day of the dead

crafts, google+ hangouts, halloween, kids, monster

SKULL potato print

What is it with skulls? There is something so graphically appealing about them… and with several small boys to entertain for yet another birthday party, I decided to involve them in making wrapping paper, and party bags… So we each carved a face into a potato and got printing!

Potato print skull

It’s pretty simple stuff, you can see in the photograph of the potato, you slice it lengthwise, and carefully cut the mouth and eyes with a sharp knife. It’s essential that the potato is sliced FLAT otherwise the print won’t be nice and clean.

8yo (as he was at the time) enjoyed mixing the colours to get the murky grey, and we rolled out some brown packing paper on the table to print up the wrapping paper. The party bags are really easy to make too, you need a tissue box for a template and for an easy ‘how to’ vlog – click over to redtedart.com where one of my earliest appearances on video camera will entertain you…

These potato skulls would be great for Halloween bunting, or if you didn’t fancy getting the paints out, dowload my FREE Day of the Dead printables here.

Halloween video

Want to see me talking about this project and skull potato printing? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Halloween crafts’ on Google+.

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, including toilet roll bat pinatas! More links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, Aly at plus2point4.co.uk, Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and Lizzie from missielizzie-meandmyshadow.

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!экспресс анализ сайта

crafts, halloween, kids, monster

Day of the Dead FREE Printable bunting

So Autumn is upon us, and time to look at a Mexican holiday celebration which is new to my boys: Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos which is the first two days of November.

Although the holiday involves artistic representations of skulls and skeletons, the occasion is festive, rather than morbid. Death isn’t seen as the end of one’s life, but as a natural part of the life cycle; the dead come back to visit every year. In the UK, around this time of year, Halloween’s images of skulls and skellybobs are spooky,eery, and scary. By contrast, On Day of the Dead, it’s about celebrating with the family both alive and remembering those who are no longer with us.

FREE PrintableI asked the boys what they would like to make, and ‘masks’ and ‘bunting’ seemed popular and do-able choices… as they are 9 and 10 now, and love their Marvel graphic novels, they wanted me to ‘draw’ the templates in Illustrator for them to colour – so that’s what we’ve done… and I’ve attached a FREE Printable for you to colour and create your own Day of the Dead garland too…(you too can make your own ‘microwave dave’ character like the 10yo…)

Day of the Dead Bunting – you will need:

  • A print out of our FREE PRINTABLE
  • Colouring pencils, glitter, or paints
  • A hole punch
  • Ribbon

My boys really enjoyed colouring the skulls, and requested Star Wars themed skulls too… not one, but two, so have fun – and would love to see yours too 🙂 If you’d like to see more SKULL craft ideas, click here to take a look at our potato print skull party bag how to!

day of the dead video

Want to see me talking about this project and skull potato printing? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Day of the Dead crafts’ on Google+.

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, from skulls on stones, and corks, balloons and more links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree who loves a bit of skull face painting, and talked about T-shirt printing, skeletons and sculpting and glitter and check out Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and her day of the dead spoon craft!

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x LIKE IT? Pin it!