Day of the Dead - Part One

As a Spanish teacher, I enjoy learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). As a Halloween-loving human being, I enjoy anything skeletal/creepy during the month of October. Put the two together and it makes for a *spook*tacular combination. You may remember my teaser a few weeks back, and I have been really excited to share this with you, so here goes!

The initial inspiration for this project came from my Aunt Sue, who saw it in a crafting magazine. We ended up changing it up quite a bit in the end.

I know it sounds weird, but, start with a wedding cake topper and a hacksaw. (Yikes! I am smiling as I type this.)

Don't worry, this Bride and Groom are having so much fun, they won't even realize their heads are falling off...

Now take some skeletons (available at Michael's and The Dollar Tree) and chop away some more. The following picture looks like a scene out of a scary movie.

Hot glue the skeleton heads onto the Bride and Groom's bodies.

Be careful, they fall off very easily!

Next, use your fingers to put modeling clay all over your figurines and let it dry completely.

I wanted to add some fake flowers to my lady's dress, so I stuck them into the modeling clay. If I did it again, I would have just hot glued them on, they would have stayed better.

After that, I spritzed mine very lightly with a bit of white spray paint.

When the spray paint is dry, I used some stencil paints to color in my people. I used some browns, grays and even a blue for the Groom's tux.

Paint on some bone details to their hands, chests and teeth with white. Now you have one ghouly groom and bride!

You can stop here and put your creepy couple on display, or you can join me next weekend for part two, to see how I am displaying mine. I will also have three other versions to show you since my Mom, Aunt and cousin all made one. Until then, our Bride and Groom will have to live Hauntingly Ever After...

I will be linking to these parties this week.