DIY: Dia De Los Muertos Inspired Wreath

Halloween season is upon us and I am excited to continue on with all the celebrations. Most of the fun for me comes from the creative projects that I work on to prepare for Halloween. From my costume, pumpkin carving and most recently, creating a new wreath. I was afraid that I couldn’t top my adorable Monster wreath from last year, but am happy with what is adorning my front door at the moment.

I have been inspired by all things that remind me of the traditional Mexican Holiday, el Dia de los Muertos. Which is a day meant to celebrate the lives of those we have lost and loved. When I think of the Day of the Dead I am reminded of the beautiful altars resurrected by grieving family members filled with flowers, sugar skulls, candles and belongings from the deceased. I hope you enjoy this simple tutorial!

First step is always gathering your materials.

I these beautiful red flowers at the Dollar Tree and grabbed two bouquets for this project. I pulled off each flower from the stem, leaving the green leaves attached to add more color on the wreath.

I found these foam skull ornaments at Michael’s and picked three up at $1 a piece. All the Halloween decorations were already on sale to make some room for the Christmas ornaments, which is CRAZY!

Next stop at Michael’s was the wreath aisle. I always seem to get really overwhelmed here with all of the options. And without fail, I always grab the same one, 18″ green foam wreath. I wrapped this one with black streamer/crepe paper because I didn’t have any ribbon handy.

I played around some with the formation before I started to glue it all down.

And got to gluing! I apologize for the pictures. This project was finished at 11:00 pm. I just had to be working on it while I was watching some scary movies.

And there you have it! The completed wreath that I plan to never take down!

How do you celebrate El Dia De Los Muertos/Day of the Dead?

DIY: Floral Headband

Hello again everybody! I want to start off with my apology. I realize its been a while since I have posted and I have missed sharing my adventures with y’all dearly. My life has changed dramatically this month- I’m hoping for the better. I am transitioning from a self-diagnosed insomniac to an early riser, and it has been tough. I invite any tips and suggestions for how to wake up early, quick/easy healthy breakfast options, anything would be appreciated.

Anyhoo, this is all to explain my absence this month as I transition into this new lifestyle. For my post today I would like to share a really easy tutorial for a floral headband. Hope you enjoy!

I attended a Day of the Dead festival this past weekend and was looking for a few festive ways to celebrate the day. I decided on making a floral headband inspired by photos of La Catrina – the main exhibit at the Mexic-Arte museum who was hosting the event. I am so happy with the final product considering how quick and cheap this project was to execute.

The first step was gathering the supplies. I found a beautiful wedding bouquet full of tiny little roses for $8 and a $2 plain black headband, all from Michael’s with a 40% off coupon. I already had a hot glue gun and glue sticks on hand and got to work.

Next, I separated the flower from the stems by pulling them off. Some of these were tricky, but nothing a pair of scissors couldn’t fix. I arranged the flowers around the crown, playing around with the formation until I was satisfied.

The next few steps are pretty obvious. I started at the middle of the headband, added a glob of glue under each rose and held on for 15 seconds. At first I thought 5 roses would be enough, but I forgot how large my head actually is and added two more roses on each side, making it 9 roses total. (If you have an average size head, 5 should be fine. It worked for my friend who came by to make one before heading down to the festival.)

And you are done! I left it to dry for about an hour and headed downtown for the festival! Pictured below are two of my favorite altars from the day. If you are ever in the Austin area in mid-October I definitely encourage you to check out the “Viva la Vida” festival hosted by Mexic-Arte every year. I plan to make it a tradition of my own and hope to dress a little more for the occasion. Let me know if you give this a try! Day of the Dead is November 2nd, you still have time to make one of your own!

p.s. I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek of my manicure of the month, coming soon!