Halloween Inspiration

Artwork and Blog Post by Renee Warwick, WA

Hi to all our Powertex FUNaddicts, the theme for October is Halloween & here at Powertex we are celebrating the holiday of ‘Day of the Dead’ with this awesome sugar skull kit… I was sooo inspired by this month’s theme and the meaning behind this celebration that I couldn’t wait to get down and dirty with my Powertex and share this creation with you all!!!
My challenge to myself was to only use what was within the kit… And I am proud to say that’s exactly what I did with the exception of sourcing a really cool napkin to cover my mask with as you will see below… Let’s get started… 

Materials used:

• Powertex MDF Sugar Skull Kit
• Powertex – Blue, white or ivory
• Bister – Black (mix 1tspn into 100ml Distilled water and decant into a spray bottle)
• Stone art (made into clay with black)
• 3D Flex
• Easy coat – glossy and matte
• Colourtrix – white silver & Magic Blue

Note: All these items are available through Powertex Australia…

Tools and Extra Supplies:

• Napkin – found at Red Dot 
• Plastic cup & bowl
• Paint brushes
• Pallet knife
• Scissors
• Gloves / Apron
• Hairdryer
• Container to wash brushes in 
• Cloth to dry brushes on 
• Alfoil piece (to use as a pallet for dry brushing)
• Cover bench or mat in plastic for easy clean up

​
Step 1.

• Place all your Dusty Attic Chippy pieces on a mat covered in plastic & paint the front of these with Powertex – blue… Leave to dry 
• Paint both of the tops of your mdf skull shapes with Powertex – White and allow to dry… Don’t worry if it is translucent with this 1st coat as when it dries you will coat it again 
• Paint the back of both the skull pieces and your chippies in blue Powertex
• Check all your pieces and if dry, give them a second coat in either blue or white and allow to dry

• Napkin fun time…  (1 napkin & top MDF skull piece with the cutout eyes & easy coat matt)… Pretty cool napkin hey??? 
• Ensure that the Powertex layer is dry on your MDF top skull piece… Get a hairdryer and speed up the drying process if it isn’t touch dry
• Remove all layers of paper from your serviette so that you are just left with the top image layer … note – most serviettes have 3 layers of tissue paper inc the image
• Pour a small amount of Easycoat Matt onto your alfoil pallet
• Cover the top surface with easy coat matt
• Put your serviette into position with the side of your hand gently push the napkin down rubbing from the centre out to the edges… Don’t worry about the holes for the eyes or nose we’ll fix that up later
• Put more easycoat matt onto a flat brush / start from the middle of your picture on the skull and brush the easy coat outwards over the surface of your image to the edge… Gently brush the entire surface with the easycoat matt, making sure that you pay attention to the edges of the holes and the edge of the mask… You’ll note that the paper will start to look very wet and fragile around these edges … (that’s good)
• Very gently remove the excess napkin by tearing it gently away… If there is resistance or you can feel it is going to tear in the wrong areas just wet around those areas with the easycoat matt again and try again … Repeat this around the eyes and nose
• Now with all the excess napkin removed look at your edges if there is any napkin poking up gently using your finger or your brush rub this back down

​NOTE: don’t keep painting the easycoat in one area as you will break your image… Don’t worry too much if you get some creases in this as it will add to texture later…
 
Step 4.
Check all your Chippies now and coat the back of them with Powertex – blue… You’ll see that I gave my skull eye lashes, I created these using the scallopy chippy piece by cutting away the swirls …  Paint these cut edges with the blue Powertex

• Mixing your Easy 3Dflex clay… You’ll need Powertex – White / Easy 3Dflex / bowl / flat plastic pallet knife / gloves
• Pour your Powertex White into your bowl Sprinkle some Easy 3dflex powder over this and start mixing with the flat pallet knife… Keep adding powder to this until you get a nice dough… at some point as it thickens into a ball take it out of the bowl and start kneading like you would with a bread dough… if it is sticking to your hands roll the dough into the powder then knead this powder into it … 

NOTE: place into a plastic bag over cover in plastic wrap till ready to use… 

• Check that the skull piece that you put the serviette on and the base are dry… 
• Paint the top surface of the base with a generous layer of Powertex – white … 
• While this surface is wet place get your top piece with the napkin on it place it into position onto your base … Give it all a gentle push to adhere… 

Step 5.

