Mardi Gras

I have never been to Mardi Gras but I have been to New Orleans.  I love it there.  We went last summer while vacationing in the South and New Orleans left an impression on us.  The French Quarter is fun and exciting and all that you have ever heard.  I can't imagine that I'll ever make it to Mardi Gras, the crowds are more than I think I could handle at this point in my life, but I can see its appeal.  We visited the New Orleans museum while there and wondered through the Mardi Gras exhibit.  It is wonderful.  The history of the tradition, the costumes and floats on display are just incredible.

I have been feeling homesick for the South and for New Orleans in general so I was quite happy when I saw that the challenge this week from The Diva was Mardi Gras.  I love, love, love her tile.  It is quite beautiful and you should click the link to see it if for no other reason.

I did two tiles this time.  One on white watercolor paper and one on the new black tiles.  I got some for Christmas this year and have been saving them.  As the colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold, I used those colors to the fullest.  I also used some bonus sparkle to bring out the party in the tiles.

On this first tile I started with Btl Joos and then added the strings of beads.  I just made up the strings.  I don't know how well you can see on this tile, but I added sparkle with the Gelly Roll Clear Star pen.  It is a glitter pen and works nicely.  It doesn't photograph very well but I quite like it.  The glitter is NOT archival and is not guaranteed to stay so if you use one, you'll need to get a fixative.  I'm not sure how much I'll use this pen but it is a lot of fun.  For this tile I used a black, purple and green micron pens.  The gold is from a Faber Castell Pitt artist pen.  I picked this up a while back when searching for a gold pen.  I like it but the gold while pretty, is a flat gold so that is something to keep in mind.  I used it here as I didn't want the gold to be shinier than the other colors.

Next up I used the black zentangle tile and Pentel Sunburst Metallic pens along with the Clear Star Gelly Roll pen.  I think this is a lot more festive.  It really sparkles.  I "beaded" the edges and then just made a series of strings of beads across the tile.  I went back and used a white Gelly Roll pen to highlight the separate strings.  Then I added some shine next to the white and a few white swirls for good measure.  The metallic inks don't lend themselves to white highlights as I had hoped to add on at the end.  The glitter gets lost as a highlight as well but the shine in the ink does great all on its own.





I think this was a fun challenge.  I didn't try to over think it as I am wont to do from time to time.  I tried to keep them simple so that the beads would take center stage.