/* */ Beulah Bee: October 2016

October 29, 2016

Field Notes


Autumn means a second spring here in Phoenix. After the long, dry summer (when plants are in survival-only mode), cooler temps give them an opportunity for another growth spurt before winter sets in.

Trees don't turn colors or lose their leaves but seed pods, so common among many desert-adapted trees, have dried out and begin to fall.

So, when this week's theme at Simon's Monday Challenge Blog was Autumn, I thought to pick up an empty pod on an evening stroll and made a paint box out of it. Crazy? Yes, but you have to admit it's original!

October 10, 2016

Science Guy


Made to link-up with Tim's 12 Tags for 2016, this is the 41st tag I've made for the year not counting all the boo-boo's that ended up in the trash (Halloween pun intended).

It's a little plain Jane, especially for Halloween, but I lean towards "less is more" (perhaps just an excuse for not knowing what to do next). However this time, I did summon the courage to add some tiny black splatters and for me that's a step in the right direction.


Tim's technique started with a collage background of paper bits then a covering of crackle medium. I discovered first-hand that a thin application yields tiny cracks (background) and laying it down thick on the frame/tag borders (I used a fine-tip squeeze bottle) changed the look completely.

(Click on photos for a larger view.)


Obviously, my "Science Guy" isn't one of Tim's metallic monster masks but you have to admit this photo is just as bizarre. We can only assume this gent may have been a little impoverished (note the clever way he's buttoned his jacket) and I have no idea what he's cooking but it looks a bit suspect to me.


I used the skull from Tim's Mini Halloween Set #5 and also one of his Vellum Ephemera pieces painted off-white on the back and then distressed by sanding, wrinkling and inking.

To fill in the empty spaces, I mixed some texture medium with paint to match the shade of the medicine label and applied it through Tim's Dot Fade stencil before splattering the tag with watered-down black paint.

October 05, 2016

Triplets


Identical triplets are extremely rare and so, I suppose, are purple tree trunks. But who cares--anything goes on Halloween, right?

I stamped and embossed the trees (Inkadinkado) to create a resist for the Distress ink sky then ironed off the embossing (see my tutorial here). The moon was made with a mask. The text was stamped (Tim's Mini Halloween #5).

I wanted the house (also Mini Halloween) flipped from right to left so I stamped it on Plain Tissue Wrap, turned it over, painted the backside off-white, cut it out and pasted the painted side down. You lose some of the crisp image with this method but I think the softer, lighter look works here.

I needed something in the foreground so more tissue wrap was used, this time stamped with a crackle image in brown archival ink and tinted with distress.

I cropped Tim's Gothic Gate thinlet die to fit my tag (and support the composition) then darkened the gray paper with black Distress.


The triplets were laser-printed in a very small size, cut-out and pasted down. Do they remind you of that hallway scene in the movie The Shining? I guess that's the look I was going for. Anyhow, some shadows were added and I decided to mount the tag on black paper and add some dots of Stickles around the edge.

I'm linking this to Simon's Monday Challenge blog where this week's theme is Halloween.