Halloween Masks

Hello all, and welcome!  Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Another Halloween number for you today - and apologies if the title led you to believe there would be actual masks here (as in Masquerade type masks)... I'm thinking of the crafty-technique sort.  Here's what I've been up to - a plaque to hang on the wall behind the treat baskets this Wednesday:

I'm so in love with this skull stamp from Tim Holtz's Apothecary set... I think without it I probably wouldn't have gone Halloween-y at all.  



And now I'm on at least my fifth project influenced by All Hallows Eve (here, here, here and here, if you've time to spare, and curiosity enough to kill a cat...), and he's on three out of the five, and clearly on overtime in this one!

There are a number of Halloween themes around at the moment, of course, but the challenge over at Our Creative Corner is specifically looking for Halloween with the use of masking technique.  I love to mask, as you'll have seen if you visited the first 'here', so I didn't need telling twice.

I love the 3D effect you get of one image sitting behind another, and I love that you can get those extreme colour differences, right up to the image, which gives it such definition.  

So the central skull went in place first, and I used the mask I'd already cut for him - out of an old book page.  The paper is quite thin without being completely flimsy, which makes for a good mask.  

If your mask is on thicker paper or card, you won't be able to get the image to stamp as close to your first, as there'll be gap where it has to deal with the thickness of the paper.  

However, if it's on something too thin and frail, you won't be able to do the blending without it creasing up or ripping. Bit of a Goldilocks situation - but I find the book page is "just right". 

Next to be stamped were the skulls either side of the central image and then, using the same mask, the spiders' webs (Tattered Angels) and writing (TH Apothecary - my new favourite script stamp!)  behind them. 




All of that was stamped in Black Archival ink, since I knew I'd want to do some blending, and who knows what else, and wanted the images to keep their integrity.   

Then I did my colouring of the two secondary skulls, Pumice Stone DI on a blending tool, done quite roughly - not looking for perfect precision.  Then it had to be Chipped Sapphire to give me my moonlit night behind the skulls.

I used the Picket Fence Distress marker on their teeth, and then had to do some re-outlining of some of the teeth with the fine end of the Black Soot one.  The teeth have also had a layer of Chalk Dust Glimmer Mist, painted on from a spritz on the craft sheet.  The central skull also has a layer of this gentle sparkliness - hard to photograph, but I think you can just catch it in a couple of the photos...

The Happy Halloween (also TH Apothecary) is embossed in Frantage Aged Silver enamel onto dark blue card.  

The same card is used as the background to the plaque, embossed with the Cracked Texture TH embossing folder (always looks a bit cobwebby to me).  I applied some Pewter Metallic Distress stain to the raised areas for the sheen and lustre of it.  









Between my inked card and the embossed background, there's a layer of calico, frayed at the edges... I loved how it picked up the colour of the Pumice Stoned skulls so exactly, as well as offering some lovely additional texture.

I was lucky enough to have Mr Random Generator pick my comment out of the hat over at Snazzy's last month, and the spider comes out of the TH Idea-ology Halloween set that arrived a couple of days ago to put a big smile on my face.

He timed his arrival perfectly and looks rather splendid, I think, with a little coat of Pewter Metallic Distress Stain!

Tis the night - the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they - it is they.
Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
William Shakespeare

Hold on, man.  We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.
From Scooby-Doo

I'm entering this in the following:
Masking for Halloween at Our Creative Corner
Halloween at Try It On Tuesday
Halloween at Top Tip Tuesday - and my tip: cut your mask out of thin paper to get a really close up edge to your stamping and blending
The Fashionable Stamping Challenge have also got a Halloween challenge... this is my third and final entry (well, it won't be Halloween much longer - got to make the most of it!)