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.

Alice to the power of 2

In the previous post, I introduced you to a Zombie Alice.  Since then, she has tried the Magic Potion.
Through the wonders of modern technology, we can show how she was and is now:

Definitely shrunk, more zombied than ever, and no longer able to stand unsupported.

Frankly, I'm surprised Lewis Caroll could keep writing past this point!

We are still playing no the dark side, are you?  Share your dark or weird creArtions on the right - Evil Froggie has bribes rewards after each 20 entries...

Alice? Alice? Who the *** is Alice

There's a corrupted version of the song, so beloved of drunken parties (assuming you're old enough, if not, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsrfovOPcjk  )
I'm still slowly working through Michael deMeng's on-line class making Alice characters and a Wonderland Theatre.  The Card Guards have already put in an appearance here.  I spent a happy Easter weekend with a friend raiding my Shed, and making Alices together.  Found some nodding figures, one of which got cannibalised for Alice so she can keep on nodding in agreement with the Red Queen - it's a Safety Feature :)
Somehow, she turned into a Zombie Alice.  Here she is, before she found the "Drink Me" potion:

Doesn't it look like she's also in a straitjacket???  Another of Asylum Anne's "therapies" makes use of yarn on a cone, so Alice's skirt is part of a cone.
Wonderful stitching to hold her brains in!  More therapy put to good use haha.

 But perhaps we should worry about what's hatching out the back of her spine?

Come back later this month to see how she looks after drinking "that" potion!

Meantime, Asylum Anne is worried about her teamies... not a peep out of them for too long.  Have the wintry snowy blasts she is getting spread as far as Finland, and even California???  Are they snowed in with their snow tyres stuck in storage thinking it's summer?  what a wonderland we live in.

Look right, to see why Evil Froggy is gasping... for... just... one... more... entry in our challenge, so he can slip something special in the mail for you! 
Update: and all of a sudden you've had enough aircon for your brain to start creArting, and we're WELL past the number of entries for the next giveaway.

Don't forget to pack a toothbrush!

As hinted on 1 May, Asylum Anne is slipping the straitjacket to go Junqueing in Ancestral Lands.  All the advice is to pack toiletries in your hand luggage (stewardesses presumably don't like all that bad breath after 13 hours on a plane eating airline food???)
So as not to lose the brush, I've made a dinky stand to sit on the airline tray:

That'a a nicely balanced, sturdy holder, sure to stay upright through any turbulence.

(Badminton shuttlecock, encrusted with granular gel-scungy plaque)

The economy bristles have been upgraded to Business, Serious Business, with grape vine tendrils squeezed into the airline wines, then becoming excellent floss.  The feathers - well, what better than having a wing-assisted flight?

As a Devotee of Michael deMeng's teachings, in particular "When Good Brushes Go Bad" live class, I have added to the handle: the shiny green is where the toothpaste is coming out, the other unsmiling chappy knows something about your teeth that your dentist doesn't.

I've made sure this brush has soaked up plenty of Vitamin D before being strapped into a darkened flying box"

Whaddya think - will it earn me another Girl Scout badge at Hogwarts?

Don't forget, we have prizes... for YOUR dark create.  Every 20 entries triggers an occasion to choose someone to award! We are halfway to the next award 

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.

An InLinkz Link-up

January 1

So 2016 saw lots of musicians and the odd actor head off to try a new batch of harps the angels have been making, leaving us here to cope with pretending to "use up" our stash creArting and releasing our weird and dark sides.  Long may it continue through 2017!

Not sure about you but I am sooo glad 2017 is finally here! That means we can finally share our amazing sponsor for this month and next, the amazing Seth Apter! Seth is an amazing source of talent and ongoing inspiration. You can find his blog, The Altered Page, HERE . We hope you visit, pop over and tell him Dream in Darkness sent you :)

Seth sent the Creative Team some toys to play with and one stamp set to give to the winner of the January and the February Creative Challenge. But you can't win if you don't play! So, on we go with our team makes!

CT Anne asks, What was YOUR New Year resolution?

Do more housework?

I opened the hot water cupboard, wherein the vacuum cleaner resides

Oops, is that Evil Froggie's nesting place?  Should I slam the door shut? Or live dangerously, have a closer look with the flashlight  - might be an auxiliary craft stash from the looks of the dust on the machine, the mouse trap, and a manky vacuum cleaner brush that didn't quite get put away properly...  think I'll grab that right now!  Add the front of a plastic skull, and that's as far as it got in Michael deMeng's "When Good Brushes Go Bad" class.  Since then, he's been corrupted by taking too many road trips with Seth Apter - because he suggested using stencils in his "Skullduggery" class!  So for a New Year resolution project, what better than picking out "change" from Seth's Unfinished stencil.  Putting it onto a curved skull was a little tricky - one of those practice makes perfect things - with modelling paste.  And it ended up unsure whether it was saying "chanGe", or chanCe" - both work today.

 I took a bit of licence with the stencil, leaving quite high peaks in parts.

 and full frontal:

Dust Bunnies Beware!  Life is unfinished - you hope!!!

Whoah! Anne totally rocked her piece of art! Don't you think?

Well this is Granne here and I made an AJ page inspired by Cyborgs...

Totally had a brill time with our awesome sponsors products:

Maze and Laser Beams Embossing folders,

Splatter Proof and Ring Around dies with some

metal tape, alcohol inks and Inka Golds.

AND the fab iris - got it from far far away land and love the look.

Resistance Is Futile....

Such amazing and fabulous texture, Granne! Love it! Next up, it's me, kim with some more Seth Stash Playtime!

I made a canvas using some of the colors, shapes and words that hold much of my heart.

