Spooky Crackle Skull Tag

Servus and welcome to my first Halloween share of the year!


I fell in love with the new "Carved Halloween" stamp set from Tim Holtz the very first moment I saw it. And especially with the skull from that set as to me it is the most spooky skull stamp I own...well, maybe it depends on the colouring...

So I decided to have that skull image play the main role on a Halloween tag and go for a rather simple composition and lots of yummy texture (instead of overloading my tag by adding too much detail or embellishments). Sometimes the clean and simple...erm...the simple makes are the best.

I die cut a large #8 size tag from heavy black cardstock and gave it a coat of black acrylic paint. When that had dried I applied a layer of DecoArt Weathered Wood to it and left it until it was touch dry.

As I love to experiment with media of all kinds, I found that the wonderful DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish paints work over the Weathered Wood as well and create awesome crackled surfaces....with a chalky finish! Yay!

So I applied a coat of DecoArt Americana "heritage" chalky finish paint over the touch dry Weathered Wood and watched the crackle magic happen.

To darken the edges (which helps draw the focus towards the center of the tag) I applied some black DecoArt Texture Fierro with a palette knife:

After I had stamped my skull in black archival ink, coloured it using some Distress markers and cut it out, I found that I needed a panel to mount it onto. So I created a panel in rather the same way as I did the tag's background. But this time I used a mix of  DecoArt Americana "refreshing" Chalky Finish paint with some drops of DecoArt media "Green Gold" fluid acrylic to achieve the ghoulish green I had in mind...voila:

And it had to match the colours from my markers of course:

The edges of the green panel (which I die cut with one of the dies from the new Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations "Labels" die set) received a treatment with Texture Fierro too - but I dabbed it onto the edges using my fingertip.

The cut out and coloured skull was then mounted to that panel with a sticky foam pad ....and that again was mounted to the tag with sticky foam pads too...to add some depth and dimension:

I had a neon green lace ribbon which I toned down using black soot Distress ink and water from a spray bottle. I fixed it to my tag with a stapler and covered the staples with an idea-ology skull:

At that point I was already very content with the outcome of my chalky finish crackle tag and the skull in its center. But I needed some more elements to finish it off. So I die cut another (thin) label to which I added the "spooky" word and fixed it to the bottom section of my tag alongside some ribbons.

You can see all the layers of my tag in this picture:

I really like how the metal bling of the Texture Fierro yet adds another aspect to the tag and contrasts the chalky finish of the paints used.

I hope you like my rather simple (but definitely NOT clean) tag! ;) I had a lot of fun stamping, colouring and experimenting with the media and creating layers and textures!

I hope you like my 

tag!

Happy Halloween!

And hugs and happy crafting of course!

Claudia 

xxx

I have used some long hoarded items on this tag (the green lace ribbon, the stamp with which I created the quote, the idea-ology skull embellishment), so I dare enter it to Craft Hoarders Anonymous' "Happy Fall, Y'all" challenge.

I also enter it to the second challenge at Artist Trading Post Exchange - "Halloween",  to Simon Says Monday Challenge "O is for..." (which would be October in my case...my favourite time of the year - not just because of Halloween) and to "The Male Room" - "Halloween" challenge. 

And having been inspired by Tim's October tag (and his really fab "Carved Halloween" stamp set and new label dies) too, I also enter it to the 12 tags of 2014 October tags.