Dias de los Muertos

Another art form! Last year I went to Forever Hollywood’s Day of the Dead / Dias de los Muertos celebration with a friend in LA and had a blast. I have loved the Day of the Dead figurines since I lived in Texas years ago. I also have a lot of scrapbook paper left over (ok, I stopped working on those scrapbooks the day I bought my digital camera) so I combined my love of the two to make some presents for Halloween.

These are photographed on the inspirational paper, though I used another paper for some of the accents.

This was my first, I had a splotch with an oil paint pen malfunction so the lips were a little bigger than I hoped.

This was my first, I had a splotch with an oil paint pen malfunction so the lips were a little bigger than I hoped.

The paper on this was was very pink, but I wanted more muted tones, so I kept with mostly brown and white with a few accents.

I loved the blue daisy and thought it would make a nice “turban”.

I used a lot more paper on this one with muted colors but love the red accent.

Recipe/Tools:

White Spray Paint
Oil Paint Pen
Paper Mache masks (purchased at Michael’s)
Scrapbook paper (thinner paper,not the heavy stock)
Mod Podge
Smallish Paint Brush
Small sharp scissors

First I did a base paint spray on each of the masks. I did two layers just to make sure they were completely covered.I cut flowers/designs from the printed paper. Some are large and some are small, I learned to layer them on.

I paint the back of each cut-out with mod podge and then press it to the mask. Then I painted more mod podge on top to help smooth it out. Some of the bigger pieces take a little nudging to get the bubbles and you may get a few creases. The paper becomes very soft so you can maneuver it to where you need it. I do most of this with the paint brush.

Keep layering and experimenting until you get a design you like.

Share this: