Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop with Smeared Ink

Hello, Skully Hoppers! I'm Lady Brayton. 
 Welcome to my blog and welcome to the Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop sponsored by Smeared Ink.  The hop goes live June 4th at 9am PST.

You should have arrived here from Susan's fabulous blog.  If you found my page by accident and would like to hop along, click here to start at the beginning.  There are prizes to be found along the way.  Your next stop on the hop is the magnificent Black Dragon.   For your convenience  I have posted the entire blog roll at the bottom of the page in case you get lost. I think this may be a record year for the hop as we have 45 bloggers!  To learn more about Skull Appreciation Day, please visit Skull-A-Day.

I made a few projects for this hop.  I love skulls and just couldn't help myself! For my first project, I used techniques from Andy Skinner's "The Outcasts" online workshop.  The main materials consisted of clay, plaster, and Deco Art Americana paints in Lamp (Ebony) Black (DA067-3), Titanium (Snow) White (DA01-3) and Burnt Orange (DA016-3). With these, I made the awesome frame you see below.  I showed Rick another excavation piece I made earlier in the year and told him my concept for Skull Appreciation Day and he drew the most awesome skull ever!  The skull appears to be coming out of the ground which I knew would look perfect with my frame!  I printed several copies of the skull and fussy cut various parts and adhered everything together with silicone glue for extra dimension.

 BTW, this excavation skull stamp was given to me in digi form to make a sample, but will only be available for purchase through Smeared Ink's Rubber Club.   Rick is the newest designer for Smeared Ink Rubber which consists of an 8.5" x 11" sheet of deeply etched unmounted rubber.  I cannot wait to get my hands on this set, "Morte", in rubber!!!  For those that prefer digital stamps, Rick St. Dennis also has lots of other skulls in his shoppe which can be found by clicking this link.  You may enlarge any picture by clicking on the image.

I decided to do a digi project with the excavation skull as well.  Truth be told, I prefer rubber for embossing and using in clay and art journals, etc.  Anyway, I colored and assembled everything in PSE8 and used the scrapbook sketch from Smeared and Smudged's "Very Sketchy" June challenge.  
Forgive the red watermarks through the images, but online theft has been a huge problem lately.

Below is a picture of the "Morte" rubber set (blurred and watermarked for protection) which can only be purchased by members of Smeared Ink's Rubber Club.  If you are not a member yet, you will definitely want to join as these are some of the best quality stamps I have ever used!  Overseas peeps, don't be afraid to join, especially those in the UK.  Smeared Ink will work with you to find the cheapest method of shipping possible.  Join the rubber club to find out more :)

Since Smeared Ink is hosting this hop and will be selling the lovely rubber with Rick's skull designs, I felt it necessary to share some love with them as well.  Below are two photos of a shrine I made using Andy Skinner's techniques from "The Outcasts".  The shrine is painted with DecoArt paints.  Forgive me as I did not keep track of the colours of paints. The focal image is Smeared Ink's "Bride" calavera from their "Calaveras" digital stamp set.  The bride was colored in PSE8 and printed ATC size several times, fussy cut and layered, adhered with silicone glue.  I touched her up with some copic markers, spica gel pens, and stickles.  Click images to enlarge.  Once again, sorry about the watermarks through the images, but I found it necessary to protect the image from theft.

If you enjoy Gothic or alternative stamps, be sure to check out the vast line of digital stamps that Smeared Ink has in their shop.  Smeared Ink also sponsors a fortnightly challenge over at Smudgy Antics and they run a forum, which is free to join, that has several monthly challenges as well as monthly member blog hops, ATC swaps, holiday swaps, and more!
Thanks for visiting my page.  Have fun with the rest of the hop!
~ Lady Brayton ~

Terra
Tori
Laura
Kapree
Kristy
Sandy
Jacki
Rick St Dennis
Airless Chambers
Wendy
Julia
Susan
You are here - Lady Brayton - You are here
Black Dragon
Kay
Miko
Creepy Glowbug
Aletha
Ike
Miranda
Hazel
Monique
Shoni
Suzi
Leigh S-B Designs
DominoART
Alison
Donna M
Donna W
Jane
De Stempelwinkel
Evil Edna
Jenn
Steph
Anna
Bombshell Stamps
Helen
Shell
Movie Magic Monthly Blog
Fiona
Serena
Little Black Kitten
Maureen
Karen
Milo
Teri