Dia de la Abby #63: Skull Papel Picado

To celebrate Dia de los Muertos, you need papel picado decorations. I made some inspired by this wonderful celebration.

I've been wanting to try this for years, but I'm faster at using an xacto knife than I would be with a chisel through layers of tissue paper. I decided to alter my Skullflake pattern to suit making papel picado banners. To see how I made these, head over to the tutorial.


Every other Thursday in the 5.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby creations   Every Thursday in the 4.0 year, I posted my Dia de la Abby creations and occasionally tutorials with instructions on how I made my pieces. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on  Facebook, Google+ and/or Twitter.

Skull Portrait

Rachel Martin of Baldock, Herts, UK submitted this piece. She explains, "It is a portrait of my elder sister, a London Rollergirl named 'Spooky Von Strange' drawn in a Mexican Sugar Skull style. I used pencil, tissue paper, paper rose petals, vintage doilies, transfers and bits of old jewelry.  I am really happy with the finished piece and gave the original to my sister for her birthday."

I like these sort of morbid portraits of the living. They remind me of mortuary photos, but are more artistic. The use of layers in this piece is a nice variation that make the piece more personalized. It's a beautiful piece. Rachel's sister is a lucky gal.

Dia de la Abby #51: Collage Skull

Today's skull was made as a simple collage example for the craft portion of our Skull Appreciation Day festivities on Saturday, June 4th, 2011. If you would like to learn how I made this, come join us in Richmond, VA at Gallery 5. The craft portion from 12pm-4pm is free.

Like I mentioned above, this is a simple form of collage. I know it looks hard, but it wasn't. The flowers are made with tissue paper and small brads. The leaves and vine are also tissue paper. I used a sheet of Halloween vintage inspired scrap book paper for the skull and spiders. If you look really closely at the skull, you should be able to see skulls and bats in the design of the paper. The spiders were corner designs on the paper. I thought they worked well with the flowers, leaves and vine, since in nature, they coexist. Everything, but the flowers, was attached with Tacky Glue. I prefer this kind of glue because it's thick, but spreads well, dries quickly and isn't messy like regular glues are. This is a good project for recycling old newspapers, junk mail, magazines and telephone books.


Every week in the 4.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Tissue Paper Skull

Polly submitted this beautiful skull. "The skull is made from fine tissue paper that has been cast from a positive skull mould."


I love the delicate fragility to it. I know that working with tissue paper can be very challenging. If not dried properly, it can collapse when the mold is removed. This also speaks to the delicate nature of life. This is a beautiful piece and makes me want to experiment with delicate materials to make stable structures. Thanks for sharing this Polly. For more of Polly's work, visit her Website and Flickr.

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