That's Crafty!: The Grave Digger by Amanda Pink

Hi Everyone,

For today's post I've had fun creating a mixed media art panel that I guess would be considered a Halloween themed piece. Sure, its ideal for that occasion but I know it'll be displayed in my creative space year round along with my 'Skellie Heads' that I created a good few years ago now.

The art panel features Tim Holtz products- some old faves and some new faves from Tim's recent Halloween release.

The Background.

I worked on a panel of mixed media paper, Tim Holtz Distress inks provided the colour (Twisted Citron, Carved Pumpkin, Wilted Violet).

I initially applied the inks by pressing them directly onto a craft mat, spritzing them with water and then 'smooshing' the paper through the inks, repeating the process a couple of times, drying with a heat tool between.

Then to intensify the colours I applied each of the inks with a blending tool.

A few spritz of water dabbed with a paper towel as they dried added some interest before I spritz the panel with a couple of Tim Holtz Halloween Distress Mica Stains (Jack-o-Lantern, Hocus Pocus).

I wanted the background to have some 'rays' so I created these by scoring lines from corner to corner, edge to edge across the centre of the panel.

Catching the top of the scored rays with black paint and gold wax helped make them more prominent.

Using one of the text stamps from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous 'Rest in Peace' stamp set I added some Black Soot Distress Archival ink stamping between each of the 'rays' working clockwise around the panel.

To finish I added some of Tim Holtz 'Grave' Distress Texture Paste around the panel, which when dry I tinted with black paint caught with gold wax.

The Focal Feature

For this I used the fabulous 'Skull' stamp, again from Tim's Stampers Anonymous "Rest in Peace' stamp set. I do love a great skull image!

Wanting my skull to look more 'aged' I lightly covered another piece of mixed media paper with Tim's 'Crypt' Texture Paste left to dry and then stamped and embossed the skull on the 'crypted' paper using Black Soot distress archival ink with clear embossing powder.

After cutting the skull out I added some shading with distress inks (Hickory Smoke, Black Soot), manipulated and moulded for dimension and cut away the sunken areas either side of the mouth, which I fed an alcohol inked ideology arrow through.