Calaveras!

Since living in Mexico for several years, my love of Halloween is also influenced with the traditions of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). When celebrating and decorating, we use traditions from Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. For example, we create a "graveyard" in our front yard, but we also create a trail of marigold petals leading from the "tombstones" to the front porch. (Traditionally, marigolds are used to help guide the souls of the departed to their loved ones - the luminous petals of the marigolds virtually "glow" in the dark!) I love the traditions of papel picado, the elaborate ofrendas, and the traditional folk art surrounding Dia de los Muertos. Here's a link to a pdf document that is a teacher packet full of fun crafts for kids - a calavera mask, a skeleton puppet, coloring pages, etc.

If you'd like to do something crafty for Dia de los Muertos, here's an easy craft to make calaveras (skulls). Get together some white air drying clay, some colored pens, and jewelry findings (optional). Mold the clay into skull shapes with your fingers. Use something with a point (I used a pencil) to create eye and nose sockets and a mouth. If you'd like to make your skulls into beads for jewelry or into ornaments, insert the appropriate jewelry findings. We placed jewelry loops into the top of the skulls to make these into necklaces. Your calaveras might look something like this:

Follow the manufacturer's directions and allow the clay to dry. Once the clay is dry, pull out your colored pens and get creative! Jerry, Brynne and I each decorated 2 in the batch below:

Google Dia de los Muertos if you'd like inspiration for the designs. Here's a great place to look for inspiration and learn more about the festivities. These are lightweight and great to use for halloween ornaments, or combined with other beads for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. If you decide to try this out, I'd love to see what you end up with!

Comments

[scribblesnbits]

Those came out neat! The one in the bottom right with the tongue sticking out made me smile!

[Anamaria]

What a great idea--yours came out fabulous, too! I'd been meaning to get my mother-in-law, who collects Mexican skeleton folk art, a kit for making sugar skulls from Hearthsong--but making some of these would be much cooler. Thanks!

[katie]

Great idea! I am definitly thinking stitchmarkers...

[hannah]

feliz dia de los muertos! i love this tradition too, even though my roots are a little farther south. to this day my mom doesnt like marigolds because they remind her of funerals. you must snap a picture of your graveyard for us to see! tus calaveras son magnificos!

[Rose]

Thanks so much for this idea, and the mini-tutorial. A new thing to add to my list! Yours are great, especially the guy with the tongue.

[Snowbear]

Kelly, this post was right up my alley--thanks for all the great links and I like your little skulls! I just bought some air-drying clay to make my memorial but I didn't know they made white clay--where did you find it?

[Snowbear]

Kelly, this post was right up my alley--thanks for all the great links and I like your little skulls! I just bought some air-drying clay to make my memorial but I didn't know they made white clay--where did you find it?

[Snowbear]

Kelly, this post was right up my alley--thanks for all the great links and I like your little skulls! I just bought some air-drying clay to make my memorial but I didn't know they made white clay--where did you find it?

[sarah n.]

these look so great, i think we're doing this tomorrow :) thanks!!

[Laurie]

Ha! These are so great. :)

[lyn]

What a great idea !

[gina L]

Thanks for the tutorial. I love these skulls. I am game to do this for our class Halloween party. Do you think the school would have any objections?
I don't think they are scary but you know schools these days. I usually can come up with good craft ideas for my daughters class. She is in 4th grade and my 3rd kid so I guess I have exhausted my creative resources in this area. Any Comments or Ideas are greatly appreciated.

[becca]

ive been looking for day of the dead lessons for elementary students, and this teacher packet is great! thanks for posting!

[Laura Moushey]

Our family has just returned from living in Mexico for three years. We loved learning the language and the culture. There are times when we really miss Mexico and our friends...and this is one of those times.

I love your craft idea. It is much more practical, inexpensive and easier than the sugar skulls.

As for the note about how schools will react, my kid's schools reacted very well to learning about another countries holiday. For my preschooler, we focused on the butterflies returning during Day of the Dead. Mexicans believe this is the dead's spirits returning home. But this activity will be great for next year for my 4th grader...the kids loved seeing my collection of skulls! It is like collecting ornaments for me! ;)

Next year we are having a "Dead" Party instead of Halloween and have the kids and adults have fun with theses!

[Laura Moushey]

Our family has just returned from living in Mexico for three years. We loved learning the language and the culture. There are times when we really miss Mexico and our friends...and this is one of those times.

I love your craft idea. It is much more practical, inexpensive and easier than the sugar skulls.

As for the note about how schools will react, my kid's schools reacted very well to learning about another countries holiday. For my preschooler, we focused on the butterflies returning during Day of the Dead. Mexicans believe this is the dead's spirits returning home. But this activity will be great for next year for my 4th grader...the kids loved seeing my collection of skulls! It is like collecting ornaments for me! ;)

Next year we are having a "Dead" Party instead of Halloween and have the kids and adults have fun with theses!