I Want My Mummy!

"I want my mummy!" was the first thought to cross my mind when I saw Fitztown's Halloween 3 digistamp. Not because I was frightened, but because I can't resist a horrible pun.

The other, maybe only slightly more artistic thing that crossed my mind was that the Dead Nurse Zombie Mummies made me think of the women in those old Robert Palmer videos (think Addicted to Love).

So, I knew I was going to glitz them up as much as I was going to gore them up. Seriously. What's a Dead Nurse Zombie Mummy with out a little glitter?

I began by coloring the images and cutting them out. I glitzed up their nurse caps and shoes using Stickles Star Dust. I chose gray cardstock for my background onto which I stamped a spider web (no idea who made that stamp, sorry!) using white craft ink.

As you can see in the first image at the top of the page, I also distressed the gray cardstock by flicking different colors of ink at it. How? Just dip a paintbrush in a dab of re-inker and flick your fingernail against the brush or tap the handle of the brush against your other hand. It's something you'll need to play with to get a feel for what kind of force creates the look you're going for. I also swiped around the cardstock with a sponge dipped in a couple of different colors of ink.

My Dead Nurse Zombie Mummies looked pretty good, but I felt like they were missing something. I couldn't decipher what. So, I took a break, wandered away, came back, squinted at them, and in my finest cheesy Dracula voice, yelled, "BLOOD!"

Duh. Every Dead Nurse Zombie Mummy needs blood!

I didn't want to use plain old ink and have it soak into the paper and end up looking like plain old ink. I decided to go the mad scientist route and experiment with some mediums. What I came up with was a very simple, very satisfying solution.

I mixed about a dime sized dollop of Judikins Diamond Glaze glue with a couple of drops of Fired Brick Distress Ink from my re-inker bottle. I mixed it together with a toothpick and, ta-da! Blood.

Using the same toothpick, I added drips and smears of "blood" to my Dead Nurse Zombie Mummies. It did exactly what I'd hoped for and dried to a shiny finish that still looks like liquid-y fresh blood.

Wait... Stop! Don't throw away that remaining "blood"! Get a piece of cardstock and schmeer it around. Let it dry and you have a funky, fun background to use for some other project.

I love my new technique. I plan to play with a few different colors to see what else I can come up with... aqua for water, pale blue for ice... you'll excuse me if I wander off to play, won't you?