Confessions of a Day of the Dead-Head

I have a confession to make. Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday, but I think I'm falling in love with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). I LOVE the makeup and costumes and sugar skulls and skeletons. I think my last trip to Arizona turned me into a DODeadHead. Walking around old town Scottsdale I found this:

I love the symbolism of it... the skeletons (representing death) at the marriage altar. Hmm. I had to have it. Then I found this one in the old Mexican Import store.

It is very very colorful! It's about 6" high, and is painted with marigolds, which is a symbol of death. Love those pearly whites!

In Tombstone, Arizona, we were exploring some shops and I fell in love with this mask:

It's actually wearable, in case I want to scare some small children. But then I thought... it doesn't look THAT hard to make! I didn't have any blank masks laying around but...

I did have some porcelain dolls sitting around here, waiting to be altered and Badabing! I'm hooked. I started out with this one:

She has no eyes, which makes her extra creepy. I still want to put some flourishes around her chin and cheeks. Celia said she'd make some colorful clothes for her and I have to come up with something to put over the hole in her head. I used gesso for the white, and Pitt pens for the black and red. SO easy to do!

Doesn't everyone have a bin of lost baby doll souls laying around?

I've already prepped the face of one; she is next. I kind of like the fact that she has glass eyes still, but to me they look dead and lifeless. Which is perfect, no? The one in the back will be next. I've filled her head hole with styrofoam and air dry clay. I will sand it smooth and paint her entire head white. Poor thing also has glass eyes, but no arms or legs. Still, I have plans for her. I recently picked up the one in front at an auction, last day, 50% off. I wonder what the previous owner would think. I suppose me altering her is better than her being thrown in the dumpster, right? I'm giving her a second chance at life (ah, death?)

Celia is planning on helping me with one too. We got this Character Doll at Tuesday Morning pretty cheap. It's some kind of Fairy Tale doll, similar to Monster High, but I think she has a good face to Dead Up.

Oh, so many ideas, so little time!

What kind of Day of the Dead or Halloween art do you like to do? This time of year, our Danse Macabre stencils become very popular! If you don't have time to scope out resale stores and estate sales for unloved Porcelain dolls, you can just whip out a stencil and celebrate in your art journal. I think my favorite one is DANCERS shown at the top of this post. It screams CELEBRATE and makes me happy. My other favorite one (who am I kidding? I love them all!) is ONLINE shown below. Sometimes after working all day, I totally feel like this!

And we have a TREAT for you. Until the clock strikes Midnight on October 31st, this set of stencils will be 20% off if you use the coupon code ACSpooky15 when checking out. (It will ask you for the code right before you pay.) It's good on one stencil, or the whole series. And leave a comment for me with a link to your Day of the Dead art or Halloween art. I would love to see what others are making!

Have fun!

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