Smoke 'Shrooms, Not Coal

You might not see a category in the Rubber Dance stamp catalogue for steampunk-themed stamps.  But you can see die-cut cogs here, so what's going on?

Along the lines of the Peace movement "Make Love Not War", a Protest Movement against steampunk's underlying cause of global-warming has found it into my "PC-aware" altered book.

Aided & abetted by some wonderful mushroom stamps, This Punked Parrot is tripping out on them big time :)

And Dr True's punchy elixir is guaranteed to knock you into next century - where steam must never be coal-fired!

Doesn't that Kroma crackle paste give a crepuscular look!  And would you believe those "bruises" on the knuckles are... mushroom stamps!!!!
Both the bird and fist come from Things to Alter, and here is what they looked like before the crackle went on.  The fist had been brushed with an interference blue paint, lightly so it didn't get in the cracks.  After the crackle, I had to take a fine pen and draw in the etched-in lines again.

All the word stamps came from Rubber Dance, though some were only part-used.
So thanks again Bibi of Rubber Dance, for helping some bird do a "clean green" narcotic-fuelled dance whilst saving the planet!!!

Still a few days left to play in our challenge for your chance to win some Rubber Dance rubber stamps...link up HERE

Shop Rubber Dance and use this for free shipping, code DiD6716

Talk to the hand ...

... which creates, :=)

There is still one week time to link your

dark / strange / alternative makes of art

to DiD challenge of June and have a change to 

WIN some fabulous rubber from our awesome sponsor

Stamps used on my ATC are from

Collage Elements 2 and Sarcastic Superpower

and if you are in a hurry to get yourself some

goodies, by using the code DiD6716,

you'll get a free shipping all over the world, COOL!!

Well Dressed.....

Hi!

Kim here today! I have a mixed media canvas packed full of bumpy painty inky goodness with a dash of rubber stamping to top it off!

Skull's lament, time passes so quickly...

Stages of man.

Ingredients:

Our Fabulous Sponsor Bibi at Rubber Dance, "Body" stamp

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics, Black Modeling Paste, Metallic Luster cream

Andy Skinner stencil Made to Measure, Skull napkin, 

Tim Holtz washi tape

Still some time to play,

Link up *HERE*

Go shopping at Rubber Dance and use this code for free shipping, DiD6716

COCK A DOODLE DO

And a story about Escagrot continues...

THE END!

Pst, not quite the end, wee reminder that we have

the sponsor formidable this summer

and she is giving free postage to DiD fans giving us mighty code:

DiD6716

AND for a change to win some awesome rubber, 

link your strange/ dark / alternative makes HERE.

Asylum Anne - Lunchers and Lunchees

When your teamie sends you a snail from a French company, you just KNOW there's going to be a Happy Meal in that Happy Mail... at least Mona Lisa is having a decent meal.  She's a bit messy though - slurping snails in tail-first, letting the shells drop to her bosom.

Here's the whole page, where Mona is thinking "I look in the mirror to see a lean mean harvesting machine"

Guess that means snails aren't fattening.  Two of Seth Apter's Spellbinder dies are layered over a mirror (shimmer sheet), and Mona's reflection started at Things to Alter.  Sooo, several stamp companies have an Eiffel Tower, and a Mona Lisa besides Rubber Dance, but snail mail?  That's tucked away on a plate of postal-themed phrases - complete with snail.  Go check it out, and you'll be looking for opportunities to send people mail, with the best-decorated envelopes ever Envelope Stamps  My 93-year-old dad took the trouble to email me a thank you for the envelope I sent mum the other day.  OK, so that's not weird or dark or creepy, but just a reminder that there's more to inking up stamps than labouring over a pristine card.  And being unmounted, no problem to just have the front end of a snail hanging from Mona's lips.  A serendipitous note to Rubber Dance's Mona - can you see the snail feelers at the very left of the stamp?

I'm also in an alternate-month Deconstructed Journal page swap, so between Carabelle Studio's escargrot (well that's how the packet calls it) and this month's sponsor Rubber Dance we're in for a weirdly festive occasion. - or at least, Rascally Rooster is feasting, the snails probably aren't feeling so festive alas.

Let's turn the page of this Deconstructed Journal page.  You saw our happy sun-loving escargrot at the beginning of the month, BUT... Rascally Rooster clearly loves eating snails, and taunting them - with words from that Envelope plate again.  You'll find the "expired" barcode here and all the weeds, here .

