A Match for All Eternity

Valentine Day, a Day of Love. One always hopes it will be Happy Ever After, but it's not my favourite theme:  I'm a big fan of the Day of the Dead concept, it resonates deeply within me.  Could I combine the two? So when I found my other stash of Paper Whimsy Alterables  the other day, one with a skull stayed on the desk.  In fact I rediscovered several stash drawer contents during this project - the roulette wheel really works, and I started thinking "Life is a Gamble with Death".  And relationships are also a gamble.  I painted the kit pieces Mars black, glued all together (except for the bones) and painted parts with the thinnest smear of interference colour paints.  So all those vibrant colours, including that blue, are what you can get.  The frame was then painted with graphic black, which is not as dark a black as Mars black.  My stash of peacock tails and maribou feathers has been neglected for too long - and yes, you can get tail feathers this small.  I just liked the grey fluffiness against the hard wings of the skull, and the pop of the peacock eye.

 The bride was a "scrap" hiding in a stash drawer, and my project crystallized.  Like the colours of the peacock feather behind the skull?

Where to place the bones (with a bicone bead glued to each end) was easy to decide after all, but what to put above that took a lot of auditioning before I settled on stamping on grey card then cutting to fit the Alterable's shape, and a chunk of mother of pearl shell.

Silver Crow Creations has all sorts of quirky stuff - like the roulette wheel, which spins when you twirl the nob in the centre and the ball spins round too.  They have all sorts of ephemera scraps too, some in random bundles, which is how the bride came my way.

Lost Coast Designs have a series of dictionary stamps - like "Eternity" used here

Paper Whimsy have a great selection of masonboard "kits", like the Spooky Terrarium.

Golden Paints are a good quality brand that I can easily get in NZ - unlike so many other goodies.

A Broken Heart or a Cold Heart?

Back today to share my next digital postcard with you.

So...a broken heart? Or a cold heart?

Digital postcard #2 of 3

using a lady silhouette from the Touch of Class StitchyBear digital set, Stitchy Designs

Background elements by me and

Kits by Holliewood Studios at Mischief Circus, Romance Isn't Dead and Special Effects V3

Thank you StitchyBear!

I like to remember, "a heart that hurts, is a heart that beats."

~kim

LINK Up your creations with us, please no cute!

Watch out for the bite!

Sooooo, it's near, 

it's coming,

it's nearly here....

the ultimate LOVE day.

Using (that's me Granne) 2 digis 

Dark Halloween Paper Pak (10) / Manufactured by: Stitchy Stamps

Lady Bug /Manufactured by: Barbara Jensen Designs

from our fabulous challenge sponsor

Hugz!

Love Bug and Evil Froggie want you to enter the challenge, won't you share and play?

One magical click to Link Up

Ode to Sorrow

Sorrow hits us all and we all handle it in many different ways.  I was working on this lovely floral paper designed by Dragons Lairs Designs toward a pretty make ( I know, CT Anne is pitching a fit at that word on this blog!!!) when I added the awesome face from the "Steampunk Profile" from StitchyBear's Digi Outlet when all I could think of was how I have to smile right now while hurting so badly underneath that smile.  So this lovely profile tries to express that and the quote I found seemed fitting somehow to me. 

I made her smaller to represent the overwhelming feelings that are surrounding her like the spider and his many webs mere specks away from her.  I hope this can show that digital stamps can be manipulated just as rubber stamps can making them a good investment not just for one time use but adaptable for many uses.  Thanks again to StitchyBear for their sponsorship this month and to win your own image to play with just drop those entries HERE and Froggy will gobble them up after we have a look and leave you some love!

Don't forget that in our house we don't get sappy at Valentine's Day!  No way!  We might just be called "Anti-Valentine's Day" proponents.  So don't forget to leave us your make for your ex, channel those feeling from high school if you have to! or just your view if you share ours of Valentine's Day at the same spot as above!  Who knows, there maybe an extra "heart" chosen for the best worst Valentine's entry??  Muwahahahaha and MUWAH!

