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Thursday, October 27, 2016

Dia de Muertos

I was overjoyed to be chosen as one of the 12 Tags of 2016 winners on Tim Holtz's blog.  I was absolutely over the moon when I got my prize!  It contained Tim's Day of the Dead #1 Stamps!!  These stamps were at the top of my "I want those!" list.  Although I have a million and one things going on in my life right now, I just had to stop and create a project that highlighted these amazing stamps.


I started with a 7 Gypsies Triptych that I had in my stash.  I covered the three panels with some printed paper from Tim's Idea-ology Materialize paper pad.  I added some extra detail to the left and right panels by stamping with one of Tim's great flourish stamps.  After I had colored my focal skeletal figures, I realized that those panels needed a little more black.  I grabbed some Gothic Remnant Rubs and randomly applied bits and pieces in "blank" spots around the flourish until I felt like I had enough black.   I used a great tip from Paula Cheney to "get rid of" the faint outlines that you can see on remnant rubs after you have applied them to a project.  I gave the panels a light coat of Distress Collage Medium (matte).  The stamped flourish and remnant rubs all have the same level of black luster on now.  Finally, the panels were embellished with Idea-ology tape, decorative ribbon, Carved Pumpkin Distress Stained flowers, and some Tattered Flower Garland die cut flowers.


I absolutely love these Tim Holtz hinges.  I added some Black Soot Distress Marker around the edges to look like they were tarnishing.


And now for the stars of this show.  I stamped each of my Day of the Dead images about three times on Glossy Cardstock.  For the suave señor above, I fussy cut the entire image out.  On one of the duplicate stamped images, I fussy cut the brim of the hat and the roses on the right side of the stamped image.  On a third copy of the stamped image, I cut out the just the skull.  I colored them with Distress Crayons and a Fine Tip Water Brush.  Wow!!!!  Love the vibrant colors.  I scribbled all of my crayons on my craft mat and used my water brush to add layers of color onto the stamped images.  When I finished coloring (oh ... I could seriously color these stamped images for hours), I layered all my pieces together using foam squares.  This gave me more of a 3-dimensional image.  For the long-stemmed rose in my Senor's teeth, I added some lime green wire for the stem.


I did the same treatment for the lovely Señorita (or señora) above.  Don't you love her trendy purple-streaked hair?  The layers I fussy cut for her were the garland of flowers at the bottom, her hands, the heart, and her skull. When you put them all together with foam squares, the effect is just too cool!!!


Last but now least is my Day of the Dead sign.  Once again, I used some of Tim's Halloween paper.  I used an On the Edge Bracket die to scallop the top and bottom of the sign.  A Black Soot Distress Marker along with Tarnished Silver and Seedless Preserves Distress Paints were used to age the edges.  The Dia de Muertos letters came from Tim's Sign Maker Alpha Parts.  I painted them with Seedless Preserves and Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint.  The painted letters were given a little "distress love" with a towel while the  paint was still tacky. After the letters were applied to the sign, I used a silver pen to add some "drop shadows". Some of Tim's Tattered Flower Garland flowers were layered (and edged with silver pen) to give the sign a focal point.  I added some Crypt Cameos from Tim Holtz's amazing Halloween line and the sign was complete.

I'm going to enter my Dia de Muertos triptych in

Emerald Creek Dares: Falling Into Celebration  for my Day of the Dead celebration piece
Country View Challenges: All Things Spooky
A Vintage Journey's Make It Spooky Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
Frilly and Funkie's:  A Very Vintage Halloween Challenge
Anything But Cute Challenge:  An Autumn Day

Thanks for dropping by.   I hope you've found a fall season crafting muse as well!  Now if I can only get my work done :)  -- Mary Elizabeth



20 comments:

Lin said...

WOW, this is amazing, Mary Elizabeth, so colorful and detailed! Thanks so much for joining us at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!

Sue said...

Wow this is fabulous, so vibrant and I love the colours. Thank you so much for joining in with our challenge at Country View Crafts. Sue xx

Brenda Brown said...

A fantastic Halloween triptych Mary Elizabeth full of wonderful images and colours. I can see you certainly enjoyed putting those together xxx

sarascloset said...

Mary Elizabeth, this has got to be the best Day of the Dead project I've seen and such creative use of your prize! I'm so happy you took some time for yourself to craft, because this is truly an amazing work of colorful art! Love those little details you always include--you are the master of detail! The stem, the coloring, the layered fussy cuts, the trims....oh, I just love it all! And I'm not even a fan of the Day of the Dead! Big hugs!

Oops! I almost forgot to say thank you for entering this into our fall celebrations challenge at Emerald Creek Dares! Sara Emily DT

PS How about adding this to our Autumn Day challenge at Anything But Cute.

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

WOW girl! LOVE LOVE LOVE the coloration on these images, and what a super fun tryptic! LOVE every detail!!!

Pammejo said...

Amazing...love, love the colorful images. Fabulous tryptic. Thanks for joining us on the Emerald Creek Dares Blog! Pam DT

Paula Cheney said...

What an amazing project! The color, the details...all beautiful! So glad you won that prize so you could make this!

Redanne said...

Oh WOW Mary Elizabeth, this is THE best day of the dead project I have seen this season, it really is fabulous!! You have made the characters look so realistic, the background you created is wonderful, the words have been coloured beautifully too. I love this so much!!

Thanks so much for joining in our 'Make it Spooky' challenge at A Vintage Journey. Hugs, Anne xx

Redanne said...

PS - thanks so much for joining in our 'An Autumn Day' at Anything But Cute too. Anne xx

sarascloset said...

Yippee! I'm so happy you linked this up to our autumn Day challenge at Anything But Cute! Hugs! Sara Emily DT

Vintagehandmade said...

Oh my, what a super cool project you have created, Mary Elizabeth! Your images are fantastic and the colors are awesome! Love it to bits! Thank you so much for joining in our 'An Autumn Day' challenge at Anything But Cute! Branka DT

Gwendolyn said...

OMG those are horrifyingly gorgeous! You are so talented you deserved to win!

Evelyn Walter said...

Wowser! Beautiful project! I love everything on it!
Thank you for joining in our challenge at Country View Challenges!
xx Evelyn

Kathy/NorthCarolina said...

Wow! What an amazing job you've done here! The colors are vibrant and perfect for the holiday. Such a clever use of this triptych! Thanks so much for sharing with us at the Frilly and Funkie A Very Vintage Halloween Challenge!

Anonymous said...

j adore ta présentation , elle est magnifique à bientot nate

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Gorgeous piece and wonderful attention to detail. I adore the colouring. Fabulous piece of work. Thanks so much for joining in A Vintage Journey Challenge. Tracy x

Words and Pictures said...

An absolutely stunning triptych, Mary Elizabeth - this is out of this world fabulous... a commemoration, a celebration, a brilliant piece of spooky artwork. Thanks for joining us on A Vintage Journey.
Alison x

Julia Aston said...

What a gorgeous triptych Mary Elizabeth! wonderful coloring - love the hinges, the flowers - thanks so much for joining us in the AVJ challenge! Julia xx

Deb said...

Amazing Dia de Muertos triptych Mary Elizabeth, gorgeous colours and textures, I love it! Thank you for joining us at A Vintage Journey, Deb xo

Barbara said...

Wow wow wow! This tryptich is AMAZING! Wonderful colors, you're an artist! Barbara