Someone squealed.

And the world coughed and caught a pandemic.
But the world's dreams have been pretty dark this year, and Asylum Anne is safe in her covid-free country (apart from the returning expats who get 2 weeks quarantine in luxury hotels at taxpayer expense before being let loose).  But all those taxes are taking their toll (mentally, at least), so she has been using up random things in her stash:

AND shopping "locally" led to painting up some critters from Abstract Designs  When you go to their site, you will find her Prime Minister and Director of the Ministry of Health are cult figures honoured in laser-cut mdf as well!  They offer a choice of veneers, but that didn't stop paint sticking to the 2 I tried.
Wetas are a native insect of decent size, and will bite, so stay back!

 Only assume an insect is dead if it is upside down... MAYBE...

Not to be confused with Weta Workshop, who do all the wonderful and scary effects for movies such as Avatar, Lord of the Rings.

This dragon was found hanging to the back door:

With winter setting in, it's probably hoping for a feed!  The chippy pieces were covered in heat-gunned Jacquard Lumiere paint.

But the flu season is coming Down Under

Enjoy your summer Sari-Granne, but we've only just stopped Covid-19 before the flu season hits us.
Borders closed early, stringent lockdown and a small population of 5 million have kept numbers down, but there have been deaths, the great God Tourism has lost all his acolytes, and it's likely to stay that way until an effective knife-stabber (vaccine injection) is found.  We may think we have got through one set of dark days, but there will be more.

The stamps are both from Lost Coast Designs.  I rather like the AUD creature that looks rather like a kiwi!  The stencil is Carabelle and Paper Artsy infusions helped with the background.

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.

Mermaid Virus

Mermaids?  On a Dark Challenge blog?
Covid-19 is still around, and although we are down to Level 3, it's not much freer than level 4 was.  Social Distancing is still very important, as are maintaining our bubbles.  Even mermaids along our coast are supposed to comply!  The lighthouse normally sends out warnings to shipping to avoid shipwrecks on mermaid-infested rocks and caves.
On the one 8x8 fat page, here's the "before"

 Open out the flap of memory of how it was in 1865, and this is 2020:

Stamps all from Rubber Stamp Ave, the seagulls are from Silver Crow Creations.

So that's my spin on mermaids for the Mermaid Blog Hop over at LeighSB Designs - join them at
https://leighsbdesigns.blogspot.com/2020/05/mermay-blog-hop-and-meri-oddleigh.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR17fGJvOLWWThqbf8z9Zz8XXsMTXMt60dHMW-j05xweLcJ83EeoyuhQhI8



And share your dark takes on anything in life or dreams with the linky at the right.

Scattered minds

1 May is always the start of the Duck Shooting season.  The guys (and girls and kids) are out before dawn in their maimais, ready to take pot shots.  This year it is delayed at least a week. Damn that virus!!!  Being in Lockdown yet working fulltime (from home) also leaves me as scattered as the autumnal leaves gracing our yards.  So how about some little bits and pieces of art:

THE VIRUS ITSELF,

as depicted in so many news pieces:

 I was browsing through a drawer of MDF pieces for something else.  These hollow-centered drip-like not-cogs struck me as being perfect to represent the virus shape we see in all the news pieces, along with some blobs of flowersoft.  People are trapped in their bubble (ie glued behind a large glass cabochon, which fit over the centre hole).  The company making the mdf cutouts (Things to Alter) is no longer in existence.

Stuck in our Corona-virus bubble, almost 5 weeks Level 4 lockdown, now part-way through 2 (+?) weeks at level 3, hairdressers still are not allowed to open.  Now,

Every Day Is  A Bad Hair Day

Mercy!  Please!!!

I thought I knew who created Zombie Chicken stamp, but can't trace it.  ATC card, stencilled, and again can't identify the covid-shape little stamp either :(  Never mind, I need those scissors!!!

The final piece uses an MDF winged skull shape from Paper Whimsy

It's amazing the bubbly texture you can get from using a heat gun on Jacquard Lumiere paints.
Don't you think Asylum Anne has bubble-prisons on her mind?

We have a reward for the "best" dark piece you share with us on the right.  When entries reach #40, we will be choosing our favourite between numbers 21-40.
So keep expressing your darkest dreams with us all - they deserve to be aired!

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.

Inventors never die...

... they just get left out in a paddock with their "stash"
Unless you are "female" and want to ask someone to marry you, this should be March 1st posting!

A common rural sight is a stash of rusting vehicles and farm equipment in the paddocks, overgrown by brambles and weeds.  So here is our Inventor,

And like me, whenever s/he went to a beach, couldn't resist picking up the odd seashell to bring back.

Thanks to Creative Embellishments for all the brambles, skull and cogs for an altered 8x10 box canvas.  Their challenge mood board this month included a lady with swirly-spiky drapery but of course I had to go "dark" with these chipboard pieces instead!  And they thought flowers would be a "twist", so you got lace flowers - how warped are we???

I just wish I'd been able to capture all the nuances of the Lindy's Gang sprays that give some sparkle to the whole piece.  Being able to spread stash through the new craft room means I can find so much more- so many lacy bits to use up!  Not to mention texture-embossed bits of cardstock and some *shock* glitter glue

Keep linking your dark dreams on the right for us to enjoy and perhaps, reward.

