Dia de los Muertos is a fall holiday that has gained widespread popularity in the past several years — a Mexican holiday honoring family and friends who have passed away. Celebrated at the end of October, this holiday (also known as Day of the Dead), is a celebration of life and family. Over at Live.Craft.Love, I’ve posted instructions for a Dia de los Muertos wreath featuring a sugar skull. Instructions available here: [Day of the Dead Wreath]

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I love skull themed crafts.  Most of my Halloween decorations and crafts are skulls.  And I’ve been wanting to do something with one of those nifty clip lights for a while now; seeing them back on the shelf recently has rekindled that desire.  I’ve been wanting to make some Day of the Dead calavera skulls, so I snagged a big plastic skull and gave it a glowing makeover!  Today at Giggles, Glitz, and Glam I had the honor of guest posting on Jana’s awesome blog, where I shared my tutorial.  Make sure you stop by and check it out!  [how to make a calavera skull light]

Project estimate:

• Plastic skull, $1
• Clip light, $1
• Nail polish, on hand or $1 and up
• Sharpie,  on hand

Total:  $2 and up

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Nicole at Made by Nicole sent me a link to her Day of the Dead project: making calacas. Calacas are skeleton decorations that are frequently used for Day of the Dead, although they are made all year. They’re usually depicted as joyous rather than mournful figures. Nicole cleverly combined a dollar store porcelain figurine with a dollar store foam skull to form the base of her calaca. I love it when you are ingenious with dollar store materials! [how to make a calaca]

Project Estimate:

• Porcelain figurine, $1
• Skull garland, $1

Total: $2 and up

p.s. If you like this, check out the La Catrina Doll project from last year

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Sugar skulls are a traditional part of the Day of the Dead (aka Dia de los Muertos) decorations and ritual. Usually they’re not made to be eaten, but I found these cool skull ice cube trays at the dollar store, and I thought it would be fun to make edible skull decorations. Making edible skulls is cheap, and so easy even a preschooler can do it. I made a batch of them, and after I was done, my 4 year-old used leftover sugar mixture to make a skull all by himself with no help from me. Check out the video (subscribe), or the written instructions below.

These sugar skulls by Crafty Chica

These differ from traditional skulls because they don’t use egg whites or meringue powder, and therefore are not as hard. Traditional sugar skulls (or “calaveras”) are hollow, decorated in colorful icing, and put out to commemorate the dead. These are firm, like sugar cubes, but you can bite into them. Use these as cupcake toppers, or as a creepy sugar cube to serve with your Halloween or Day of the Dead tea or coffee. Decorate them with royal icing to make them look more like traditional sugar skulls (or use Crafty Chica’s shortcut and use mini tubes of frosting from the grocery store).

This project works with any mold, so think beyond the skulls!

Project Materials:

• 1 cup granulated white sugar, on hand
• 2 teaspoons water, on hand
• Silicone ice cube mold (skull shaped), $1
• Piece of cardboard or cookie sheet, on hand

Total: $1

Put 1 cup of granulated white sugar in a mixing bowl. Make an indentation in the middle of the sugar and add 2 teaspoons (yes, the itty bitty ones!) of water to it. Squish the mixture with your fingers for about one minute until completely incorporated. Make sure there are no lumps of dry sugar. When it’s mixed, it should feel like wet sand.

Fill the molds with sugar and pack tightly. Level top off with a flat spatula or scraper.

Put a cookie sheet or piece of cardboard on top of the mold, then turn over and unmold the skulls immediately.

Let the skulls dry 5 hours or overnight, or put them in a 200° F oven for 5-10 minutes to help them dry more quickly. When they’re dry, you can decorate them. Use royal icing, mini tubes of frosting from the grocery store, or colored candy melts to decorate the skulls to resemble the colorful Day of the Dead skulls.

Additional Resources:

• Sugar Molding from Wren’s Cottage
• Projects: Sugar Skulls from Diary of a Crafty Chica

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I found these “La Catrina” skeleton art dolls at Perpetualplum – she does a lot of great art with recycled materials. The skeletons in these dolls are from dollar store garlands. The bodies were made from recycled table legs, and the clothing and other adornments are repurposed materials of other sorts. I wasn’t previously familiar with La Catrina dolls, but they are based on a 1913 etching by Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada, and have become a popular motif in celebrations of Day of the Dead. [link to Perpetualplum’s blog]

From Wikipedia:
The word catrina is the feminine form of the word catrín, which means “elegant“. The figure, depicted in an ornate hat fashionable at the time, is intended to show that the rich and fashionable, despite their pretensions to importance, are just as susceptible to death as anyone else is.

Project Estimate:

• Skeleton garland, $1
• Scrap fabric or clothing, on hand
• Body base, use recycled materials
• Glue, sewing stuff, etc.

Total: $1

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