Today, my 10 year old daughter Lexi will be taking over the blog. She is our artist in the family and an amazing one at that. Lexi has an amazing ability to create something amazing out of something simple and random. The other day we were filling our outside beds with river rock and before I knew it she was making a small pile for herself. I knew in the back of my head that she had a creative idea bouncing around in her head and I was right! The next day she said that she wanted to create a blog post on how to make sugar skull yard decorations. Of course, I said, ‘YES!’.
My family moved to San Antonio 4+ years ago and I think that is when my daughter fell in love with Sugar Skulls. If you don’t know what Sugar Skulls are, they are a popular symbol of Dia de los Muertos. They are brightly colored, beautiful and fun to make. The great thing about making your own Sugar Skulls is that you can be as creative as you want and it’s a perfect craft for your older kids.
The first step in making a Sugar Skull is to find the perfect river rock. Once you’ve accomplished this task you will create a paint pallet of all of the beautiful and bright colors you want to add to your Sugar Skull. You will first paint the entire rock white. Once the rock has dried, you will use your black paint to create two large eyes, 2 little nostrils, a mouth and then beautiful designs on the chin and top of the skull. Once the black paint has dried you will then paint the embellishments with your color of choice. After everything has dried, you will spray the skull with a clear enamel spray so that the color holds and there is a glossy finish.
I love how you can decorate your yard with these sugar skulls. You can place them sporadically in your yard, along the walkway, and even in flower pots. My daughter chose to put ours in the flower pots by our front door so that everyone that comes into our home can see the beautiful art that she created!
Have you heard of Sugar Skulls? How would you decorate with them?
That darn Alexis! She is so freaking artsy. She can come hang with me anytime and craft with the kids and I.
LOVE, LOVE this! As a Spanish teacher, I’m always looking for clever ways to add decoration for the cultural holidays my classes study – El Dia de los Muertos being one of them, of course. Going to pin to my Spanish teacher boards. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this at The Pretty Pintastic Party!
—- Amy @ http://thegiftedgabber.com
Dia de los Muertos is a big celebration where my husband is from (Mexico) and we celebrate it every year. But I never would have thought of making sugar skulls for the yard.
Your daughter looks so pretty and cute. She made a wonderful sugar skull yard decoration and I love the colors she has used in it. My girls too love to do this kind of creative craft works. I love to share it with my girls.
Very interesting. I didn’t realize it would be so easy to make this yourself. Great idea for halloween!
She’s so talented! Those are awesome. My daughter is only 20 months, I can’t wait until she’s old enough to do real art projects (and sit for more than 3 seconds) 🙂
Esther
http://blog.cuteheads.com
I have heard of these before. I remember seeing one of the classes at my children’s school working on a similar project. Very cool!
I saw Sugar Skulls for the first time when I went to Mexico last year. I would probably decorate mine with black, pink and teal…maybe a little bright yellow thrown in there too!
These are so cool! What a creative craft. My kids would love doing this, something a little different.
Those sugar skulls turned out gorgeous! I love the pretty details and colors she added!
A great outside craft project is always something we love doing together, however I don’t think my artistic skills would be a match to your daughters.
These are so cute. I will have to try making a few of these. This would be a great DIY project.
I just recently learned about these sugar skulls and think they are so fun! I always love how brightly colored they are!
Oh how awesome is this! My girls love sugar skulls and would LOVE this. HUGE fan that its DIY. We’d have a blast doing this!
Ah, she does have a knack, and a great talent too. My daughter is also the artist in the family. 🙂
These are great!! She is so talented. I’m gonna have to make one of these for myself!
How creative! These sugar skulls are so cute, I’m sure my girls would enjoy doing this.
I have heard of the as the holiday to celebrate comes near but have not attempted to make any. I wonder if my youngest would be interested, he is usually afraid of anything that has the word skull so I might have to call it something different.
How fun! I love this idea, it would be great for the kids to do. Great decoration too for the yard
These skull yard decorations are so cute and unique. They would be perfect for Cinco de Mayo celebrations too.
I haven’t seen these since I was in middle school! We’ve moved around quite a bit though so they must not be as popular in this part of the country! Either way yours are lovely… and your little girl looks so happy!
Those are very interesting! I love the bright colors she used to paint with!
Those turned out pretty good. Nice DIY project for the kds.
I love sugar skulls. These turned out looking so cute!
How fun! I love the looks of those skulls. They aren’t too scary!
Those are really cool designs! I love all the colors she used. I remember reading a little about these in Spanish class!
I have heard of sugar skulls for the Day of the Dead before, but never tried to make one. Your daughter did an amazing job!
Very creative indeed. These came out so good, she’s a great artist.
Those turned out so good! What an awesome DIY
she is so cute and freckly! I love her sugar skulls. She did a wonderful job 🙂
elle
Southern Elle Style
Your daughter did a fantastic job on the rocks! Such a great artist!
Your daughter is adorable and she did great at making her sugar skulls! I’ve seen them before but never knew that was what they are called. I learned something new today! Stacie xo
Oh my gosh, this is so cool! My munchkin is a little too young for this, although I bet I could keep her occupied ‘painting’ a rock while I attempted to design a true ‘Sugar Skull’ My artistic skills are nothing compared to your daughter’s, though. Awesome idea!