Get ready to unleash your creativity with a fun and easy felt sugar skull craft perfect for celebrating Day of the Dead, or Dia de Muertos. Day of the Dead crafts are a wonderful way to engage in this vibrant and meaningful tradition, and our easy sugar skull craft is no exception. Whether you’re looking for an easy Day of the Dead craft for kids or simply want to explore Day of the Dead DIY projects on your own, this craft is a fantastic choice. Join me as I dive into the colorful world of Day of the Dead activities and create your very own felt sugar skull masterpiece!
The Day of the Dead, celebrated primarily in Mexico and other Latin American countries, is a time to honor and remember loved ones who have passed away. It’s a celebration of life, where families come together to create altars, or ofrendas, adorned with sugar skulls, marigold flowers, and traditional Day of the Dead food and beverages of the departed. Our easy sugar skull craft allows you to be part of this beautiful tradition, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to teach kids about the cultural significance of Dia de Muertos while having a blast creating your own sugar skull designs. So, gather your crafting supplies, and let’s get started on this creative journey!
Dia de los Muertos Felt Sugar Skull Craft
This easy sugar skull craft is the perfect Day of the Dead craft for older children and a great way to teach them the significance of Dia de Muertos in a fun, hands- on way. These cute calaverita crafts can be used to adorn your Dia de Muertos altar or ofrenda. When we celebrate the Day of the Dead at home we like to make traditional Day of the Dead recipes as well as fun Day of the Dead food along with Day of the Dead inspired crafts. We usually also watch Day of the Dead movies. All of these activities are part of our Day of the Dead celebration and the kids always look forward to it. My objective is to create fun memories around this holiday as we celebrate and remember the lives of loved ones who have passed away.
Materials for Making Day of the Dead Craft Felt Sugar Skulls
Before we dive into creating our vibrant Day of the Dead craft felt sugar skulls, let’s gather all the materials we’ll need to bring these colorful creations to life. You can make this Day of the Dead craft with just a few simple materials including cardstock, felt in an array of fun colors, along with embroidery thread, needles, and some basic crafting essentials. So, grab your materials and get ready to embark on a creative journey celebrating Dia de Muertos in style!
- Cardstock
- Merino wool blend felt sheets. I used white, blue, black and yellow for these but you can use any combination of colors you want.
- Embroidery thread or cotton in a few different colors (I used blue and black)
- Pins
- An embroidery needle
- Fill stuffing
- Scissors
Instructions for Making Day of the Dead Embroidery Felt Sugar Skulls
Now let’s dive into the crafting process. You will find that this is a great craft to do for older kids. You really don’t need any sewing experience as all the stitches used for this project are really basic and easy to make. Follow these step-by-step instructions for creating your own Day of the Dead Embroidery Felt Sugar Skulls.
Cutting the felt
- Start by cutting out a skull shape out of cardstock. Pin the cardboard skull to your felt. Cut your felt carefully around the cardboard skull. You will need two for each felt sugar skull.
- Using a different color of felt cut out two small ovals for each felt skull. These will serve as the base for the eyes.
- Using a color of felt that contrasts with the base of the eyes, cut out two small hearts for each skull, these will go in the center of the eyes.
Sewing your felt sugar skulls
- Thread your embroidery needle with thread.
- Hold the base of the eyes in place with pins and sew them onto the front piece of your felt calaverita using straight stitches.
- Sew the small felt hearts onto the eyes with a X stitch.
- To make the mouth draw it lightly in pencil to stitch over. Start by threading your needle from the back of the face and then proceed to make several horizontal stitches. Add a few vertical stitches to finish forming the mouth.
- Now it’s time to add the decoration to your felt skulls. Using your embroidery needle to embroider the nose, this can be in the shape of an upside down heart or if you want to make it simpler it can also be in the shape of a triangle.
- After the nose, add some decoration on the skull’s forehead and the temples. You can draw them first in pencil to stitch over. Use lazy daisy stitches to make flower shapes and straight stitches to make other nature inspired designs.
- Pin the front of your skull and the back of your skull together and use blanket stitch to stitch them together leaving a small gap.
- Stuff your felt sugar skulls putting the hobby filling inside through the gap, then continue sewing until the gap is closed.
Tips for making felt sugar skull craft for Day of the Dead:
- You can hang these cute felt sugar skulls individually or make a few of them and tread them onto a piece of twine to make a Day of the Dead garland.
- These fun and easy Day of the Dead crafts are customizable and you can play around with different colors and use a variety of stitches.
- You can also add sequins and buttons to your felt sugar skulls to embellish them and bedazzle them.
Other Great Day of the Dead Craft Ideas
Check out these other great Day of the Dead crafts that are easy to make and perfect for kids at home or in the classroom. And be sure to check out these Day of the Dead recipes for kids to make on Dia de los Muertos, they’re perfect to celebrate Dia de los Muertos with kids.
Day of the Dead Piñata Garland Craft
If you are looking for festive Day of Dead decorations this sugar skull piñata garland craft is easy to make and so much fun. Because these mini pull piñatas can be filled with candy or small toys makes this a great Day of the Dead activity for kids and adults. We will be using these sugar skull piñata garland for our Day of the Dead party.
Day of the Dead Noise Maker Craft for Kids
There’s not a child that doesn’t love to make noise. This DIY sugar skull noisemaker is a great pipe cleaner craft to make with kids. Filled with color and sparkle it’s sure to be a hit at any Day of the Dead party or celebration.
Day of the Dead pumpkin candle holders
These Day of the Dead sugar skull pumpkin candle holders are an easy Dia de los Muertos craft project. These Day of the Dead pumpkins will make a fun centerpiece and are also ideal for adding to your Day of the Dead altar.
Day of the Dead Skull Mask Craft
A beautiful and easy Day of The Dead Mask to celebrate Día de Los Muertos with your kids. These Day of The Dead skull masks are a simple craft idea made with whatever craft supplies you have at home! You can customize and decorate this Día de Los Muertos mask any way you want. It is the perfect Day of The Dead decoration for home or as a fun craft for the classroom.
Paula studied architecture and now makes a living as a freelance writer,traveler and amateur photographer.She started her writing & publishing career as the editor of Bebé y Mamá, the first parenting magazine in Guatemala.She is the founder of www.GrowingUpBilingual.com and www.365thingsswfl.com and writes articles in Spanish and English for both magazines and the web on travel,food and bicultural and bilingual parenting .
When she is not on a plane or road trip she likes to create recipes inspired in the flavors of her native Guatemala.
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