Advice's from the mermaids

This morning I woke up really, really early.

Must have been these Sin City Stamps Mermaids calling for me...

They had something to say

Cascadia:

and Misty

A little different angle to show, how pretty they shine,

thanks to H2O colors

Wanna win gift certificate to Sin City Stamps?

Hop here and link your art, there's a change....

1 November or 60 Days until the End of the Year!

November 1st....60 days until the end of the year...All Hallows' Day...Hallowmas...

Day of the Innocents...

...and simply a new day bringing some lovely creative play by your DiD Team!

Asylum Anne has had an "interesting" past month, 

(more about that later this month) but finally mailed this ATC.

Mad Rat goes to Sin City, meets the Queen who has offed some person's head.  

Maybe the axeman wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, as the head is hanging by a thread.  

At least the victim was blindfolded first.  

Perhaps the mouse(RAT) has designs on the moth body for a nuncheon.  

The background is multiple stampings of the barbed circle from Background Grunge plate.  

The back of the card's stamp is also Sin City.  

The silhouette queen stamp was from alphastamps

Granne here asking are you ready for a treat?

White chocolate shaped with Panduro's mould,

served on a wooden cup I found from a flea marked 

and fixed for the Halloween season.

Black Gesso, black paint, some Inka Golds, ribbons pearls and

lots of creative fun.


CT Kim offering a card to go with the treats above...

I used a Sugar Skull stamp by SinCity Stamps.

The skull is stamped with Ranger Archival ink. The color fill is a mix of Distress Oxide and Distress Ink.

I used a Tim Holtz die to cut the diamonds pattern and used another distress oxide play background for more color. I love shiny things, so yeah, I haddddd to add some embossing powder, Brutus Monroe Sterling. I love his embossing powder it doesn't have an oily feeling after heated and it's shiny!

Now, seize the day and share with us what you have been playing with!

Link up....below :)

The winner this month will get a gift certificate for a little shopping at Sin City Stamps!

An InLinkz Link-up

October 1~The Best time of the year...Halloween!

So it is THAT time of the year ... 

Autumn, dark evenings and the HALLOWEEN coming 

with pumpkins, skeletons, skulls and spirits ... 

so I decided to "cover" my dreams from the eery spirits 

and made a dreamcatcher that hopefully will suck in all the bad dreams 

and allow all the nice ones to enter.

Re-cycling a ring from a sticky red tape

Using silk clay and Panduro's mold for the skulls. 

And then added some Inka Golds for the color.

Some more Inka Gold and stamp from Sin City Stamps

I think my dreamcatcher would fit right in to Anne's 

brilliantly creepy house, :)

Creepy house?  You're only thinking that way 

because Halloween is so close! 

  Shredded money makes great "grass" for the spiders 

to nest in and web from, true.

BUT... is it a house?  Or a Chrysalis?  

Is something hatching/metamorphosing under the Halloween moon?

Ohhh lots of things that don't necessarily go bump in the night!

I managed to get on track sort of, and finish a mini book that came to mind a couple of eeek months ago with our Circus theme...well who KNEW a MINI book could be so big on the inside!

I am crossing fingers and toes you can see my little slide show above...the one minute it should take to play, I hope you will feel it was time well spent. 

Mini Book Ingredients:

One page 8 1/2" x 11" bond paper

gelatin plate of choice

acrylic paints

old gift/credit card

Thick hot drink cup wrap repurposed as a "book cover"

Lots of rubber stamps, I used the Circus ones thank you Granne and

some of my Sin City Stamps, DriBonez by Rick St Dennis and Oddly Appealing by Cathy Frailey, yes these links go to my shop wherein if someone were to purchase somesuch stuffs, another someone might earn some change to buy some somenecessitylikethings.

But I do know for sure, if you come back during this glorious month of October there may be a few treats here and there and maybe that Frogster critter will leave a trick who knows?

We'd love to see your spin on Halloween, Day of the Dead and whatever else your dreams treat you to, so share away and link up okay?

Much love and hugs to you all!

Now go play!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dear Reader... don't read so long that the spiders web you over.

Centuries after her death, (well, it was 200 years this July) people are still captivated by Jane Austen's writings.  It may be that a rather portly gentleman has  been reading since the first edition came out, never stopping to notice the spiders webs growing round him.  Even within Jane's tales of romance, there are some spooky places, creepy assumptions. What was the story behind Mrs Tilney's suite of rooms, wondered the heroine... and that got her into trouble before the Path Of True Love could be straightened, of course.

Paper Whimsy's Lacy Triptych with stand provided the foundation for this project.
The arched frames were given 3 coats of Emerald Creek embossing powder, then stamped while molten with the barbed wire brick fence stamp.  The side panels were done in Northern Lights colour, the centre panel in Midnight Sky.  The Lacework "roof lines" were painted with Jacquard Lumiere in Indigo, then a coat of Halo Blue-green, and heat gunned while wet for the bubbly texture.  The individual frame backgrounds were painted with white gesso.  Before completely dry, Lindys Gang moonshadow Tawny Turquoise was washed over, then a few drips of Moonlit Mulberry encouraged to flow down.

The barbed wire fence stamp with Indian ink was stamped over each panel, before gluing down the fussy-cut Austen stamps.  Strands of spider web are Helmar 450 glue (hot glue guns aren't a common part of my toolkit, else I'd have done that).  When this gentleman was glued down, the book was left unglued, for a touch of 3-D.  From his expression, novels are a new concept to him.

I used Emerald Creek embossing powders - they also have an American web site, or you can swap between the two (top right toolbar in the web page)  The box part of the stand was covered in some Graphics 45 Typograph paper..