January Winners are Here!

Thanks to all who entered last month!  You definitely kept that darn Frog off our backs and our of our hair to which we are very thankful.  The winners (once again chosen after some kicking and scratching amongst the creative team) are as follows:

1st Place

#12 Susan Renshaw
 winning from Bloobel Stamps

2nd Place

#8 Paper Whims
winning from A&T Digital Digital Designs Shop

3rd Place

Titbelsouer

Congratulations to all and thanks for joining the fun!  Please email us at dreamindarknessblog@gmail.com for badges and winner's info:)

Now, don't fiddle about, get inky, painty, digitally?, and any form of messy goodness you can think of and drop off your weird, odd, dark, goth, steampunk, pink elephants (NO CUTE pink elephants though, sorry!) with Froggy and let's see your name up top next month or again next month LOL

Perils of the Sea.

I have so many stamps relating to the sea, that when I saw Stitchy BearStamps Steam Punk Sail Ship by Coosty Creations, I had my "aha" moment.  I started with a sheet from my metre-high kiwiana scrapbook pages that is a seascape.  There is already a fishing boat in it, but I covered it over with the digistamp.  I printed the digistamp out at one size, and a few copies at a smaller size.  The larger one was easier to cut out the "sky" between the sails,and also meant I could glue it to the page with a bit of a "billow" floating above the paper.  (You can see their shadows).  I cut a small one to use as a mask over another small one so I could colour the sky to match what was underneath, without worrying about overlapping the boat itself, so I didn't have to fiddle with clipping out tiny bits of "sky".  Both boats were coloured with Tombow & Marvy markers.  A third one was swabbed with inkpad daubers, ripped and sunk at the bottom of the seabed.

Then it was out with the stamps to have some fun.  With a kingfish already looking threateningly up at the ship, the theme of "Perils of the Sea" came to mind. First up, why shouldn't pirate ships be stem-paddle-sail-powered?  Just need a skull & crossbones and they're in business.  Then there's the weather, and the weekend I was creating this page, we've been on the edge of a Tropical storm, and it's a vigorous warm Northerly - heat embossed with Lindy Stamp Gang's Twilight Blue Slate,

Have fun looking at all the monsters of air and deeps, and don't swim out of your depth!!!

Steampunk sail ship from Stitchy BearStamps
North Wind, Skull & crossed swords, from Third Stone Stamps
Butter Side Down stamps provided  the Jersey Devil, Mothman 1 & 3, Sea Serpent, Zombie hand, Pirate cook (you can only see the chest he's sitting on), and Giant Octopus.
Fancy cogs mini are from Paper Whimsy

Drop your offerings off HERE

It's February Fun with Stitchy Bear! Challenge #10

Welcome back!

A big thank you goes out to all of your who played along and linked up with us last month! Evil Froggy was pleased!


This month we are sponsored by StitchyBear Digital Stamps! Awesommmme! StitchyBear was generous and provided some digis for the CT and there will be a prize for you, too. But ya gotta link up with Froggy or .....let's not make him angry!

Our theme is always Anything Goes...except cute!

Our amazing sponsor, StitchyBear's Digi Outlet! 

They offer an amazing assortment of digital stamps in so many fabulous themes and styles!

Up first is a sneaky peek of CT Anne's creation, come back in a couple of days for the full reveal! This is just a portion using her stamp design by Coosty Creations.

CT Granne

Using a very challenging stamp

called Red Riding Hood Barbara Jensen Designs.

poor wolf!

CT kim

Digital postcard using 1 of 3 images from Touch of Class Stitchy Designs. 

More postcards coming soon!

CT Nan

Steampunk Profile  Alipeeps Art
"Why the Hell?" Canvas

As for Valentine Day, that so very-pretty romantic pink hearts and fluff,.. Watch out!  Evil Froggie could have something to say about that!  Turn up to find out... and offer him your own warped, twisted takes on "Valentines"


Evil Froggie Linky:

An InLinkz Link-up