March 1 - New Month New Playtime!

Valentines - think pink, hearts, red roses, glitter... 

Think of the Commercial Pressure to buy and send someone a Valentine.

With February 14 well out of the way, 

the rest of the year we can be more genuine in expressing our affections.  

So, Dear Reader, We Love You, 

and wish you will remain our friends in The Dark Side of our HeArts

Pink... wicked Little Grumpie Cupid.  Hearts yep.  

Red roses - one, anyway, between the skull's teeth.  

Glitter... black floral glitter!  

And I thought I'd better "up-value" the 20 cent stamp 

on the previous post's envelope.

"Sentiment" by Leigh SB Designs

Cranial Caress from Delicious Doodles

Spellbinder scalloped hearts dies.

***

Well, well, speaking of a shadows,

I hope there is no one like this lurking:

Creepy, ehh? Clown from the Ike's Art and the background from the

Gecko Galz colored with Copics and black DI.

***

The only theme this month is Anything Goes Except Cute!!

Keep sharing your weird, your dark, your off-beat, 

your non-PC with us every month, with the linky for thIs month HERE:

An InLinkz Link-up

And remember, St Patrick's Day (17th March) is all about the Snakes!  Eeek!!!

You want a Valentine card as well???

OK, ok, rubber arm twisted.  Just because it's the last day of Leigh SB Design's My Dark Valentine hop.  You can have a card... AND an envelope!

A blank card made of kraft, sprinkled Paper Artsy Infusions and spritzed.  The card curled quickly, giving the 2-directional streaming

The inside I stamped the XXL Carabelle stamp, Steampunk Mechanique, and wrote a poem for it:

Valentine

When Cupid’s sharp arrow doth strike,

All thoughts of food are fled:

I am a sandwich short of a picnic,

A few noodles short of a chow mein!

In love and thus  blind.

No longer the brightest bulb in the box.

The lights are on, but I am not home:

Shipped but not delivered  - lost, so  lost for love.

Undelivered, Alack!  I am not the fastest ship in the fleet.

My heart  rends me a few keys short of a keyboard,

A few cogs short of the gear change

That would  bring together Toi et Moi

Cupid thou Nasty Cherub

I would change thine aim

But thou hast reft me of mine sanity,

Missing a few buttons on the remote,

A few keys short of a keyboard.

A few cogs short

In my heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the front of the card:

The Cheery Lynn die, Hearts #2  has 3 different colours of embossing powder. The cogs were diecut from a juice carton, alcohol ink-treated.
Stencilgirl S271 Angel Circle, L157 city scape, Club 05-2017
Carabelle stamp set :Textes:  Zoom sur 1 souvenir.  Sorry I can't find it on their website, nor the one I bought it from.

As for the envelope... I hope it's got enough postage - that 20cent one better not be prophetic.

That Mocking bird that took out Poe last month is back, aiming at the cat???

Maybe there's more to it than that - an winged easter bunny with an egg-bomb?

Some love-sick boy getting his come-uppance?

 Zoom out, we want to see the whole thing to make our own minds up:

Can you see the postie daring to deliver this to anyone's letterbox???

Stencil Girl's Mixed Media Mail stencil's words pop up in serendipitous places, to comment.  A Silver Crow Creations rubber stamp simulates an Addressee.  Digi stamps include Delicious Doodles for the postage stamps (Cranial Caress and Samhain), Bloobel the Sick Boy and Kitteh, Ike's "Greece" is the building-courtyard scene.  Smeared Ink's Winged Grumpy and our hostess, Leigh SB Designs have the Oddleigh Mocking Bird, the egg, and the quote.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Trap Called Love

We're still having fun in the Leigh SB Designs My Dark Valentine hop...
Of course one can be trapped by Love.  Stupid Cupid doesn't always get it right, in any period.  Steampunk, electronicpunk (?) got mashed up with Finnabair and Michael deMeng styles too.
I scored some mdf hearts about 160mm across (that's just over 6") earlier this week, just in time!

 Silly me didn't take photos during...
One of those heart valves is a romantic apothecary's bottle with a lock of hair from 2 lovers (?) entwined together forever (or until someone breaks the glass, or uncorks it).  The cork was painted a bit darker, and we are waiting for the Triple Thick to finish drying clear.

Cupid itself is hanging on by a thread - or is that a wire from the pacemaker!

Although most of the piece got the black gesso undercoat, the clear plastic odd shapes (rough-cut diamonds?) were left alone:

Instead of sprays and washes, most of the colour was interference paints (Jacquard's highlighter blue is particularly strong, so it got knocked back a bit).  I deliberately didn't paint up the trapped person much, leaving the deathly-dark a bit of a contrast to the colourful trap and surrounds.

Leave some love, then hoppity hoppity

An InLinkz Link-up

What are Little Boys made of? What ARE little boys made of?

Continuing the LeighSB Designs My Dark Valentine hop...

Let's take a peek into Cupid's Pantry:

Sizzix diecut apothecary bottles cut from beer boxes.  Amazingly, on one of them the picture of a bottle cap is in exactly the right place.  They're a lovely strong cardboard without being too thick for a journal page.
All stamps are from Lost Coast Designs, though you may not recognise some of them - heads cut off,  upside down... look for Norma, Stella and Adrien in the Mini flying ladies set.  The Doll border stamp made many a snail, and random background "texture".  I have found many different ways to use the Steampunk Profile face, from their sister-company, Carmens Veranda.

The whole Journal page, with hint of another page slowly evolving:

Also entered in the Lost Coast Designs Boys Boys Boys challenge.

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Happy Anti-Valentine's Day from Dream in Darkness!

Happy Non-Valentine's Day!  Sorry to say, some of us here at Dream in Darkness are just not into all the cute Valentine's stuff that is out there even though it quiet lovely!  But as you all beloveds know, there are far places to post sweet Valentine's than anti-Valentines!  So join us in our non-celebration!  Sort of like Opposite Day for the day :)

We are still very much celebrating having Seth Apter as our sponsor again for this month! 

Asylum Anne's offering a Surgeon's Anatomy Lesson
Since it's all about hearts...a Journal page spread.

Alpha Drips, Timeless and Transform stencils from Seth Apter aka The Altered Page
Inkspots and Roundabouts stamp sets also from Seth
Corset dress from Eye Connection
Heart milagro from Carmens Veranda
Calavera Con Flores, Creature Claw, various eyes, from Third Stone Stamps
Vintage Heart Diagram from Mad Rat

Passion's Lure

Always whispering....and waiting...
Crafty Chica's Sugar Skull, thank  you Asylum Anne
Seth Apter's stencils, Robo Ring and Drip Drop Dies
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics & Metallic Luster, Modeling Paste
Drywall tape, Cardboard

I used a small alpha stamp set and stamped onto the shape left by the Drip Drop diecut.

Cardboard makes a wonderful substrate!

Lots of layers, paint and modeling paste.

...waiting...

No good Nan just plain don't like Valentine's Day cause it makes her sad :(  Then all the lovelies in the house tell her to hush up her caterwalling!  So you will understand her make!

I used a new set of round stamps by  Seth Apter that arrived just in time!  They are called Large Journal Coins and I love them!  Lots of paint (Grumbacher Transparentizer, acrylic paints, modeling paste) and gesso by Liqutex and layers of paste and stamps and paper.

Don't wait too long to play!

We hope to see your weird, odd, unique, or plain dark Valentine's in the entry box!  And the only one here who really does like Valentine's day but only the previously stated types is the Evil Froggy!  So blow him a kiss and get those entries in for one last chance to win from Seth Apter !!