Friday, November 2, 2012

Dia de Los Muertos ~ a new tradition & freebie!

October 31st, we had a simple family Samhain ritual, we talked as a family about the meaning of Samhain and rituals and traditions behind it. As we were wrapping up our little ritual, I had an idea. One that would allow us to teach how other cultures honor their loved ones who are gone (because let’s face it, my kid is a sponge and loves learning), allows us to get creative (I love looking for excuses to get my hubby using his creativeness other than home improvement projects), and it would be something fun.

I originally had the idea to print off a coloring book style page and let the kiddo color it in. But as I was looking at images of Day of the Dead skulls, I just wasn’t finding any that spoke to me. I didn’t find any simple skulls that I liked either for us to draw on and decorate.

You ever have one of those lightening strikes your brain with an idea kind of moments? The kind of moments where you face palm yourself on the forehead and exclaim at the top of your lungs “Oh my gosh!! I’m such an idiot!!” Yeah I had one of those moments when I realized that I could just draw the kind of skull I want (I swear sometimes I forget the fact that I can draw). So that’s where my brain child started, a simple skull on a piece of paper.

skull1

But it didn’t end there. It couldn’t. Remember my inked skull that I drew yesterday? It’s colored now and all framed. Even the dollar store frame that I’ve had forever for no good reason now has the perfect reason and purpose.

sugarskullblogpic

So what did we do with the paper skulls the kid and I decorated? Decorated our family altar of course! I had set up photos of family and pets that have passed on. I also included a small ceramic vase that was once my Nana’s. Our altar is simple this year. This evening after soccer practice, we’ll come home have a dinner of comfort food (mac and cheese is our family’s fav) and light the candles on our altar. We’ll share stories with our son of our fondest memories of family and pets he never got to meet. We’ll tell him stories of his great grandma who passed when he was only 3 months old. We’ll offer daddy lots of hugs and kisses because he misses Sir Galahad terribly. But most importantly, we’ll have honored our loved ones and create a new family tradition.

sugarskullblog2

Want to make your own Day of the Dead skull? I’m sharing the one that I created!!
All that I ask is that you don’t sell it in any form. If you use it online, please link back to this post. Thanks! Let me know if you create your own skull, I’d love to see it!!

paperskulltemplate

Thanks for swinging by and happy crafting!

kmichelesignature

 

 

 

3 comments:

  1. I think your skulk design and altar are beautiful. What a lovely tradition!
    I'm part of AEDM also!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by and your kind words!

      Delete
  2. It really is a brilliant idea! Should I have a printer we'd totally do this, Mariann is so into coloring pages right now.

    Your skull looks so pretty framed and sit on the altar!

    ReplyDelete

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