Happy Fellow

Totally felt like coloring something

- it's been a while since last time.

Life tends to take over your hobby time.

We had had lots of snow and it keeps coming

and coming and coming.

But, anyways, this happy chap was a perfect

little thing to color and made an ATC.

Mr. Skelly stamp is designed by Rick St Dennis and sold by wonderful red rubber store (and more) Blank Page Muse.

Do link up your wicked, cool, artsy makes, altered thinkys and other art you have created. After our hungry froggy gets 20 links, this cool stamp will be heading somewhere in the world. 

And Poe did write...

Not just about the Darling Lenore and that pesky raven, but about hot air balloon trips, pirate treasure, death and being buried alive...  and Creative Jumpstart 2018 has Birgit Koopsen making a little (accordian) book. Cover:

Stamps used:
Our cover Man, Ode to Poe - a digi from Leigh SB Designs
digi skull by Rick St Denis for Blank Page Muse
 "Dead Men...", top-hatted "raven", opened skull, flying skeleman, crackle (heat-embossed) are all Blank Page Muse
Wizard bookshelf (parts used twice) and Airshow, are from ButterSide Down
Background text from Seth Apter
Rabbit is Alpha Stamps.  Why?  Why not!  There would be plenty living in the graveyards - food for ravens perhaps?  The tags are from them as well.
And what with the last page, and the back cover, we know what Poe REALLY died of!

​

An InLinkz Link-up

Listen, Look, Talk ....

I was watching some Youtube tutorials

and saw one where lady had a embossed image

and she colored it over with Tombow marker.

Had to try if it really works, LOL.

These was suppose to be ATC trio, 

but I made it a decoration ... it is Halloween season 

coming after all.

Skulls are from Sin City Stamps, design by Rick St Dennis ,

also used one of the stamps on Background Grunge plate.

Entering my altered ATC's, to a Airless Chambers challenge,

where Anything Goes With Rick St Dennis.

And how about YOU entering our challenge?

We'd looooooove to came and see. This months theme is 

B-day - but the theme is optional, 

so link HERE your strange, wicked, cool art makes

Dark places hide decorations

And where decorations relate to last year's Christmas, that have lain undisturbed for 11 months, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be dust... and SPIDERS!!! Possibly Shelob herself, as immortalised in Hobbit lore

Shelob has such a fearsome reputation among the orcs that few venture into her caverns under the mountains. And when they do, they make sure they bear “gifts” for her. And lest she come out and ravage other spiders’ territories, they too send her regular “tributes”. Bilbo was a hobbit who, in innocent ignorance, not only found his way into her clutches, but also got away. Later he floated his mates away from the goblins in barrels. Perhaps he had seen the spider tributes coming in to Shelob, not understanding the significance, but used the idea to make good his goblin escape.

Being a Middle Earthian myself, the idea of "innocent virgins" being sent to their doom, overlaying Bilbo & Frodo's escapes from Shelob, and Bilbo’s escape from the Goblintown, had obviously been in my subconscious came up pretty quickly, so I started auditioning ideas: a tangle of spiderweb that glows in the dark? Nope.  But there was some black&grey velveteen drifting round, I was checking through stamps I had from Smeared Ink - Rick St Denis images - insect & creepy stamps had just arrived from ButterSideDown. Then there was that soooo cute dolly border from Lost Coast just waaiting for re-use…

The background just fell in to place: Paint the sides of the canvas, glue in a piece of seascape scrapbooking paper, add another piece of it border-punched, drape the velveteen. I used double-sided tape to hold it in places until the gel medium dried. The corner folds were perfect for “lurkers”. The henge and portal stamps were just about the right width for the space, so they got painted up using Silks glazes and some Jacquard Interference paint.

Then it was back to those dollies again.

Paint the poker chips to disguise them sortof - Gold - All creatures like Gold. Stamp the centre of the web onto the scrabble tiles. Letters were chosen with intent! Glue scrabble tiles to the poker chips. Stamp a row of dollies with indian ink on sickly green thick paper and choose which ones to sacrifice. They needed to be sitting down, “drugged” with spider venom, of course, before being wrapped in spider web. That meant some geometry involved, which I haven’t perfected still: I inked up only part of the web stamp with Stazon, stamped onto acetate, cut and formed them into cones with a bit of overlap. I thought gel medium would hold the cut edges, but either I was impatient and took the clamps off too soon, or it was never going to work. E6000 did though. How to hold the cones onto the poker chips? Jacquard 3D Lumiere would fill any gaps as well, so out with the copper & red. If you are going to do this, know that you have to hold the cone and poker chip together for the same time as a tv program runs between 2 sets of ad breaks for the glueyness to work.

