Whew! After two years in the making, I’m so glad to be finally posting this Dia de Los Muertos Calavera Wreath. It’s really not that difficult of a project but for some reason it’s just taken me forever to complete. I actually thought of this project a couple years ago when I saw these super awesome mini paper mache skulls on Consumer Crafts but between gathering all the supplies and having a newborn, well, I’m sure you understand. Hope you enjoy this Dia de Los Muertos Calavera Wreath because it sure was a labor of love!
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Dia de Los Muertos Calavera Wreath
Supplies:
- 3D Paper Mache Skulls 5.5″
- Puffy Paint Set (Basic & Neon)
- 12″ Wire Wreath Form
- White Spray Paint
- Hot Pink Tulle
Step 1. Before gluing and painting, you’re going to need to layout the skulls on the wreath to see how they’ll fit best. Make sure you have the wreath hallow side up so that the heads can rest in the curved space. There’s going to be a bit of space in between each skull so that we can wrap the tulle around the wire frame.
Step 2. Now that you know where each head basically has to be placed. Begin gluing each skull in place with an ample amount of hot glue. Seriously. Go to town with the hot glue. I applied glue like in the picture below and then flipped the entire wreath over and squeezed even more hot glue from the back.
Step 3. Ok, so remember how I said that finishing this wreath took over a year because I started it and then never finished. Well, I’m sorry to say that some of the process pictures got lost during that time. #bloggerproblems Luckily, the next couple steps aren’t hard to explain! Once you have the wreath assembles, apply a few coats of white spray paint until the paper mache is covered completely. After the spray paint has dried completely, you can begin to add colorful details to the fronts with the 3D puff paint. You can go as detailed or as simple as you want on this step. Feel free to copy some of my designs or look up “sugar skulls” on Google for more decoration ideas. Allow puff paint to dry completely.
Step 4. Fold an 18″ strip of tulle over 6 times on itself and then cut.
Step 5. Take tulle and wrap around the wire frame in between each skull. Trim the excess to just below the skull. Fluff the tulle to cover more blank space.
Step 6. Oops! Forgot to add the black detail around the teeth. Grab a paintbrush and some black paint to paint black borders around the mouth.
Whew, take some time to admire your colorful creation for a bit. Especially if it took 2 years to complete this Dia de Los Muertos Calavera Wreath! No mater the effort, I absolutely LOVE how this wreath came out and can’t wait to hang it in our house to celebrate Day of the Dead!
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