Dia de los Muertos

At the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity this month, we had a Day of the Dead event, or Dia de los Muertos. This means it's All Soul's Day, celebrated in early November in various European and Latin American countries, especially Mexico. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family who has passed, and help support their spiritual journey.

I made some Dia de los Muertos ATCs, and I really liked the monochromatic look, with a splash of color : 

Here is my make, 3 ATC's featuring the Skull Flourish from Lost Coast Designs :

For these ATC's I wanted a very textured background. I used molding paste and colored it with grey acrylic paint. Then I applied it to the ATC base with a pallet knife and stamped into it with the skull flourish while the now grey paste was still wet :

 I then left the molding paste to dry and went to clean my stamp. I just used an old toothbrush and bar of soap. Its important to wash the stamp before the paste dries on it :

I sprayed the ATC background with black and white dylusions and let it blend and drip. Then I left it to dry. When it was dry I tore the edges, and sponged lightly with grey ink.

I stamped the skull flourish in black ink onto La Blanche card stock, and added a little embossing powder while the ink was still wet and heat set it. I fussy cut it and glued it onto my textured background. I used a C3 copics to go over some of the shading on the skull to add dimension.

See the texture : 

I typed the words on my typewriter and added the flowers and embellishment.

Finally I matted the textured ATC front onto grey card stock that I had edged in grey ink and stamped the mini skulls. It is very faint, but if you look closely you can see them along the edges. 

Here are individual pics of the three ATC's :

Don't forget that we have our monthly challenge on the Lost Coast Postal to Creativity. 

This month we are asking you to make Mail Art. I love mail art, there is nothing nicer than receiving a wonderfully decorated envelope in the mail, stamped and addressed to you.

Here is my creation, using one of the mini flying ladies, circle frame, Old Typewriter Alphabet SOPA from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda background stamp, Postcard background.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki x