Day of The Dead Calavera Mask with Petaloo

 Living in Southern California all my life, Day of the Dead celebrations are nothing new to me, I have long loved the artwork of the celebration including the famous Sugar Skulls and Calavera Masks. Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures on November 1st and 2nd. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. I decided I would attempt to create my own Calavera Mask. I have to say I am totally in love with my result! Why? Well I am not a "fine artist". I have no real drawing or sketching skills, and staring at the blank white mask I got at the craft store, I was thinking- this is going to be a mess! Amazingly, I figured out a way to make it work and now will show you how I did it. Don't be afraid- it really didn't require any special drawing skills- trust me! Now go get a white blank mask at the craft store, some Sharipe Brush Markers, and pencil, some foam core, plug in the hot glue gun, and gather your favorite Petaloo Flowers!

I started by using some Kaiser Craft Stamps to make a few designs- they were clings, so I inked them on the cling using Clearsnaps Surfacez Permanent Ink in black and just used my hand rather than an acrylic block. Then using a pencil and some google images for inspiration I lightly drew out my design- the eraser works perfect so don't worry about making mistakes or starting over if you dont like it.

After you are done and like your design- darken your lines with a Black Sharpie. The skull looks best if you darken in the sides giving it a more skull look. There are ton of ways to do the mouths too- just research first

Next I wanted a scrolly vine-so made light dashes until I had the look I wanted

Now start to color in more. I gave her some eye shadow. With the Sharpie markers, you can go over the top of same colors- but if you touch the other color they will mix

I added another butterfly and colored it too (to the left side of temple) Now I laid my mask atop a piece of foam core. I drew about an inch and half away from skull and then lined up the edge as pictured

I cut out the foam core and added some black paper to cover the white- I then hot glued it to the mask

Now for the fun part! Start with your larger flowers first. Only glue in the very center- this will you allow to layer other flower by slipping them under each other.

now start to add more flowers-I made sure to glue some in the crease so they cascaded over the top (see bottom right green flower) I then added the next smallest flowers, tucking them under as needed

I also added some smaller flowers onto the scrolly vines I made

I bought some Recollections stick on gems at Michaels and added them

I finished with more gems on the jaw area, and then took two wired ribbon bows and attached with glue to sides

here is the back- I hot glued a ribbon to hang it from.

See that wasn't too hard was it?

Supplies:

Petaloo Dahlias x10 Autumn

Petaloo Dahlias x10 Teals/Aquas

Petaloo Mixed Textured Blossoms Black

Petaloo Sienna Chantilly-Mixed Blooms

Creatology Plastic Mask

Sharpie Brush Tip Markers

Clearsnaps Surfacez Permanent Ink

KaiserCraft Stamps Lilac Avenue

Recollections Rhinestone Stickers

Hot Glue

Foam Core

 

 

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Comments

[plus.google.com/106499394798416985948]

I'm in love with your results, too! It's gorgeous!

[Caroline Brand]

This is soooo fun, really different, great use of flowers! There is (in my head) a slight clown quality to it? Really like how you used stamps & drew your scrolls... Wonderful!! :))

[Susan Salyer]

Oh this is beautiful beautiful..thank you for sharing this lovely piece and tutorial.
susan salyer