I really wanted to use the shrunken head, sunken in the deep seas (river?) So it was stamped with Stazon onto a poker chip and tucked in a corner.


Then the dollies went on – and pretty much hid him!
Spiders – some painted with Jacquard interference paints – Essential! Populate the waters (stamped critturs), tuck those eyes back in the folds of velveteen, all ready for you to enjoy.

But if you've not already got your decorations out of storage, pleeeeeease BE CAREFUL!


Supplies:
8x10 canvas on deep box frame.
Hand, eyes & most spiders from Silver Crow Creations
Stamps:
web: Third Stone RS.
Dolls Border: Lost Coast Designs.
Sea creatures & shrunken head: ButterSideDown Stamps.
Portal & stones: Rick St Denis, rubberized by Smeared Ink

Jacquard 3D Lumiere paint for Tribute cones, Silks Glazes and Jacquard Interference paints on henges & portal, & spiders
Fiskars border punch for waves (scrapbooking paper).
Fabric is a panne velvet-type fabric.

Since there's a Crittur Party going on over at Lost Coast Designs, this has been entered in that challenge.
And of course, though it's busying up to Christmas, Evil Froggy needs feeding, so link your creepmas, weird (no element of cute!) here for the chance to win goodies from Grumbacher.

December, Santa, and Grumbacher

Merry Creepmas or Christmas or Happy Holidays from all of us at Dream in Darkness, where it is Halloween all the time!  To help us get our bad Santa on, we have Grumbacher back to sponsor us for December!  Yep, that means another chance to win some Grumbacher's products to play with so don't waste a merry minute start creating!

CT Nan had a run in with the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Art Sherpa at the same time!  Nothing but good I mean wicked goodness could come from that meeting!  

But some Grumbacher Acrylic paints and gesso did have a part in it!

Somebody seems to be considering what they want for a snack and it ain't Doritos so......I would sleep with those windows locked and stay out of dark streets if I were you to keep from being that little bit that hits the spot!

CT Anne ...

is suffering, badly.  She's not sure if she will ever recover from all that pink we inflicted on her!  For almost 2 weeks she has been coughing, coughing, coughing.  It totally wrecked her holiday, and she is dreading having to go back to work on Monday.  The doctor said "whooping cough", dispensed antibiotics and said the bugs would be "live" another 5 days.  YOU are safe, they're not e-bugs!!!!

 A 12"x12" paper, with added texture from Seth Apter stamps and stencils.  Digistamps: the sick boy is Bloobel and the closet monster (used twice) is a Rick St Denis

So please, from the bottom of my lungs, no more cute faces, no more pink, bring on Creepmas!!!

5 days later, update:  the nurse rang, it's not whooping cough!  No idea what, so beware!  It may be an e-bug after all, so girly stuff is AT YOUR PERIL!!!!

CT Kim

Postcards using Academy Acrylics by Grumbacher, Mixing White, Process Magenta & Yellow and Grumbacher Red

CT Granne making a set of ATC's using 

Grumbacher's fab oil paints to make a background. 

Hmmm, looks like the Zombies are awake and after YOU!!!

We know when you've been naughty; we know when you've been nice!  So forget about Santa's list and enter the challenge so you don't get on OUR list which is oh so much worse!  That pesky Frog is wearing a Santa hat so you figure it out~

An InLinkz Link-up

Monster Madness~Blog Party May 28th 2016

Thanks for hopping by today! We are playing along in something a bit new today, the May Monster Madness Blog Party! This party is just getting started and there are a bunch more stops to make!

Come Join the Party!

Grumpoyles - Are they Little Grumpies suffering multiple personality disorder?  Are they Gargoyles pretending to have skills needed for Immigration to allow them in?  It was very late, almost dusk on a sunny Spring evening when this motley assortment made it to the Down Under Asylum.

Incognito?  I don't think so!  But some of them are certainly making free with an ornate candlestick, which is a bit batty.  Maybe they think it is a Christmas Tree, and they are the most fabulous ornaments it could ask for!

Perhaps Immigration needs to check each one.

Toothoyl:

Obviously won't be a drain on our orthodontic budget with these well-honed teeth.  The gargoyle silhouette was over-stamped with a tree bark background from Smeared Ink's Urban Decay set.  A row of gold nuggets (rhinestones) suggest this guy is well set up for any future dental care.