Valentine???? Mate, yer Dreamin'

Ah Poe, what did you start??? Those @#!!#* ravens quothing "Nevermore" all over the place, then less than a month later all those pink-loving "romantics" are running round saying...

The mdf word is Kaisercraft I think.  The raven/crow is part from another Paper Whimsy Crow stand.  The squishy floppy skellies draped over the "sentiment" are from ali express, started yellow, were painted brown then some of the paint rubbed off as it should be.

The mdf has several layers of paint dabbed around, plus 2 of crackle paste.  I love interference paints.

We still need to see a few more of your dark dreams on display to the right of this, before we can award someone with happy mail.

How Spiderman got his uniform

Contrary to whatever is in the movie, there is a far more ridiculous/darker/shameful reality:

 Guano!  Or whatever you call the draconic equivalent.  Spiderman was resting in the bushes, avoiding persecution from some of Poe's ravens, when oops, a dragon flew by, perched, and relieved itself!  Stupidly, Spiderman looked up, and copped a faceful as well as all over his black disguise.

What more can anyone say?  The true story is out now.
All that's to be said is that the tale was outed with assistance from Creative Embellishments and Paper Whimsy
Of course I couldn't stop at using just one crow tree set.  The sun came out to reveal all the colourfulness of the next one:

 Paper paste, pumice paste, sand paste all got a workout on this piece.
Dancing queen WITH ravens LOL

Keep sharing your dark dreams to the right, we're keen to reward one of the next 20 Dark Dreamers

New Year, no New Resolutions

No new resolutions - Asylum Anne is waaaay too busy to stop and think about making any.  The last couple of months have seen her with a paintbrush in her hand every free moment.  The house has been painted.  The Guest Bedroom has had all the non-guesty stuff removed, then painted.  The craft room looks like this:

Somewhere under all those Essential Supplies is that empty 1 square foot of space she usually creArts on.  Somewhere...
Actually, she's setting up a new, bigger brighter Studio.  That's been a mission, shifting 4 knitting machines, 3 sewing machines, some of their stash (all were in the Guest room), then bringing shelves, drawers and heaps from the Old Craft Room in.  And more painting - recycling some old kitchen joinery to be the new work station.

She decided an old 3-drawer filing cabinet would be a good surface to solder, butane torch etc on, and asked Fire Safety Officer & DH about something to protect the wall behind it.  That got sorted in 10 minutes.  He's being marvellous, probably because she's freed up the largest wardrobe in the house so he can have TWO for his clothes again!!!  It's set up close to the French doors for ventilation, and the fire extinguisher is a couple of paces away beside the Felting Room (ok, most people would call it a bathroom, but no-one around here is "most" people):

So that's why there has been no creArting Down Under.  Thanks so much to Granne (Sari) for keeping the blog going.
Bring on the New Year, with more of all that was good in 2019.

Hear, hear Asylum Anne here's hoping 2020 brings the good parts of 2019 along then times infinity of the good!

Long time no see, DT Kim here, I know I know....thank you so much Granne and Asylum Anne for caring and carrying on this wonderful dreamy corner of the internet called Dream in Darkness!

Dream on all you dreamers! Let's make 2020 ROCK!

Mermaid and Dream and weency flower rubber stamps by Blank Page Muse

So what are you dreaming up for 2020? Make sure to come back and link up with our linky off to the side there>>>>>>>

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!

Was 1 November lost in the Halloween overkill?

Not surprising really, considering everyone has been so heavily focussed on their pumpkins, tricks and treats.  Meantime Asylum Anne is suffering from all the pink timbers her builders keep bringing on site.  So when some stamps arrived in the mail, and the same stamp company wanted a pink theme just before Halloween, she crumbled, fell apart, succumbed to extreme suffering and went on to miss their deadline.  Playing with new stamps can make for sketchy pieces, and heat embossing sometimes reveals that a stamp should not have a coloured embossing powder treatment, that pink ink and clear ep might have been better:

Have I even GOT a pink inkpad???

Of course this is how we are more used to seeing that stamp.

Then there's "same stamp different sentiments":

and one can't help wondering the lengths one will go to to justify pinkness...

And finally, a pink gargoyle and a flying pig?

All those stamps came from Lost Coast Designs.  So I hope you'll forgive the pinkness and awfulness, but someone's suffering from "pinkeye"!

Just hope your efforts down the right-hand column are a more properly weird/scary composition!

YOUR dark/creepy/weird entry on the right in the numbers 61-80 could be chosen for this fabulous Gesturing Skeleton Doll - freezingly inked in ice-blue -  from Mad Rat  The head and torso alone is 9cm high!  You won't be getting the Pierrot doll, just left him showing for the heck of it.

1 October

Evil Froggie is in charge!!!
He showed Asylum Anne his concept drawing for her new Studio-Asylum:

Personally we think he just browsed her stamp collection, and found it in her Blank Page Muse collection.  And his "selfie" references Worth1000.com

We haven't seen the builders for 3.5 days, but the frogs are ecstatic - they think they're getting a custom Convention centre!!!

Meanwhile Anne's been "enhancing EF's sketch - ATC size - and bringing the Rocky Horror Show - "Open the door Janet, Dammit" into the 23rd millennium "Beam her up Scottie"!

From a slightly different angle, you may get a better sense of the people being 3-D "dolls" from Silver Crow Creations

And now it's Eyes Right to see what has been shared by others, or to link your own offbeat creation.

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.