Monday, September 13, 2010

Compendium of Curiosities, Week 14

Masks Basics

Week 14 already, and a technique I use often.  A mask is something that acts as a barrier to ink or paint or other colorants.  You can make your own, buy them, even use found objects to create them.
A Tim Holtz mask has all the grunginess you'd expect, and for this challenge I used letters from the Ransom Alphabet mask to create the word "boo," and the Haunted mask for the spider webs. (there are two of them....I actually used one mask, then the other)  Inks I used include black soot and spiced marmalade.  There is also a bit of spray made with pumice stone reinker.
I broke out the Retro Halloween stamp set for the first time and stamped the skeleton and bat with embossing ink and covered it with black embossing powder (regular, not distress).  After it cooled I inked over the images with mustard seed.
This tag is going to someone in a  Halloween tag swap I'm in.  Double duty again!

26 comments:

Yelowflower said...

that is too kewl. love the bones man!

Helen said...

Love this! I love the skeleton as well.

Tammy D said...

Love it!

SusanK said...

Great job! I was thinking of similar images but will now switch to something else. Hmmmm....

Anonymous said...

great job!

Vic said...

It's a boo-tiful tag!!

Dorothy said...

awesomeness!!!

MarleneMAZ said...

Great colours! I love your skeleton hanging off the edge adds a great touch :)

Anonymous said...

I really like this tag.....

Lori said...

Love your bones, I mean, the skeleton. lol! This is awesome, great way to use masks! Love that bat.

Jane Wetzel said...

yep this is VERY cool...love it

donna said...

Wonderful wonderful tag!

Bearcrazyman said...

Too Cool. You know me and Halloween. LOL

Kathy Eddy said...

Awesome once again. I almost went with Halloween again but fought the urge. Then I was going to do a birdcage, but changed my mind again. I like how mine turned out so glad I switched gears.

Linda said...

Great Halloween tag! Love the double masking! Someone in the swap will be very lucky to receive your tag!

Sherry said...

Your tag is great, it has so much depth to it.

(I love your bouqet of grunge flowers from last week too)

Patzee said...

Wow! I love your Halloween tag--the makding technique, the headless skeleton. Perfection!!

Linda Ledbetter said...

Your groovy, embossed skeleton tag is full-on FABULOUS, Eileen! Gorgeous making work-- the spiders webs are too cool--and the colors are spooky and wonderful. I love how you laid this out, with Mr. Bones sort of shooting off the side of the tag. That bat must have scared the daylights out of him!

Anonymous said...

Oh how awesome is that!!!!! Too cute ma'am

Netty said...

This is great, such humour, love it. Annette x

Electra said...

This is great, I love the skeleton!

Terry said...

Oh this is spooky fun! Love the bones!

Shelann said...

Knock knock. Who's there? Boo. Boo who. Sorry I couldn't resist. Love your tag!

Toni said...

Hi Eileen.... I need to get that set of stamps... so cute, I would have never thought to use those 2 colors together, but they are awesome... I just love your work, and dang... only 13 daze left.....yipee for you !!!

inge said...

Hello Eileen,

I think I'm in the swap too ...LOL
Great halloween tag ! My favorite parts are the skeleton without head and the "boo" words on the bottom.

The placement of the word breaks the reactangle of the tag. Love this.

You say you use this technique a lot... I must admit it was a looong time since I used mine...I couldn't even found my alphabet masks...I only found the pocket they should have been in...

Now I see your tag, I know I MUST find them again !!

greetings from belgium
Inge

Girlsinthecraft said...

Wow, great spooky tag. Looks like you had some fun!