Madama de la Noche ~ RSD image

On Rick St. Dennis' Airless Chambers blog, it's day 10 of the 31 days of Halloween organized by Smeared and Smudged and it is my turn to post.

I chose to create a Day of the Dead tag using the RSD image, Madama de la Noche which can be found in Rick's Zibbet shop. As a Canadian, I was not familiar with Day of the Dead celebrations until recently when I did a little research to satisfy my curiosity. I thought it was similar to our Halloween but it really isn't at all. Instead, it is a day to remember and celebrate our loved ones who have died and to entice them back for a reunion.

To begin, I coloured Madama de la Noche with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut her, and popped her up on foam tape. The moon was a circle punched from watercolour paper and inked with Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, and Picked Raspberry Distress inks. A scrap of cheesecloth became the mysterious cloud partially covering the moon. The headstone comes from a tag download from my stash.

The tag background which was black to begin with was given a white checked border with white paint pen and white gesso. Black gesso dots were added to the centers of the white spaces. Grass was cut from green cardstock with a Joy Crafts die and then deepened with Mowed Lawn Distress ink.

When I was reading about the symbols of the Day of the Dead celebration, I discovered that marigolds are usually included in the decorations because their scent draws the deceased back to earth for the reunion celebration. I included some tiny punched "marigolds" at the bottom of the headstone and a larger one to decorate the ribbon topper.

Thanks for joining Madama and me today. I had a blast creating this tag.

Life is good, so is art.
Bonnie