The canvas is a funky size 7" x 7.75" it started life as a giraffe print at the dollar store.

Many layers later it morphed into this!

I used the Drip Drop die set to cut paper and used the leftovers as a stencil to play with the brilliant circles that make my heart happy.

I used the Stencil Girl Club stencil to do Truths at the top with heavy modeling paste by DecoArt.

For Revealed, I stamped through the stencil letters with the Word Salad circle stamp.

Seth stashed used:

Stencil Girl full size stencil club stencil

Seth Dies and Cling mounted rubber stamp.

Check out his online shop HERE

Come back during the month for more fun!

The Frogster is mighty angry we have used the bones of his ancester in our badge. To appease the beasty froggy, link up your creative makes with us!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Finale is Here!

Sob! It is a happy time as we have found CT Anne, Evil Froggie, and it is Halloween!!  But, alas, it also is the end of the 31 Days of Halloween for 2016!  How we shall miss seeing all the faboolous makes this wonderful event brings!  Just remember, at Dream in Darkness we are the home of Halloween ALL year long....it never really ends!  So dry your tears and start thinking how you can creep, weird, odd, plain old mess up Thanksgiving projects!  Here we go with our last makes for the event but never our last makes for Halloween!  NEVER!!

CT Anne says Hooray!!!!  She has corrupted her teamies over the pink issue, or worn them down, made them use up all the pink in their stash, got it all out of their system - see, Nan can barely produce a digital pink watermark MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

I don't know if I'm thick-skinned or thin-skinned, but I do know that I need something to protect my fabulously awesomely inventive brain from the Slings And Shafts of Life, and this is something like what you'd find twixt skin & brain... bone!

Even DH got a bit of a fright when he came home from work to be met by this apparition!  But he still likes it - bless him :)  And my dentist says there's nothing wrong with my teeth apart from a few aged fillings 

(as he hands me a bill for $583 for replacing just one!)

The papier mache skull is from Silver Crow Creations.  It sucks up and holds black gesso then paint much better than a plastic skull. They also have the centre headpiece "wings" which colour up well with alcohol inks, or rub n buff, or any paint really.  The jewellery came from 16kg  in a banana box I acquired very very cheaply some years back.  A lot of it was earrings, with many duplicates, so the stalk for pierced ears pokes through the paper mache to help hold the pices on while glue dries. The mdf cupcake stand is a Kaisercraft kit- got as far as priming it with black gesso.  The crochet veil/mantilla... can't remember where the pattern came from, but the handiwork is all moi

The painting techniques came from various online classes (and 2 books) 

from Michael deMeng including his currently-running Skullduggery class. 

I've edited the photo to exaggerate the colouring.

And the test tube... is for catching all the ideas that 

still keep dripping out of my brain moi-mwahahaha

CT Kim has this...

"FIN"...

or is it?

MDF Skull to Celebrate the Day of the Dead...layered up with more DecoArt treats!

CT Granne has modest offer of a card, using mainly DI's and Tim Holtz stamps and dies.

Well, there was a stencil, few other stamps and fabric tape together

with torned piece of paper involved also...

Happy Halloween!!

CT Nan is ending the 31 days with a beginning?  Yes, November and December will be sponsored by the awesome Grumbacher Art!  So she has a partial reveal of the inside of a book that has a lot of Grumbacher goodness on the outside so be sure to come back tomorrow for a peek at the front!  She will also be showing some more pics of the inside of the book as November moves through with a chill in the air and the smell of paint in the house!

The book includes products by Tim Holtz, images from Mischief Circus, and some of the vintage images I have in my Etsy Store "Odditiesdigitalstamps.  If you want to grab any of these images free, just run over to my blog and download them for free!  Happy Halloween!

Remember, two months of Grumbacher fabulous products and projects and the winners of November and December will win Grumbacher products!  So get those painty hands ready and those ideas churning for a chance to be a winner!

To Recycle Is To Reincarnate?

Isn't she cute?  And so very very pink!!!!  But rest assured, Dear Reader, that Will Not Last!!!
Her head turns on its torso

and underneath, as you roll her along, the whole body turns.

You'll just have to take my word for it (and some closeup examination of the next pics) that I retained both movements.  On occasion I have accidentally recorded a movie on the camera, but do you think I can do that on purpose?  Even with the manual downloaded???  This piece is an amalgam of Michael deMeng's Twisted Toyland class and his current Skullduggery class

Those little pink ponytails have been turned into horns, I think.

Aves apoxie clays are 2-part, air drying, and take texturising, drilling and paint well.  Though I poked the earring through the clay before it set to create the hole, then removed the earring until the painting was finished as well. Awww, that tutu is soooo cute!!! One can only wonder about Snarly peeking out from above though...

As I built up the head with clay, it became apparent that she wasn't centred on the spinning base - she was leaning backwards.  Thickening the base and adding the skulls around the bottom fixed that, but her skinny one leg was also too soft a plastic to cope, so I beefed her leg up some.  And gave her teeth!  Her eyes stayed white sockets for quite a while, then I had one idea that morphed when I picked up some foamy packaging that had the recycle labels on the edge.

And in full regalia

Her earrings tell us that she's dead, she has the keys to the gates of... and she's armed to the teeth to dance 'n roll out of this life into the next.  Welcome to Day of the Dead.

Are you following the 31 Days of Halloween blog hop?  The list is on the sidebar.

And if you've been celebrating the season artistically, creating some off-beat, dark, weird other piece, share it here - someone's got to win that excellent skellie, before Evil Froggy makes off with it.

(If it's through facebook, please have it set to Public, so we can see it :)