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Two days ago I found this cool metal skull at Cost Plus, and had to have it!  When it was purchased,  I had ideas about what could be done with it, but didn’t know what exactly I would do!  So today it will be a stenciled,   sprayed through, sketched around, and some ideas that have been running around in my right brain will be worked on!  On line, there are  full size plastic skulls that would be really fabulous decorated with fluorescent paint, or sprayed with black paint, and decorated with jewels, but so far I haven’t bought one..   My conservative side kicks in just about the time the “Place Order”  button appears leaving me without a skull to decorate once again!   The price,  plus shipping is probably holding me back, getting a discount with a  coupon is much more fun!

Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays, probably because everyone  always dressed up and became  really silly!   Silly wasn’t in my nature when I was a kid, I was way too serious,  but I’m trying to make up for that now!    Now, my motto is to “connect to the child within,” along with their right brain, and get wild, and free!  Creating with wild abandon seems to be the key to creating from the heart, for ourselves.  At some point, we get old enough that we simply don’t care whether or not someone else loves our art!  If  it makes me happy, that’s what I’m going to do.  There no longer is any time to waste getting approval!

This started about five years ago when playing with my grandson Connor.  All he wanted to do was paint in my studio,  so I set up a small pallet of watercolors, and allowed him to choose the brush he wanted to use.  He chose a very long acrylic brush, dipped it in “blue” paint, and flung it all over, his paper, and inadvertently my table, the walls, and even into the kitchen!  Blue paint everywhere!  Thank heavens I gave him watercolors. Isn’t it funny how if it were our own kids, they never would have been able to do that?  But, it’s now the grandkids, and they can do just about anything!  Shortly after that I took a week-long workshop in Sedona, Arizona with Bob Burridge.  It was then that I decided to paint like I was three years old, and pretend I was Connor.  It’s amazing what you can do when you pretend!

Back to the skulls…..After taking a break, and playing with the metal skull, this is what I came up with.  Starting with fabric spray of all things, I sprayed through the skull, then turned it over and stamped with it.  I used green, and cranberry for colors, and I used fabric paint because it washes off the metal, and I can heat dry it on the paper.  From there, I just kept going, rummaging through my  drawers, looking for embellishments that were picked up on sale for my grandkids to use in their artwork.  Now we all are  having  fun with them!

My grandkids are going to love the possibilities that this metal skull holds, and I’ll bet their eyes light up just like mine did when they see it!