Lest We Forget

The Bubonic plagues, then Spanish Flu killed millions, and we still haven't figured out how to stop pandemics in their tracks.  Maybe the Gargoyles were right all along:

"After losing their sister to Spanish flu, the 2 Fates wondered if people would ever heed the Gargoyle's advice: social distancing."
So there you have it.  Surely The Fates could have kept one of their own alive.  But no, not evebn the Fates can dodge Fate.  So keep your social distancing up for the long haul rearing up ahead of us.

The picture of the girls turned up randomly and unattributed somewhere in facebook I think.  The period of their garb, and the room they were in instantly put me in mind of the Spanish Flu, elegant multi-storeyed buildings.  Somehow I managed to dodge Steampunking it.
This is another 8x8 fat page with a binding strip at left.
Stamps from Paper Artsy include the Zinski house, Hot Pick "Lest we forget".
Seth Apter stamps include a Spellbinder one no longer available, it is similar to the top one in this link.  Plus an Impression Obsession one heat embossed.  Dylusions Halloween set bats, vivalasvegas Gargoyle trio frieze, and Altered Art's Gargoyle.

We still have a prize to award to the most interesting dark-themed piece of yours between #21-40 so keep sharing your creations.

Revenge of the Pandas

Day 25 of Covid-19 Level 4 Lockdown, and it feels as if all the Zoos in the world have turned the tables on us.  We are the ones caged, locked up, no longer free to roam (except one by one to a supermarket).

Another 8x8 fat page, stamping on a "scrapbooking" sheet of paper that depicts the sandy shores at waves' edge that we can no longer wander along:

Border stamps from Seth Apter
Gates from the late lamented Third Coast (Third Stone)
Giraffe & Lion by Rubber Dance
AUD tiger and elephant by Lost Coast Designs
small heads, triply-stamped "Kiss my Butt" and otter (?) from viva las vegas stamps
Bat-owl from Stampendous
Did you notice?  No Pandas were caught on this page, but the Serengeti is well represented.
Keep sharing your darkness with us on the right.

Tumbleweeds

As the Covid-19 gets blown around a deserted world, like tumbleweeds in the desert, scientists still ponder the origin, and notice the positive side effects.

I had a lightly patterned piece of paper I didn't like, with a daisy  or sunflower in one corner.
There are bats from Smeared Ink (in recess), vivalasvegas stamps are responsible for the 3-skull bat, the cowboy-fence scene, the cowboy leading a horse (subtly altered text).  Bats were easy, I have many many batty stamps.  But not one pangolin.  So I took liberties and used Butter Side Down's Hylaeosaurus and Lost Coast Designs AUD mouse.  Both of them have scaly torsos, and a sort-of ant-eaterish snout.
And don't Seth Apter's spotlight stamps from Impression Obsession make marvellous virus-like shapes as a border.
This is an 8"x8" fat page, but as I've no idea how I will end up binding them, there is an extra half-inch at the left that will disappear into the binding process.  Over the past month I have been creating a few covid-19 related fat pages and posted in facebook - click along from here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2805376092884498&set=a.2732369566851818&type=3&theater

And if your dark side is coming out in your art, share it on the right, with a 1 in 20 chance of a prize.
Stay healthy everyone.

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!

July 1 or Where did June go!!

Welcome to the latest New Month.  Congratulations to Granne for holding the fort while Kim tosses scorpions out of her suitcases, and Asylum Anne  ... sought asylum in work, and *shock* *horror!* OTHER crafts!!!

Well, Anne is back, and taking liberties yet again with a stamp company's blog challenge theme, "Let's Go To The Beach" over at Blank Page Muse.  Since it's midwinter for her, the idea of a beach might be a darn sight safer than trying to sail off the beach.  Don't Emerald Creek/Seth Apter's Baked Textures do Cthulhu proud! No wonder Anne is scrambling for a beach, any beach. He has her vessel firmly in his grip, and is dragging it down under the waves.

Already people have fallen and been trapped by seaweed and tentacles

The highly-textured flotsam is tyvek painted, pleated and heated.

All stamps from Blank Page Muse (formerly Sin City Stamps).

Steampunk Octopus frame from Creative Embellishments.

Tiny people from Silver Crow Creations.

Well thank you Anne for your kind words and WOW what a

fabulous beach piece you have created for our inspiration.

I felt like coloring and grabbed a big stamp

for that, and Inktense pens.

Bold sentiment is from Katzelkraft, stamped on vellum.