• Starting with your teeth piece lift your teeth piece up and take a piece of your 3d flex clay / roll this into a thick log shape as long as the piece you are going to cover
• Push the clay into the back of your teeth so that the clay is coming out of the teeth (add more clay in areas that you may have any voids
• Paint the back of the clay with Powertex – white and place into position
• Repeat this for the large and small lotus flower piece at the top and bottom of your skull

• Eyes – remove the outer lid part of the eye / paint around the top of the edge with Powertex – white / roll a skinny log of your clay and place this around the top oval shape of the eye / paint the underneath of your lid piece with the ivory Powertex and push it into the clay… it doesn’t matter that the clay oozes out… 
• Get a skewer and along the oozy clay edged gently push it in around the flower shape of the eye lid it will add dimension and yummy texture
• Repeat this for the other eye
• Now spray these clay areas with your bister spray – black and yes it will go into the nose area but this will add to the look as it dries… Allow to dry out in the warm sun or dry with the hairdryer

Step 6.

• Adding all your other pieces flowers etc…
• To add dimension, I gently curled all the edges of my petals up on the flowers… 
• On the flowers that I used for my eyes and the layered flower I put a ball of 3dflex clay into the centre of these flowers by painting some Powertex – white into the middle of the flower pushing the ball of clay into position then using a needle poked lots of little holes all around the clay… 
• Eye’s – left eye I used 1 large flower curled… To give it height I rolled a small piece of 3dflex clay painted some white Powertex into the left eye recess placed my log into the middle / painted a little white Powertex under my large flower into position Step 6. 
• Repeated this for the right eye but using 3 different sized flowers… 
• For all my other pieces – flowers and leaves I stuck them into position using Powertex – blue…  I also used all my left over 3d flex clay underneath some of my flowers to get height… 
• Eyelashes – the swirls that I cut off the piece earlier I painted the backs with Powertex Blue to glue into position around the top lid of the eye…

Step 7.

• Spray all over with Bister – Black… Yes, it will look very dark … don’t worry we haven’t finish yet 
• Blast it with a hot hairdryer then leave to dry for 24hrs

Step 8.

• Get a damp cloth and rub over the 3d flex clay areas to expose some of the white underneath … 
• Gently rub and remove some of the black bister from around your flowers and also the surface with the napkin … 
• You want to leave some of the bister to give it dark under tones so don’t go crazy if you feel that you have removed too much all is not lost just spray a little more back on and leave to dry… 

Step 9.

• Embellishing – Easycoat Glossy / Colourtrix – White silver & Magic Blue / alfoil pallet and brush
• Put a little of your Colourtrix onto pallet using the tip of your pallet knife & a drop of Easycoat glossy
• Using a dry brush technique… lightly dry brush Magic Blue over some of your blue pieces…
• Now have some fun dry brushing with the White Silver over any of the 3D flex clay areas then also some of the edges of your other pieces 
• Please experiment and have fun.. if you want to add more colour then please do so

Voila You’re Done… 

So, how’s your Sugar Skull looking? Please don’t forget to share your designs onto our Powertex Australia Group page on Facebook and also Funky RenWa’s Designs…

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog…
I hope that I have been able to inspire you on your creative journey with Powertex…
I look forward to having some more fun next month and sharing many more hints and tips with you all… Here’s a little hint of what to expect…
I’ve been told that we can be a little naughty… Ooh La La!!!
​Cheers for now to you all…

​Your friendly Neighbourhood Powertex FUNatic
RenWa (Renee’ Warwick)
 
P.S. Don’t forget to check out our resource page on Powertex Australia… Lots of great free tutorials and resources on how to use our products