October 23~ 31 Days of Halloween Wicked Blogger Challenge Day 23~Danza de la Muerte

Hi Happy Thursday!

Welcome to Day 23 of 31 Days of Halloween! The Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween Challenge is to create a daily project using a stamp, rubber or digi, and run from there. Remember to pop over HERE to Terra's blog to see the daily Scavenger Hunt prizes donated by our awesome sponsors and find the daily clue. You can also see all the rules there, too. For your reference I have the Wicked Blogger Hop list on the ride sidebar:)

Today's exploration comes from more banner play. This time I fell in love with a banner project made by Diana Trout and it was on her post and contest that I won the set of the ArtistCeller stencils, Danse Macabre. I used one stencil on a tag earlier in the month HERE


Click to see it bigger if you like:)

I made a long post....I hope you don't mind! 
Warning TEXT and PICTURE heavy!

I made the banner using deli paper, the same paper they use in sandwich shops to wrap up your sandwich. It is sold in the restaurant supply shops. I found some here at Smart & Final, a box of 500 sheets for about $8. It is called dry wax paper. 

I love how the light and shadows play here:)

I used Distress Paint right on my craft mat and sprayed with water. Then I pressed the deli wrap into the paint and pulled it slowly off. I made a lot of sheets, so fun to play.

Once dry I picked out the sheets I liked the best and tried the papercutting. The papercutting is just like cutting snowflakes! Fun!

Once done with cutting, I placed the dancing dead stencil where I wanted it and sponged on acrylic paint. I added more flowers using an Inkadinkado flower stamp dipped in Distress Paint. If you use paint on your stamps, make sure you wash them off as soon as you are done stamping:)

Now I wanted it to be more, lots more festive. I knew I wanted ribbon and flowers. I had ribbon that was easy. I don't have a flower stash and I really like using what I have on-hand. Besides, handmade is so much more fun.

There are lots of sources of how to make paper flowers. The easiest one is to cut up a bunch of flower shapes or even circles in whatever size you want. You can use any sort of paper too. Book pages are lots of fun.  Just cut up a bunch all basically the same size pieces. You can use a paper punch, freehand it, or use a flower die if you have a die cut machine.

I used my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and cheap tissue paper I had on-hand. I folded and re-folded the tissue till I had a lot of layers then placed it on the die and cut. Bit easier on the hands to do them this way.

I used the smallest flower in the set as I wanted the flowers to be close to a Marigold.

Take a stack of the cut "petals" and staple them in the middle. You can also use a brad if you like. Now starting with the top layer, gently pull it up and crunch it up, ruffle it. Proceed through each layer until they are all ruffled. It will be like a tight bud when you are done, so just ease them apart until you have the shape you like.

Along the way I found out the flowers that I had not pulled carefully off the cutter, (I dropped them all over the place) ruffled up much closer to a Marigold. The ones with all the layers aligned are still awesome but a totally different look!

I used the Dylusions spray to get the orange flowers since I did not have orange tissue. I like to spray outside on cardboard 'cuz I am a messy crafter and well the spray ink kinda goes all over.

Long winded, but I really love these flowers and wanted to share:)

Dance like no one cares!

Thanks for all your awesome visits and such wonderful inspiration to play and craft away!

~hugs~

~kim

Sharing this with the flash linky party at Stamplorations: HERE


I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:Anything Goes
And I am entering this into the Mixed Media Monthly October Challenege:Ribbon