HelloHello

I am still cleaning up those scorpions...Asylum Anne denies anything to do with that... the dynamic duo above has certainly raised the bar super high! So (again) I am ducking out and hope to be back later with a treat to share...I try I really do!

But for this month how about some stamps for a treat for you??
Well you gotta play along to be in it to win it!

Link up whatever suits you this month you have a short 30-ish days to get your arty groove going, let's go! We do ask, please minimize the cute, however, a teeny bit o' pink may be tolerated in special circumstances!!

The prize this month to one fabulous arty soul...

A set of our newest at Blank Page Muse, stamps for the backside of your art coins!

A crazy hybrid Bird-Man

A gentle-winged-man

The only catch is you have to link up a new arty project below...

An InLinkz Link-up

May is the Word

Well, well, spring has finally arrived at the northern part of globe...

Less snow, much more light, temperature rising ...

and that seems to get elf's cranky

I got this senselessly cool stamp set from happy mail (hugs Anne),

and totally wanted to create with it. So I got some watercolor paper,

my H2O colors and start coloring - enjoyed truly making these.

So beware of Elf's this time of year - Hope they go to sleep or

in these cases: someone will but them to sleep ....

Pick a Word

Asylum Anne's main "social media" contact is facebook.  There, quite a few people are not so much making a New Year Resolution, as picking a word for the year's focus. If you did, how are you getting on with it?   OK, so this piece says "create", and appears to be giving the lie, but my "word" for this year, if I must have one, is "use up"  This is NOT the same as "do not buy anything new this year" (*wink*)

But there are various things I've bought in the past that haven't grabbed me perhaps.  Or people have given me bits & pieces that are still on my desk needing to be released from that bondage, by imagination.  And there are things I've bought for my retirement when I expect to have a lot less "discretionary income".  But why wait until then?  Especially when I've discovered the odd thing that doesn't keep too well... like the TH Distress crackle paint - in one, the brush has hardened to the paint, so much so that when I opened the near-full jar, the brush stayed in the paint!

This is how I feel about stash that behaves like that:

Kaisercraft chipboard/mdf off-the-page thingies will always keep, but I've used a plaque to act as a supporting background to the bulk of the additions and "create" which is probably also Kaisercraft, but I'm not swearing to that (don't like the taste of soap in my mouth).  The TH distress crackle paints were clumped & smoothed onto the word.  The plaque was first covered in black gesso, then several layers of Stencil Girl stencils - the Sea urchin used several times.
This angel, and a tree elsewhere were sent me by Teamie Granne/Sari.  They (and a 3-layer  diecut cog) got heat embossed three times to build up a thicker layer of glossy goodness.  The angel was then stamped into whilst molten with a Seth Apter alphabetic stamp (stamp it into an embossing pad first so it will release cleanly after the embossing powder has cooled)

I've been playing for a while with making my own colour mixes of embossing powder, or using multiple colours on one item.  The cog had layers of oil rubbed bronze, then part-damped for Lindy's Gang Terra cotta rust, and Byzantine bronze.

There are diecuts, bits of wire also cluttering my desk, so here goes:

And everything comes together, to remind me of so many stash themes and techniques to be re-used, as:

Doesn't that skull (a spectacle lens) look different from this angle. I've got another one to use up too...

How's your year starting up?  Done anything dark, gruesome, or off-beat to share?  here, would be a great place...

An InLinkz Link-up

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....

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Happy Birthday Dad

As you may recall, I had some skulls readied for projects a while back.  I also had umpteen diecuts hanging round the desk, so it was time to put them together.  I painted the entire boxed canvas yellow, then stencilled the Sunburst over it with gel medium, which will dry clear.  Several washes including black, quinacridone gold, dioxazine purple... then wiped them off the stencilled areas to reveal the yellow rays.

Multiple cereal boxes were cut with Seth Apter's Take Flight die, glued together, then heat embossed with Stampendous' chunky metallic seasonings.  Some was dabbed on to the skull and heated on as well.
Down the bottom, more layers of paint and washes, understamping and overstamping, including use of Strumpet stencil's  Fetus.

4 sets of Sizzix Feathered Wings  were handy, so I layered two of each to make 2 sets of wings.  This set had Paper Artsy Infusions (which I first came across in July's trip to Australia) sprinkled over, spritzed with water.  The edges were tipped with gold Lumiere paint. The largest cross of the die set was cut out of a sheet of craft foam (it also shows the embossing component easily) painted, and strips of bling added.  The top of it had to be snipped to fit under the skull, and a jewel popped under the bottom to keep it raised off the surface.

