Sugar_Scull_WreathOn my last visit to San Francisco I took note of the gorgeous decorations and displays centered around Day of the Dead or the original Spanish name Dia de Muertos. Day of the Dead is a lovely Aztec ritual celebrating the lives of those who have deceased when the gates of heaven opening at midnight on October 31, allowing the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos) to reunite with their families for 24-hours. Even though it is different than the American Halloween tradition I do see the decorations often cross over as the sugar scull has become popular. When I was invited to use a FloraCraft® Foam Head  for a Make It Fun post guess what came to mind. Mexican sugar skulls!  Both Michael’s and Jo-Ann Stores sell the FloraCraft® Foam Head.  We spray painted the head with an antique white then painted the sugar skull pattern on the foam head. This life size sugar scull is a perfect tree topper for our Stiletto Black Pencil Tree. Being a lover of all holidays and traditions, I had so much fun decorating this black tree for my Halloween meets Day of the Dead cross-over.  To honor the deceased we added bright colored crepe paper ranunculus, red and white paper roses (see rose tutorial here) then the small papel picado banners and sugar skulls that we cut on our Cricut Explore in white frosted paper. You can find the printable pattern and SVG files for these sugar skulls at the bottom of this post.  To finish my look made a Dead of the Day wreath for my front door. To make the wreath I wrapped a molded-urethane foam shaped wreath with a FloraCraft Design It:® Simple Style Print Burlap in a chevron pattern and decorated it with the sugar skulls and black paper dahlias.  Perhaps this will inspire you to add a little Day of the Dead decoration to your party and start a beautiful tradition of remembering deceased family, friends and ancestors. Enjoy! ~ Lia

Black_Halloween_Tree Day_Of_The_Dead_TreeBlack_Dahlia_WreathSugarScullWreathStepsPaper_Sugar_ScullSugar_Scull_Tree_TopperTying in with the Mexican theme of today’s post our Papel Picado from the Frida Kahlo photo shoot this summer was featured yesterday on one of my favorite wedding blogs 100 Layer Cakes.