Morning all and happy week, this is Natassa Blazaki,
with a new project for Spooktober. That challenge inspired me so much!
The Witch Behind the Mask
So, it’s the last week of October and the theme now is
“The Witching Hour”. As I was google searching for witches and witchcrafts to
get some inspiration, I saw a poster from Disney’s Snow White that shows the
face of magic mirror and the reflection of the Witch’s face. I got the idea of
creating this canvas with a mask, that behind it hides the wicked witch.
Of course it had to be rough, with lots of texture and
rust. Rust goes with everything!
I used shades of yellow, orange and purple, which is a
classic color palette for the Halloween.
To create that rough, uneven texture on the canvas, I
used a lot of Structure
Paste, which I thickly applied with a pallet knife in a stippling motion. To
color the background I used a combination of Artist
Pigments and Matt
Chalk Paints.
To create the “hood” around the mask, I used a piece
of denim, cut from an old pair of jeans. I glued the mask on the canvas and
then I cut the fabric in smaller manageable pieces and built the “hood”. I glued
the fabric with gel medium.
Then, I decided that my composition needed an
industrial touch, so I used some of the gears from Andy’s greyboard cutouts by
Tando Creative.
The tricky part was to do the stamping on that
surface. I just couldn’t get a nice crisp impression until it hit me! I took a
piece of rice
paper from Andy’s “Abstraction” collection, and stamped on it. Then, I cut
it to size and glued it on the canvas with matte medium. This way, the stamp
was beautifully embedded on the rough surface and had a gorgeous cloudy faux
encaustic look.
I also used lots of Mixed
Media Transfers on the canvas the mask and the fabric. To make them look
distressed, I sanded them with a piece of 240 grit sandpaper.
I truly hope you enjoy the project and get some
inspiration.
Remember to play along at Creative Expressions
Spooktober Challenge and use the #cespooktober tag, so we can find your
projects.
Hello
dears, it’s Natassa here with a fun project for Spooktober Week 3 “Day of the
Dead”. And what could be more iconic symbol for Día de los Muertos that sugar
skulls.
So,
I tried to think of a cheerful project, that you could easily do together with
your kids and create the cutest creepy décor for a Halloween party.
Sugar
Skull Party Plates
Below,
I have got a video tutorial for you, where I’m showing exactly how I created my
sugar skull plates. What is clever about this project, is that since you use clear
plastic plates and do all the decorating on the back side, they are
perfectly safe to put food in them!
For
this project, I used first of all Andy Skinner’s
“Sugar Skull” rubber stamp by Creative Expressions. I stamped many skulls on regular printers paper and colored them with alcohol markers. I fussy cut the skulls and glued them on the center of the back side of the plates with matte medium. Let them dry very well. If you are ipmatient like me, you can use a hair drier, set to cold air, so that the plastic plates do not warp from the heat.
Then,
I chose to paint the plates with Andy
Skinner’s CS Matt Chalk Paints, because I needed opaque colors with a good
grip on a non-porous surface such as plastic.
For
the decoration of the plates’ bases, I also used Andy
Skinner’s Stencils and a couple of acrylic permanent markers in black, white,
and gold.
What
you have to keep in mind is the order you put the skull and the colors. First
you want to glue the skull cutout , then make the background design either with
a stencil or do some doodling, then the background color and lastly a layer of
black chalk paint or black gesso to seal everything. That black color makes the
other layers pop up.
Lastly,
a couple of layers of Andy
Skinner’s CS Super Matt Varnish, will protect the paint from chipping off.
And if you want to give your plates a more luxurious look, you can dry brush
some golden acrylic paint on the black paint, just before the varnish.
Hello
lovelies, this is Natassa Blazaki and today I am sharing one of my projects for
the Spooktober Challenge run by Creative Expressions UK. If there is one team that’s
always inspired by Skulls, Apothecary elements, Spells, Witchcraft and all sort
of Dead Man Themes, that’s definitely Andy Skinner’s Creative Team. All the
members will be sharing amazing spooky projects here in the blog but also over
at Creative Expressions Facebook page. So,
stay tuned for the whole month October and head over to Creative Expressions’ page
to play along at the Spooktober Challenge.
For the “Skull
Week”, I chose to alter a plastic skull, that I had bought from a toy store.
I
wanted to give a grunge, industrial look to the skull, so I chose to embellish
it with gears from Andy Skinner’s Industrial
Elements greyboard kit by Tando Creative.
I started by
applying a first coat of black gesso. I glued the cutouts on the skull with Quick Grab
Glue. The tricky part was to fit the gears onto the skull’s rounded surface,
because the greyboard is thick and does not bend. So, I spritzed the pieces
with water and let them relax for a few minutes. Then, I split them in half and
glued them on the skull while still damp and flexible. I added some crackle
paste to create more texture.
Next, I mixed
Andy’s Chalk
Paints with Artist Pigments, creating a dark reddish-brown color and applied
a coat. I did not mix the paints completely, to achieve a variation in tones and
left some of the black to peek through. I let dry and then I continued only
with Quinacridone Gold in random areas, but mostly around the gears. I let that
layer dry well and then with a piece of natural sponge I dabbed a very thinned
layer of white acrylic paint. I let it dry naturally and then I with an old
brush I applied a wash of Cobalt Teal
and Transparent
Yellow Iron Oxide.
I did some
dry brushing with white acrylic paint and continued with one more layer of
Cobalt Teal and Quinacridone Gold, this time concentrating on the gears. I also
used some Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media
Embossing Powder Crystal Glaze to add to the gears’ texture.
I really
hope you enjoy this project and get some inspiration for your Halloween projects.
Enter your projects to the Spooktober Challenge and use the #CEspooktober tag.
You may be a lucky winner!