Zomboyl

Clearly this Gargoyl has eaten something that disagrees with him - that half-digested torso trying to get out... or is it reaching for an Asylum Nurse?  At least it arrived with some precious gems in its claws.

Fangoyl

Another wealthy immigrant, a row of precious gem nuggets.  But that spider - is it coming, or going?  Do we need to fumigate?

Punkoyl 

Apparently this fellow dodged the Gargoyle Complex and flew in under his own steam. (steam? Get it?  Steampunk?  Sure?  You really got it now?  A Steampunk Lil Grumpie?  Just born last month?) Clever you are!!!

Spydoyl

Well Well Well!  Is this a spider trying to sneak past our stringent biosecurity?  We had to take a swab and do some DNA testing before this punky character was allowed to stay.

Just as we thought they had all arrived and been processed, another stumped in:  From the Fringe set, you have to wonder about a being that has a woman at its throat (and a pelvis from another stamp co)

So there we have it, an even half-dozen critters.  The Family Portrait (in dusky sunlight):

Lost Coast Designs have an Articulated Skeleton that's been getting a real workout from me the past couple of months - the pelvis on Stumpoyl is part of the set.

Smeared Ink have all the other stamps, I have them in rubber except for the Steampunk Grumpies.  They were mostly stamped, coloured, fussy-cut then glued to gargoyle silhouettes which had been cit from cereal boxes -  they even had their own food for the journey!

The background in all the pictures is the piece of heavy packing paper that has spent some time in the "spray booth" - so many different colours from Lindy's Stamp Gang pile up and create something that will be marvvellous to recycle into different projects.

P.S.  Some would say such a "family" would have their own furbaby.  You'll just have to backtrack to Dargoyle on Carmen's Veranda facebook picture to see that beastie.

It's going to take some serious therapy to help these guys DISintegrate their personalities, so life's going to be pretty scary round here - perfectly normal, in other words!  

BUT..... Halloween 2016 and WATCH OUT!!!!

DT Granne here hopping to the partyyyyyyy!

And I'm bringing a AJ page with me.

Stamps used: Lost Coast Designs: ATC Faces and

Vampire skull by Rick St Dennis.

Looks like he's been BAD, bad boy - and maybe still is...



CT kim last to the party as always!
I have an excuse, realllllly I do...
I was helping Miss Frankie get ready for the Midnight Ball!

Miss Frankie is a fabulous fashionista designed by the ever so talented Ike of Ike's Art

She had to get her green on and no time to waste!

Skelly bat up top is a fabulous Holiday Happy Mail stencil 

received from the wicked Granne. The stencil is made by Panduro Hobby. 

The clockface with hand is a rubber stamp I acquired from a crafty de-stash, unlabeled. 

It might be Third Coast.

Thanks for looking, now off to the Ball!

But wait!!!

Come back and link up your creatively creative Monster Makes with us, 

happy to have you join our party, too!

Our Linky is HERE

Party On!

Eastertide~Asylum Anne

Easter, and the commercial world expects us to take great joy in helping our families towards obesity & diabetes by buying up Easter eggs.  CT-Kim had shared an idea  that took off in my mind.  I know I've got some polystyrene eggs somewhere.  Find my stash of polystyrene shapes fairly easily - no eggs.  But adjacent were a packet of Christmas baubles that come in 2 halves, to be decorated, connected and hung.  So I digressed.  Alcohol inkpads for some newly-arrived Rubberdance stamps on the outside.  Now here's one of the joys of unmounted stamps - you can place them in the palm of your hand, press an curved object into your hand and mould the stamp round the shape to get a decent impression:

I have some brown-tinted cottonwool in here.
Next was to drizzle & spread some alcohol inks on the inside of the bauble:

Losing the mushroom images a bit - probably because I didn't use black ink, but brown.  Apologies for the photos - camera gone to hospital under warranty, so I'm using a mixture of cellphone camera which likes to add a pink cast, and DH's swanky heavy camera.
Maybe I'd better pop out and get some polystyrene egg shapes after all, it's only a 5-minute drive...
I poked kebab sticks up their fat ends, coated them with gel medium first, then started stamping.  One then got a wash of brown paint, then some granular gel (Golden) painted dark blue, then bits of a pterodactyl stuck into it.  Another... a theme was developing with magic mushrooms and genetic modification perhaps:

and from a different angle

Not my "normal" stamp purchase, but I'm liking that figure/person.  I played with a few more eggs then got sidetracked, as one does.  And facebook kept throwing up umpteen challenges that were interesting.  So I grabbed one of Ike's Art images - the Zombie cat & dog, printed it, coloured it, and decided it was too small against the eggs.  So I enlarged it, printed it, coloured it... and being a Christian celebration, gave them halos.

