Love the Sticks & bones stencil, and what has it got in its pocketsses, my presshuss???

I have so many stamps that can be used for a circus, more tags need to be done, so I've not bound these yet!  So far, Scrapberry's (thanks to Sari), Lost Coast Designs, Viva las Vegas stamps, Smeared Ink, Carabelle,  Silver Crow Creations, Stencil Girl, Andy Skinner, Wonder Strumpet and Graphics 45 have all contributed.

If Life's been making you jump through hoops, or you've stayed off-beat this month, share it with us here.