To My Secret Pal - #1

I don't know if whoever's reading this has been around since Oct 2010, but I've been sending cards to a "Secret Pal" for the last year. I signed up in the Anything Goes group on PCP last year, and Abby from Scrapbookaholic by Abby and the new Dilo en Español stamps is who I've been sending things to. I didn't want to post any of the cards I made for her just in case she was a super sleuth...

Anyway, when I got Abby's info, I went to her blog and saw that she was planning a blog hop for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Luckily, I knew a little about the holiday from high school Spanish classes. (Google also helped...) To put it very briefly, Dia de los Muertos is a time to honor and celebrate people who have passed, and there are sugar skulls, flowers, and food involved...

 I used a skull stamp from Imaginisce to make two cards.

For the first card, I used paper from DCWV's Rock Star stack. The skull was stamped with Studio G white pigment ink, but I went over the white with a colored pencil because it seemed to be smearing even though I'd stamped the skulls days before I used them. I used the colored pencils to draw on the skull; the blue was supposed to kinda be like tears. One of the peas fonts from KevinandAmanda.com was used to make the sentiment. It means remember. (I called my godbrother who spent some time in Spain for study abroad and had my cousin ask her fiancee which is more right - recuerda or acuerdate. If you think I should've used the other, Sorry!)

For the other card, I made my own background by using the Flower Sketch stamp from Autumn Leaves. I stamped the flowers with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, colored a base with my Copics, then used my colored pencils on top. I just happened to find some odorless mineral spirits in my garage (score!) and was able to finally try to blend my pencils. I used the pencils and mineral spirits for the blue background too.  The skull was stamped just like the other and covered in MS glitter glue in graphite & nephrite.

Hopefully, Abby liked them!