On my (now late) father's birthday, and as we head into Christmas, a time of celebrating a special new birth, I also remember the children that did not live long enough to have their birth recognised.

Your darkness can be shared here.  And come back on New Year's Day and we will see what Santa brought us to creArte with.

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

September 1...

As the seasons click over accompanied by major flooding in Texas and Bangladesh this year, the Cancer Society have their Daffodil fundraising day in NZ - right on a husband's anniversary 

(death by cancer).  So how can we commemorate, or celebrate, anniversaries, birthdays...

Welcome to the first Day of Spring at Anne's Asylum.  

She's wondering, when it's a bit early for a bunch of flowers, 

what do you give a Skeleton on her/his birthday?

Why, a rusty crusty skeleton key of course!!!

And since the tag was on a steampunk theme at the start, 

there are chains to rattle instead of ribbons.

Plenty of papers diecut,  multi-layered, one of the cogs is paperclay.  

The skeletons hang out at Silver Crow Creations and keep jumping into my shopping cart!  

There is one stamp, used as the "frame" - blame Seth Apter for that!!! *sigh* 

it's the bicycle chain - steampunk done and gone beyond death .

Oh, and the numbers  are also stamped across the "top" of the tag.

--------------------------

And what would a party be without FUN (???!!!) entertainer? 

So bring in the clown:

CAS style postcard, so only one layer here.

Using stamps from Sin City Stamps.

(this and this)

Come back mid-month to see how Anne "celebrated" 200 years since Jane Austen died

Meantime how do you celebrate YOUR dark anniversaries?  Share *here*

An InLinkz Link-up

Bete Noirs - the other side.

There are two sides to every tale.  At the start of the month, you saw this side:

Now for the other side - might Life get any "better"?
 In the centre, 

a troubled person sits, red-eyed from lack of sleep

Beneath her/him, memories of hopes, friends, whom Life has cut to pieces, made chutney of them and preserved the remains in his/her memory, for eternity to haunt him/her.

At the top, roll the Dice of Life's Price - an arm, a leg, or more?

The whole "picture":

Several layers of Seth Apter's Broken maze die were cut and glued together.  It's much easier (tidier) to paint the sides black before glueing the top diecut  layer on - made from kraft-tek stitched with varied tensions.  Painted background includes several of Seth's stencils, and stamps, bits of yarn knotted, bits of dyed guinea fowl feather.  The strip of stitched fabric goes round all the sides of the box canvas.  (Egyptian cotton sheet ripped, got recycled.)

Silver Crow Creations have all the different sized people, skeleton, lenticular skulls, spider web dresden, ants, laser-cut Bete Noir, and "nevermore" stamp.  You'll have to google for the body parts dice - I got some many years ago from I can't track where!  There's a tiny Teesha Moore stamp in there.  The "Brain empties" is actually part of a much longer phrase from Mad Rat.

How about sharing your nightmares here as part of our Challenge. 

When all those Bete Noirs hit at once.

You can only run to Darkness to share your Dreams...
~~~~~~~

No matter how fast you run, you can't out-run your nightmares

Inside the box canvas, and with the hingeable chicken-wire threatening to let more beasties out to terrify you...  The laser-cut Bete Noir face on the outside has a threat on the inside too.  The skull heads are lenticular winkies - their look changes as you see them from different angles

Because the canvas was set onto (dice) feet, it can be turned around... But you'll have to pop in later this month to see more.

Silver Crow Creations have all the different sized people, skeleton, lenticular skulls, spider web dresden, ants, laser-cut Bete Noir, and "nevermore" stamp.  You'll have to google for the body parts dice - I got some many years ago from I can't track where!  There's a tiny Teesha Moore stamp in there.  The "Brain empties" is actually part of a much longer phrase from Mad Rat.

If this has touched a nerve, add your creArted response to this month's challenge

****

Ohh, wow, Anne did hit the nerve alright, fabulous pieces: 

total eye candy, don't you think?

So it's Granne here making her very first MOO's ever.

Ok, so I "cheated" a bit, I stapled two moo's together, 

so I got more space to stamp on....

anyways, such a tiny thingys these moo's 

- will be doing more, LOL

~and CT Kim will be back soon~ maybe..... :P I might get lost looking up moo's....

Don't let the Frogster get ahold of them thar super wonderlicious moos!

An InLinkz Link-up