Day if the Dead card

Day of the Dead, or "Dia de los Muertos" is celebrated throughout Mexico. Many other countries around the world celebrate similar (or hybrid) versions of Day of the Dead as well, by having special days for honoring the dead.  It is a festive, joyous time of celebration, falling on November 1 and 2 of each year, coinciding with the Catholic holidays All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

I started with coloring a Rick St. Dennis image called Death on a Saturday Night with my trusty Copics. The image is one of my favorites from RSD. I made the background digitally with a paper from Rucola Designs. The moon and paper flags are free clipart from Google. In order to have the "family" appear naturally in my setting, I fussy-cut it after coloring it so it looks like it's truly part of the scene.

This is my DT make for November's challenge at Halloween & Other Occasions All Year 'round.. Besides offering Halloween all year round, as implied, each month offers challenges for each month's celebrated holidays as well. I chose Day of the Dead as my heritage may be German-Irish but my heart is Mexican...

 

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 25 - Day of the Dead

 

Today's project is a re-do from one I created last year. Evidently the bin I had placed my DIY Halloween decorations wasn't closed properly and some of them got ruined or needed emergency care. This is one that I salvaged, scraping off the old and adhering a new felt Day of the Dead skull. I added new ribbon, flowers and gems to freshen it up.

Did you know that, here in the States, Halloween is almost neck to neck with the Christmas holidays when it comes to decorations and parties?!

in house decorations and parties 

31 Days of All Hallows Eve - Day 21 - Day of the Dead Skull

 Today I decorated a Dollar Tree skull and created a sugar skull for Day of the Dead. Anyway, this holiday is getting more popular in the US, especially with movies from Disney like the "Book of Life" and "Coco". It originates from Mexico, and really is more related to the Catholics' All Saints Day and, more so, All Souls Day. It is a day to honor those who have passed before us, except instead of going to church to pray for their souls, families gather together either at home or where their loved ones are buried. They celebrate with flowers and food and bring up good memories, celebrating their lives so they won't be forgotten.

The skull I found was colored with a bokeh-effect over the color silver. I filled the eyes with adhesive jewels, then surrounded each eye with a circle of yellow jewels, and another of pink pearls. After looking it over, I decided it was much too sparkly, so I attached a flower into each socket - much better...

As I filled the face of the skull, I added jeweled flowers, lines of pearls and jewels and finally flowers to cover the scalp. I had to use my Posca paint marker to color the nose socket black, as well as outlining the teeth. My partner, the hot glue gun, was a huge help! LOL

Since the teeth were the swirly rainbow on silver color, I painted them white. My sugar skull, named after special candy sold only on November 1-2, is a bright, beautiful decoration. If I display it my window, it really sparkles in the sun!

CHALLENGES I AM eNTERING:

Crafting Happiness - Halloween 

Simon Says - Spooky