How To Make a Day of the Dead Display for Your Home.

I've posted about it before and how excited I get around this time of year. We still celebrate Halloween, but decorating for Day of the Dead is like Halloween decorating with a little extra. I put up my front table yesterday, and I do already have some stuff, but even if you have nothing for the holiday I will show you how to make a colorful, and memorable display with crafts you can do alone or with your kids. It's a great way to celebrate the lives of people you have loved and lost.

My table is facing out against my front window. I have put a red sheet on it, any table cloth would do. Preferably black, red or even white would work. I placed a large box in the center back of my table to give it some height and I draped some colorful fabric over it. If you have some stuff to put on the table already, then load it up. If not, then colorful candles is the place to start.
I have some Mexican Folk art already, some skull candles, and a cement skull I have placed on my table.
Here is what I started with, but like I said candles would be fine on their own.

                                                                           















This is what it looked like with some of the candles lit.

Craft #1

Paper Flowers and step one of Rose Garland

What you will need

Several pieces of tissue paper cut in to 5 inch squares

Green pipe cleaners

Scissors

Glue and glitter optional.

Step one.

Take 6 to 8 sheets of tissue. You can use more than one color if you would like. For this example we will use blue.

Stack the tissue and fold it in an accordion fashion. (the squares do not have to be perfect for this.)

  

Step Two

For this example we are going to cut each end of the strip to a point. Different shaped paper and ends will change the look of your flower.

Step Three

Take a pipe cleaner and make a loop around the center of your strip, twist the end to seal it.

Step Four

Fan out the sides and start to pull each piece of tissue up towards the center of your flower.

Continue to do this on both sides until all the paper is pulled forward.

At this point you can add glitter it you want.

I use two plastic plates. I put some glitter on one, and some glue on the other.

Dip the flower in the glue and then the glitter, put aside to dry or right on your table. You can put bunches in a vase, or make a string of garland.

Here is a pink one that is already dried with the glitter on it.

If you would like to make a rose garland, the first step is to make the roses. I will be making them all weekend and putting them on my table until I have enough to string them up.

Roses

I like to use two tones of red tissue and if you buy it at the dollar store you our bound to wind up with two tones anyway. lol

 Take 4 sheets of the lighter color and stack them. Cut them in the shape of a circle. (remember you can be a little messy with shapes, flowers in real life are seldom perfect)

Place the circles on top and in the middle of your darker red squares.

Fold in the accordion fashion. Cut the ends of the strip so they are rounded.

 Continue the steps to make the flower. When wrapping the pipe cleaner around the strip make sure your lighter color is facing up, those should be the first you pull.

Dip in glitter to finish.

Place them on the table until you have enough to start to string them up. I plan to use fishing line, but since I haven't done it yet, I will wait to post exactly how I plan to do it.

I will spend the rest of the weekend making paper flowers, next I will be posting about decorating frames of your lost loved ones.