Dia De Los Mercados

Yes, for those of you questioning your 9th grade Spanish skills, it is the Day of the Markets.  Well, at least the day of the Market Street Paint the Town challenge!  Take a gander at the gorgeous color scheme:

So this was the thought process on my card...."hmmm, I'd like to use my new October Market Street stamps, but I'm not really sure if these colors could work for Halloween."  Then Angelica mentions on the October stamp reveal that the little skull from Spooky Sweets would be great for Dia De Los Muertas cards.  I vaguely remember something about this holiday from my Spanish classes, but then again, the only C I've had on my report card came from a Spanish final, so I asked Angelica to fill me in:

Dia de los Muertos is Nov 1st, and it's a holiday celebrated in Mexico. The idea is to celebrate the lives of loved ones you have lost. Dia de los Muertos art is typically skeletons (our loved ones) celebrating the things they loved to do the most when they were living. Or, just happy and enjoying the after life. In Mexico, people build shrines and visit cemeteries where they bring all of their deceased loved one's favorite foods, music, clothing, anything, really. I saw a shrine in Chicago one time of a soldier who had died overseas. This particular shrine was very elaborate and had me weeping. The beauty was knowing that building the art of the shrine really helped his family cope. I think it's a great way to grieve and still keep those you've lost close to you. 

You can also find more information here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead  Doing a little more interweb research, I loved all the colorful drawings that celebrated the day and decided to try to create my own with that cute little skull:

Ok, I should have totally warned you about putting your sunglasses on to view this card!  And yes, I did add some yellow to the mix because I had to have four colors for my image.  Since I don't really do "random" or "doodles" (I mean, if I could draw, I wouldn't have to stamp, right?), I had to figure out someway of making a fun hand-drawn pattern and decided to try my hand at some Zentangle patterns. I thought the middle pattern was reminiscent of a marigold, a flower commonly used during Dia de los Muerta, and even though the bottom layer was named "feathers," it looked close enough to leaves for me.  It really was very soothing drawing and coloring in the pattern, especially since I did it while watching some Friday Night Lights.  I finished the card by tracing the Nestability blossom die onto white paper so I could add a tiny mat (otherwise everyone's eyes would have exploded from the patterns) and added a touch of bling to Miss Skully's headband.

Be sure to check out the rest of the samples and link up your own creation on the Market Street Blog!