Sin City Stamps have 2 new plates of Jane Austen stamps out, and here :)
Farewell Jane, and thanks for the hours of imagination you've stimulated.

Of course, if you've been working on something weird, off-beat, creepy, daaaark, share it with us here

Face it

I felt very inspired by Gina's (last months challenge winner)

dolls. But, since I'm not much of a doll maker,

I made something related to dolls.

I altered a tiny T-shirt that was send to me

a while ago from other side of the earth,

Thank you Anne :). My daughter likes Pullip dolls and

the size of that T-shirt was perfect for her Pullip.

Or what do you think?

Lucifer looks so cool.

My daughter took the pictures above and I took the one down here:

Using tiny rubber bands, ProMarkers and alcohol blending solution

to color and the stamps from Sin City Stamps and Stazon ink

Lets us see what you have been making by linking 

your art HERE.

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

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

Rush Hour in the Jungle

Today Anne has hi-jacked us to join the Sin City blog hop... the link to carry on through the hop is this 
After a couple of weeks playing with a new balloon die (album in facebook), hot air balloons are still on my mind, and what could be weirder than this wild animal perched on a hot air balloon - "It's a worse Jungle Up Here, that animal is thinking!

Back down in the jungle, That's no pussycat either!

I initially stencilled Woolf Leaves on one side of a sheet of deli paper, and did a lighter wash on the other side, before stamping all the trees on the washed side:

Have some closeups, before you see the whole picture (journal spread)

And the overall look:

All the stamps are from Sin City Stamps - parachuting mice, and some woodgrain stamps as part of the background texture.  Some are stamped on deli paper, some on tissue paper, some on paper towels that have caught the overspray frm other projects, and some are stamped directly on the gesso and painted background.  All up there are 20 different Sin City stamps here, from the following plates:

For Him

Halloween Collection 2

Knock on Wood (I LOVE the face & eye in the woodgrain)

Sending Smiles - love the mouse parachuting in!

Steampunk Circus

Steampunkd

Tree of Life II

To keep hopping, head this-a-way

Athough this has snuck in as an extra post this month, we're still hoping your weird, dark mojo is going to be shared with us in the post just below.

April and Open for Business Again!

Fabulousness again this month! 

Team is running even wilder this month 

(Spring is in the air), but we do have a little something

to give one of the players that dare to meet our green linky froggy.

This Steampunk polymer stamp, size about 5,5cm x 11cm,

cool, eh?

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

Here's what Granne DiD for this month

Sentiment is in Finnish and says "Hi Dude!"

CT Nan here with a 4 x 6 inch flat canvas painted in acrylic paints in the steampunk style with some great looking old light bulbs!  And of course my guide for this painting was the Art Sherpa on Youtube and many other places on the internet!  I added a bird-like flying machine and the sentiment "Steampunk" from the stamp sheet "A Wing Above the Rest" from Sin City Stamps!

Check out the Sin City Fan Club Page and join for chances to win 

stamps!We will be looking out for you!  Like and join us for loads of fun!

From CT Anne:  A wreath  - for the door knocker, for a grave, for a Memorial service.  In NZ we remember both Easter - Jesus death & resurrection - and on 25th April, the anniversary of the day our troops landed at Gallipoli so disastrously in WW1.  It is also Autumn, when many fruits are being harvested.

Started with wire, wrapping it around itself, adding bead loops, threading through skulls and a mix of real & fake bones.  Next was to curl wire-stemmed flowers and fruit between objects.  Then tie lengths of a bobbly multi-coloured eyelashy yarn between each element.
The paper flowers were colour-adjusted with a few bursts of various Lindy Stamp Gang sprays.  Flowers, skeleton (love his red-eye) and fruit came from Silver Crow Creations.  Everything else was randomly-acquired stash (yep, skulls came on strings from retail and second-hand)

Come back later in the month to find out more about the snakes St Patrick cast out of Ireland back around 462 AD.

Post your makes below - Evil Froggy won't admit it, but we've still got goodies as a prize for the weirdest, creepiest, oddest, UNcute posting.

An InLinkz Link-up

Day of the Dead and Sin City Stamps!

How many of you Dream in Darkness fans got to go blog hopping with the Sin City Stamps Inspirational Team and special Guest Designers Sari/Granne and Anne ...our own CT's?  Well still time until the 27th so go get hopping after a quick look at my Day of the Dead Tiara!  There is one tiny mistake or many large mistakes but we are focusing on the small one now hmmmm? so who can leave a comment and tell me what it is?  Might be a prize in it for you??  Or the Frog might eat it...a chance we take! :)

From the Sugar Skulls sheet by Michelle Frae Cummings!

The base is a dollar tiara from my fav store the dollar tree and I have had plans for it for ages and here it was! So the lovely sugar skull that reminds me of the La Catrina was colored up fancy and bright in Spectrum Noir Markers and fussy cut!

The side pieces were the yummy flowers on the sheet stamped over and over and then sprayed with a glue Tattered Angels and outlines in gold as was the skull.

I as you all know love anything shiny even though I know my photography skills say no vehemently but I saw where duct tape was being stamped and embossed and of course off I went to find my metal stamps!  Now on this I can say no more!  Think about it???

I was supposed to be a blogger for the hop but the horrid ugly flu took me down a peg or ten so here is my late offering to the Day of the Day!  Hope you enjoyed!  Check the links below for more goodies and a good chance to win a whole Sugar Skull Sheet on our Facebook Fan Club Page!

Sin City Stamps Store

Sin City Stamps Blog

Sin City Stamps Fan Club Facebook Page Join and LIKE us!

Don't forget about our challenge at Dream in Darkness enter HERE for freebies from Sin City Stamps!