Day of the Dead Craft Book: Templates and instructions to make a mask, nichos, puppet & more

Hola and Welcome to Happythought’s Day of the Dead Craft Book, featuring some of our most popular crafts for you to enjoy. Celebrate this vibrant holiday with crafts inspired by Mexico’s El Día de los Muertos.

CRAFT PROJECTS

• Cat calavera mask
• Flower crown
• Nicho frames
• Calavera dog puppet
• Fortune telling sugar skull

Each project comes with templates and step-by-step instructions. All the projects are rated from easy to medium and there is also an indication of how long each project will take. 18 templates are included at the back of the book, to make the all of the Day of the Dead projects.

Cat calavera mask:

A fun and easy cat calavera mask project to get you started. Follow the simple steps and make your own cat mask in no time. Meow!

Calavera dog puppet:

Make a colourful talking paper sugar skull dog puppet.

Calavera flower crown:

Follow the instructions to make a paper crown adorned with flowers and calavera sugar skulls for Day of the Dead. Use a glue stick to assemble your crown. You can also add a little sticky tape to secure the flowers.

3 Nicho frames:

Nichos are ‘shadow box’ style frames that are often featured on Mexican alters, ofrendas or hanging in the home. They are traditionally made of tin or wood and decorated with sequins, glitter and beads. They usually feature a key object or central figure for whose honor or memory the nicho has been created.

Fortune telling sugar skull:

Just snip and stick your Fortune Telling sugar skull together and assemble the cards. Then shuffle the cards and place them face down. Ask family or friends to pick a card, ask a question and post the card through the slot in the calavera’s head. See their amazement when the answer appears on it’s tongue.

You’ll be delighted with the results

• Choose from over 5 hours of crafting time
• Colorful calavera templates to cut out
• Crafts to suit all ages
• Making paper crafts is a fun craft to do in a group
• Easy instructions with every craft

So let’s get crafting with a pair of scissors and a glue stick!

What is Day of the Dead?

The Day of the Dead, or El Día de los Muertos, is a traditional Mexican holiday, celebrating and honouring those who have departed. It is believed that the spirit of the dead visit their families on November 1st and leave on November 2nd.

Homes are decorated with beautiful altars known as ofrendas. These alters are traditionally laden with offerings of food and gifts for the weary spirit travellers.

The Day of the Dead is truly a celebration of those who have passed. It is not a sad or morbid gathering – more a festive, family-centred celebration of friends and relatives no longer with us.

Skulls, or calaveras are a very important symbol of The Day of the Dead. Besides representing death, they are also shown smiling or doing day-to-day activities such as riding a bike or playing a guitar, illustrating that death is not something to be feared,
but is simply part of life.