Happy Skullidays

I couldn't resist posting a few recently received Christmas themed skulls today...

Chris Z./Flaming Atheist says, "In the spirit of a Skully Christmas I've made a skull related creche scene - my Skulltivity Scene. Made the heads with Jovi modeling past, Sharpied the features, chenille stems for skeletons/support and felt for the coverings, cotton balls for the sheep wool. Lil' Skully Jesus is in a cardboard coffin wrapped in felt. Sacrilegious? Maybe. Fun to make? Definitely!"...


WEB in Bayswater, Victoria, Australia decked out one of their pieces for the holiday...


and 7 year old Sarah Grace Scott from Florence, Kentucky, made this magnet skull donned with a Santa hat as well...

O Christmas Skull

Foobella did a remarkable job making these Christmas tree light skulls by moving her camera during a long exposure! She says, "I have no idea how many pictures I actually took to get these six, but I'm sure it was close to 50 or more... It took me a while to figure this out, so let us all learn from my many mistakes. When creating this effect, you are tracing a skull shape in the air with your camera BUT you actually have to "draw" the skull upside down to get it to be right side up in the picture. I still can't quite wrap my brain (or skull) around this concept."...


You can see the original tree and more of these pix HERE.

[BONUS] Skulliday Decorations!

I was delighted to learn that my Papercraft Skull has been used for Christmas tree decorations in at least two homes:

Jason wrapped his in fabric for a lovely color coordinated tree...


And Charles put about 15 light-up "Skullies," as his son calls them, on his tree...

Are you having a very skull-y holiday? Send me pix!

Mac Skull

Luis Espinosa a graphic designer in Scottsdale, Arizona made this fun Dia de Los Muertos inspired illustration...

[CONTEST UPDATE] And the winner is...

After much careful consideration Katrina has announced the winner of the Tattoo Contest...

Congratulations to Tim Phelps at Eternal Expressions Tattoo in Rome, Georgia!

Katrina says, "I think he captured almost exactly what I had in mind! I love how the skull is whimsical, feminine and yet not perfect. The crack in the bone of the left eye socket is great!"

Tim will get a framed print as well as a Skull-A-Day T-shirt of his choice. And Katrina will be making her tattoo appointment soon.

Honorable mentions (who may choose from the remaining prizes):
1. Mike Antes of Cocoa Florida. "Mike really had a great handle on what I had in mind and it was VERY difficult to choose a winner! Love the details!"
2. Anonymous "Love the whimsy of this skull! Was my son's fave. :o)"
3. Dean Denne "The girly skulls are great! How did he know what my hair is like?"

Since this was such a tough choice and everyone did so well, Katrina has decided to send a surprise prize to all of the additional participants as well!

Thanks again for participating everyone. Stay tuned, there will be more contests in the New Year...

Faux Sugar Skulls

Miss Charley Jo Landers a disabled US Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm makes and sells these lovely pieces. She says, "I make these from polymer clay, using Day of The Dead sugar skulls as inspiration. They are scented with clove essential oil, baked right into the clay. They are made as pendants, and can hang from a necklace using the copper wire coil at the top of each skull." You can find more of her work for sale on Etsy...


She even did a version on her own hand in henna!...

School On A Sunday

Pausing from the usual Simulacra Sunday to bring you two great skull themed school projects that were inspired by Skull-A-Day:

Stephany Gardiner head of art at the JACK Art club in Kingston upon Thames, (London) England used my papercraft pattern and the work of Damien Hirst for a lesson with 6-11 year olds. She says, "It was one of the most successful lessons we have ever done"!





And Heather Brosman, an art teacher and artist in Rochester, NY, says, "I was so inspired by your work that I did a quick skull project with my 7th grade advisement group for Halloween. McQuaid Jesuit is an all boy school, so I knew it would be a hit!" See more on the process HERE...

[UPDATE] LOL Skull: Skulking

Lisa Vollrath sent in her take on the LOL Skull...

[CONTEST UPDATE] Final Tattoo Submissions

Here's the last batch of Tattoo Contest submissions!

Mike Antes from Cocoa, Florida made this rough sketch of his idea (a finished version is in the works)...



Tim Phelps at Eternal Expressions Tattoo in Rome, Georgia made this lovely piece...





And Suzanne Berhow made this Sylvia Ji inspired submission with Prisma Color pencils...





Thanks to everyone who submitted. It's now up to Katrina to decide the winners and award the prizes, I'll post when she lets me know the details. And of course we'll all be waiting with baited breath to see the end results (assuming she loves one of them enough to actually get a tattoo of it!).

Mosaic Skull

Andrea Leger of Moncton, New Brunwick, Canada made this excellent mosaic skull...

REMINDER: Tattoo Contest ends tonight!

Just a reminder that you have a few more hours (til Midnight Eastern Time GMT-5) to get your Tattoo Contest submissions in. There are great prizes to be won! Get all of the details HERE.

Check out the submissions so far HERE.

[UPDATE] LOL Skull: Skeletor

Lynne shows off her 80's cartoon knowledge with this LOL Skull creation...

Decorative Skull

Sean Tidy from Tidy Ink Design, London, UK made this fantastic illustration...

Skull-A-Day Press: SKULLS Thing of The Day GOTH Magazine

GOTH Magazine chose SKULLS as their Thing of The Day for Thursday, December 19th...




GOTH Magazine
December 19, 2008

[UPDATE] LOL Skull: Dr. Teeth

Flarf in Albany, NY made this great LOL Skull submission...

Skull Rifle

Nick Jones shared his excellent painting "Take Me Out Tonight" (50 x 70 cm, acrylic on canvas). You can see a lot more of his work HERE.

Skull-A-Day Press: Style Weekly reviews SKULLS

Style Weekly in Richmond, VA gave a great review of SKULLS in their recent "Last Minute Page Turners" article...

"This book is the perfect gift for lovers of art, blogs and skulls alike....Scalin outdoes himself with multimedia eye candy on every page."

Style Weekly
December 17th, 2008

[UPDATE] LOL Skulls: Kitty-o-rama

Kitty made five great additions to the LOL Skull universe...

Stack O' Skulls

Ferg of London, England made this nifty illustration...

[UPDATE] LOL Skull: Alf

Alex made this 80's tribute riff on Tatman's submission for the LOL Skull challenge. He says, "I guess "lucky" won in the end."...

Relief Skull

Scott Kraemer of Macomb, MI made this excellent wood carving (which is especially impressive since it was his first try at the medium!)...

[UPDATE] LOL Skull: Tatman

Justin AKA Tatman took up the LOL Skull challenge and made this excellent version...

[CONTEST UPDATE] Tattoo Submissions

A whole mess of great ideas for Katrina's tattoo courtesy of KmilaRodz:













Don't forget you've got just under a week to send in your own suggestions and have a chance to win some awesome prizes courtesy of the soon to be tattooed Katrina! You don't have to be a tattoo artist to enter. Get all of the details HERE.

LOL SKULL

Dave in Halifax discovered the skull-y nature of a cardboard box while unpacking and with the help of a marker and his cat made our very first lolskull image! (Confused? Visit I Can Has Cheezburger?)


What do you say folks, care to give it a whirl? Add your own text and send it in! I've posted my take below the original...

Sunday Simulacra - Round 19

Dolores Goodson of Lovettsville, VA shared this rock skull she's had for years...



And Thibaut found these two cute guys in Nantes...