Dia De Los Muertos/ Sugar Skull Tutorial

I'm going to start this by saying I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!  To me it is the most magical time of year!  You can truly be anyone/anything you want to be and no one will judge you!!!  If only life was like that all the time!! 

One of my favorite things to do is, you guessed it, make Halloween decorations!!  I LOVE creepy and spooky things, if it's weird, I'll like it!  I already have the neighborhood kids bringing me things (cicada shells and things of the like), and we've only been here a few months...lol, I guess my reputation precedes me! I personally try to keep a little creepy up all year, it makes my heart happy!!

OK, so now for this awesome floral skull.... it is completely budget friendly, coming in at a total cost of $3!!! SAY WHAT?!?!?! Yup, this is a dollar store craft! Dollar Tree to be exact! and I don't care where you live there is one close by, sometimes several in a town!!

Supplies need....
2 floral stems of roses with eyeballs, I bought 1 black and 1 purple
1 plastic skull

Tools used...
Hot glue gun
scissors
bead reamer (or you can use an awl, I had the reamer in my grasp so that's what I used)
needle nose pliers (not necessary, but helpful)

OK now the part where you get to feel like Morticia Addams (I'll take any reason to feel like her #shesawesome), you are going to need to select and pull 5 roses off of the wire stems, make sure you are taking the plastic piece they are held together with. On these bunches there are also black plastic sprigs (you need 2), spiders (you need 1 or more depending on your preferences), and the black leaves (you need 4). They are pictured above. 

After you collect your pieces, grab your skull and figure out where you want your flowers to sit, I did mine more forward so it looks like a floral crown. But your placement is completely up to you!

Now you are going to need your awl and possibly pliers. (Be careful!!  You want to puncture your plastic skull, not your skin, they are pointy and sharp!)

Take your awl and poke a hole in each spot you want your flowers, you may need to use the pliers to make the holes larger to be able to fit the plastic "stem"of the flower.

Check hole size, if it fits, add hot glue and press it in.  Repeat for all 5 holes.

Next you're going to add the extra pizzazz!!

Take your little black sprigs and cut them so each makes two (you'll end up with 4 total).  Place one in between each flower as shown above.  Turn your skull around.

 This next step is kind of a two for.... You are going to add glue to where the sprig sticks out in the back, this will hold it down, but you are also going to add one of the black leaf groupings and press it into the glue (be careful, hot glue is HOT, Lord knows I have burned myself more than not).  Repeat for all 4 sprigs/spaces.

Next and semi-final step, depending on how much extra you want to add, is adding the spider.
This is slightly trickier only because the plastic it thicker on the face (at least on the ones I bought)

You are going to find where you want the placement of your spider.  This step is just like the flowers, you'll need to take the awl and make a hole and expand it with the pliers (please be careful!  You do not want to make a hole in your hand!  The plastic maybe thicker and you'll need to use more force, try not to slip!).  Add glue, press the "stem" of your spider in. I had to hold mine in place until it was cool and firm, you may have to too!

And there she is!!  The one at the top has an eye, this was merely one of the eyes that fell off the flower and I could not reattach, so a little hot glue in the eye socket and voila!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, it probably took more time to read than the actual time the craft will take!  Please follow me and be on the lookout for more posts like this!

Have a spooktacular day!!!

Hi my name is Kelly and I'm The Crafting Fashionista over here at Craft Love Fashion!  I have a true passion for anything that involves making.  For as long as I can remember I have been drawing, sewing, painting, sculpting, crafting, cooking, you name it I've probably attempted it!  In high school I was the kid who gave up lunch to take an extra art class.  In college I studied both fashion and interior design and took a lot of foundation art and design classes.  I don't know why but the whole process of creating things has always fascinated me, no matter where I go I always look at the how things are put together.  I truly appreciate creative people, they are my favorite, and it still amazes me to this day how everyone sees and interprets things differently. 

I am married to my best friend, Kevin, we have been together since what feels like forever (actually my senior year in high school.)  We have been through A LOT together (some REALLY tough times) which has taught me to never judge, because you never truly know what is going on in someones life.  He is the ying to my yang and even though he can drive me absolutely insane, I wouldn't want to spend my life with anyone else.  We recently took the HUGE leap and moved from NJ to GA, and we couldn't be happier.

Together we have 3 crazy amazing kids that are our whole world.  They are so a like and different at the same time, it's crazy!  They are smart, crafty, funny, loving, caring, kind people that I get to call my own. 

In this family we support each other, and take mental health seriously (a topic I will expand on in the future).

This is just a starting point for my blog, thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope you stick around and follow me. Things you can look forward to from me are tutorials, recipes, fashion styling, artwork, and updates about the family.  If you have any suggestions of posts you'd like to see please let me know and I will try to make them happen!