Day of the Dead Shrine

This project has actually been in the works for quite some time.  Loyal followers may recall that a few months ago I did a charm swap with a Day of the Dead theme.  In doing this swap I found a love and respect for this genre of art.  I had received so many awesome charms from my fellow charm lovers and had no idea what I was going to do with them.  This is what I finally came up with and I am pretty happy with the results.

The theme over at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week is a "red letter day." I think Day of the Dead is a very clever take on a red letter day indeed. I love the imagery and art associated with this day of remembrance.

I actually made the inner shrine some time ago as well.  It is made from Masonite and it comes from a wonderful company called Coffee Break Design.  You can also purchase their line of goods from Alpha Stamps.  I simply used stickels to color the shrine and then I added in an extra altered skull I had from making my charms for our swap.  As you may be able to see, I did not get the best results "filling" in my niche with Glossy Accents.  Even though I let it dry and added more material several times, I still ended up with a very inconsistent "resin" type background.  Oh well! 

It was difficult to get good pictures of this piece as I decided to use the acetate that came with this small configurations box from Tim Holtz to "seal" in my shrine.  Because of my artistic choice, I could not get a good picture without a glare.  In the picture above I was trying to get a little closer so that you can see some of the the clever work from a few of my fellow Art Charmers. 



I did do a few things to create depth in this piece.  I added some charms from the top of the box for movement, I mounted my "inner shrine" on a wood block so that it would not sit flush with the back of the box and I also did that with some of the other charms. 



The outside of the box is covered in Tim's new tissue paper from his District Market line.  I LOVE this stuff!  I was daunted by the price tag at first, but I will say, this is a worthy crafty investment.  It was aged with Tim's distress stains in black soot and antique linen...the stains are amazing too.  I resisted investing in them for a while, but it is pointless...the product is amazing.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing this artistic collaboration with my charming friends.  Thanks for stopping by as always!

Cheers, 

Rhea