What do you think of the dead cockroach on top of Pandora's box?  By now I realised I was needing a shadow box for this piece, and it needed to be pretty large.  But no problem - I've been tripping over a couple of usps boxes lately.  February is usually a ruinously expensive month with "superbowl" sales etc. and goodies have found their way to me by mid-March.

.

That watermark should really say Anne pigstyed this!  But cloths on clothespegs hanging off the protective sheet over the (ex)dining table are ideally placed when one needs finger-wiping.  One of those eggs is being "auditioned" in the green cup.  Good size, these boxes.  34x28x8cm!!! Then I got sidetracked (it was the following weekend) and there's a op shop that has a junky branch down a back street.  I wandered in there, spotted a picture frame that looked about the same size as the boxes so I grabbed it, and it turned out to be an almost perfect fit.  Masking tape at the back to hold the frame to one box, and layering strips of heavy paper bags on the front will make it pretty sturdy.  Now you can buy these "period" advertising-covered bags from Stampington - or something similar.  But I get mine free - Silver Crow Creations pack some of my shopping in them before shipping in a box, and I'm often shopping there... so I'm recycling with a vengeance at this stage.

As I'm working on this and subsequent layers of stencils, I'm meditating on the diverse elements that are coming into this piece, about the "quirkiness" of humans in these hi-tech days of taking onboard zombies, despite science relieving the Middle Ages people from those fears of people rising from the dead in random states of decay, to steampunk, which  romanticises a mechanical era that relied on coal, steam, causing such pollution. Genetically modified critturs in the eggs, becoming extinct, man's fascination with unscientific things-

And the theme begins to emerge. 

From Sacred to the Profane (Secular).  From superstition to science.  From the Christian beliefs about God, to the way we (mis)treat our selves and environment, and romanticise those outmoded beliefs that our intelligence has disproved.  I like working with steampunk, but it IS pretty much a fictional notion - so are Alice and Wizard of Oz - but that's another session.

OK, so that's explaining all the random elements that are coming together.  This is what I ended up with, followed by some closeups:

The frame got the Demented Derma crackle treatment.  I played with my hot glue gun, the cogs were diecut then coated with Ice Resin in a strip to go down the side of the frame.  All the text was printed on white paper and cut.

Top Left: Hanging off the hot-glue web - obligatory spider, having caught a shrunken head from Butterside Down Stamps.  Can you find the gas mask behind it, or the dove?

Bottom left:

Had the leg & boot from Caustic Ratflynger by Rick St Dennis made into a "stuffie", left over from another project - Carbon footprint!   The delightful hedgehog-looking crittur is a Mini Meckie - a groundhog - still trying to look after the season-change for the Americans.

Moving to the right, some more eggs.  The blue one has broken open and a bloodied hand is reaching out (was it perhaps a landmine?) to grab the planet - a bead depicting the globe.  It also has a crown of "thorns".

I used the same 3 stencils from TCW, Joggles and Stencil Girl, repeated with 2 & 3 layers of each, finishing with just a couple of words from Seth Apter's Unfinished stencil first coloured in a  dark red, then an interference paint very lightly over it.  Viva las vegas stamps alien baby face and Nosferatu were stamped on tissue paper several times and glued to the background in places.  The box the zombies are sitting on is labelled "Pandora's box".

Top right diecut dove, diecut tombstone - is an autumn leaf dried, laminated then diecut, the heart is a diecut coated with granular gel, indicating the emptied tomb, the hope for redemption.

Both left and right sidewalls have steampunk characters from Third Stone stamps - one visible here.

All sorts of goodies have come from silvercrowcreations - gas mask (look hard behind the spider web), spider, cockroach, shredded greenbacks, globe bead, thermometer, the monkeys with attitude, mini meckies (groundhogs), lightbulb and crinkle wire holding it for instance.

If you can find a ray of hope in this tale of man's inhumanity to man, hang on to it!  Meantime, let your own expressions of the dark, the weird, come to light and shared at evil froggie's  Linky  Your ray of sunshine might be to win something from this month's sponsor, Make It Crafty if you do.

Asylum Anne doesn't have her own blog, so she's hijacking this post to share with the following blog challenges:

Show Us Your Pussies for Lucky kitties (define "luck!")

Things to Alter steampunk challenge

Left of Centre challenge #122

Forever Dark 2 Marchchallenge