Trick or Treat - Chris Sexton.

The ARTastic Challenge for February is to use paint and ink. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I don"t often do messy. I loved the inspiration piece but didn't  have a photo with a red, blue and black colour combo so I went with what I had.

The photo I chose is of my great-niece Lilly having her first Halloween experience. She loved dressing up and "trick or treating" with her mum in the street where she lives. Once I chose my background paper I then had lots of fun making a mess of it with the paint and ink-although I must admit it ended up being a fairly controlled mess.

I sponged white paint through a zig-zag stencil (which represents the sharp points of her fingernails) then used black ink with another stencil to create the suggestion of cracked paintwork (which you'd probably find in a witch's hovel). I then splattered black watercolour paint in random spots just for fun. I then stamped a faux stitched border in black ink.

Once the background was done I distressed the edges then tore some areas where I wanted the suggestion of spider webs which I created using gauze .I then used corrugated cardboard, which I added green paint and Kindy Glitz to, to place under my photo. All that was left to do after that was to add more gauze, a journalling pocket, a couple of tags and a scary looking spider, which I inked red and black then finished with Glossy Accents. I mounted my photos with red and mounted them on 3-D tape to help them pop off the page. Lastly, I inked some chipboard stars then glitzed them up. All done! Hope you like my efforts.
Cheers, Chris.