Did you know that if you stamp with black ink, then pour embossing powder over, you don't really see the black at all - it barely changes the tint of a pale lilac-pink ep.  Rascally Rooster & Escargrot were fussycut after heat-embossing.  The stamps are so great as they are, I didn't colour them in on this spread.  Knitting yarn was glued down to extend the feather line.  The snail is raised off the page, so its wings will sit at the same level.  The wings have detailing etched into them.  So as not to lose that, I dry-brushed them with an interference paint over the mdf, as I did for the hand, and also the Reaper's blade.

The back page Features Rascally Rooster's flamboyant rival Rod Rooster telling us he's Too Sexy for his shell. (Well don't all males of every species, once they've broken out of their shirt-shell?)  He's certainly flamboyantly coloured (with Tombows mostly) instead of embossed.

The cage-like shell swings away - like Rod Stewart's shirt perhaps?  Or is it the snail that's too sexy for his shell, as he looks about to lose it too.

All the stamps used came from Rubber Dance except for Carabelle's Escargot.
The mdf pieces - Grim reaper, pointing hand, & wings all come from http://thingstoalter.co.uk/ and in a range of sizes.
Being a swap page, just like an ATC, I like to integrate the "credits" and let them be a part of the whole piece.

Living Down Under, I have to import most of what I like, and Rubber Dance in Norway, and Things To Alter in England have no problem supplying overseas shoppers.

So it's back to my inky roost to see what Rubber Dance inspires me to do, along with the rest of the packet from my team-mate Sari for next month.

Meantime I'm keen to catch up with your weird, creepy, dark makes posted *HERE*

Winner's Post~May 2016 Sponsor Lunagirl!

Welcome Back!!

Today is the day we announce the winner from our Lucky 13th Challenge!! It was a very difficult decision, all of the projects entered were AMAZING! The entire creative team was very happy to see such creative projects, thank you everyone for playing along!

Our Top Pick and Winner  is....

#4

Pawsitively Creative with her wonderful Jack sculpture!!!

Please email us at dreamindarknessblog@gmail.com to get your badge and prize info

Our next two Creative Team favorites in no particular order are...

#1 Gina with fabulous Voodoo Val

#10 Donna with Wicked Queen Lucy Loo

We are so thrilled you had so much fun with arty dolls in this challenge!
Please email us at
dreamindarknessblog@gmail.com for your badges and prize info


Thank you everyone for playing and leaving your awesome comments!

Don't forget to play this month, too!

*HERE* is the link to June's Challenge

Skull Appreciation Day Recap - Give Flowers

Just a quick recap, sharing Asylum Anne's fab flowers so it is easy to find again...


And now for something waaaay different - give Flowers on Skull Appreciation Day:

Flowers - sweet.

Crochet flowers – double “sweet”

But... just as a cog or gear on a project means you can call it Steampunk, simply involving a skull makes it Dark or Creepy. Well, sort of.

First up: if you can't crochet yet, let me refer you to Auntie Google's right-hand man, Youtube for a lesson or three. It's a compact skill – a small ball of cotton, a crochet hook no bigger than a ballpoint pen and you are occupied in the dentist waiting room, the bus queue, and in days gone by, that 40-hour sequence of flights to get one from Middle Earth to Malta. (I wonder if bamboo hooks may still be ok)

Anyway.... Skull Flowers:

One can take any Irish Crochet flower pattern, and attach a skull in the centre. Or crochet a length and spiral that round itself. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can adapt the rate of spiral, and have far more “petals”. The tail of the cast-on end of the thread can be used to thread through a skull bead and hold it in place. The finishing tail can be used to catch-stitch the spirals to keep their place.

All these ones have the same Row 1, 2 & 3. Row 4 changes. I was brought up in the “English” tradition of labelling stitches, and really prefer charts.

Row 1: Chain 72 (or any multiple of 3)

Row 2: Skip 5 chain, Treble in 6^th chain. * Miss 2 chain, Treble ch2 Tr eble in next chain * repeat until you run out of chain. Turn work

Row 3: Chain 1, slip stitch in ch2 loop. Chain3 (= Treble), treble, chain 2, 2 treble all in same loop. Repeat in every loop across.

Row 4 variation a: Chain 1. Turn work. Dc in treble. In loop: Halftreble, 3 treble, half treble, double crochet. Repeat across to the end.

Row 4 variation b: Slip stitch to loop. Chain 3 (= 1 treble), treble, chain 3, slipstitch in top of treble (=picot), 2 treble. * Chain 2, double crochet after 2 treble, chain 2. In next loop 2 treble, picot, 2 treble* across the piece.

Row 4 variation c: In each loop 3 treble, picot, 3 treble. Double crochet between 2^nd and 3^rd treble

Once you've done enough, use the cast-on tail to stitch the skull bead, then start winding the length round & round to form petals.  Use the finishing tail to catch-stitch them in place.

Thank you so much Anne for this awesome project!