Crafting my mini Ofrenda

Halloween transitioned pretty nicely into Day of the Dead over here. I've had a craft project going for a week or two, and I'm excited to have it ready to share! So, here it is - my little Day of the Dead Ofrenda:

And I do mean little, because that box is only 6x6" in size! I am pretty proud of myself for working this tiny, because sometimes working with tiny details can drive me nuts. But I stayed patient and am really happy with the results. So happy, that I took about a million photos of the little guy. :)

But I tried to limit myself with how many I'm sharing here. I cut apart silk flowers and glued them to the top of my little scene.

And that papel picado is made from tiny squares I cut from a heart-shaped doily. I read that there is actual, real-life size papel picado in metallic sheets that you can buy now and that some people do that for special occasions. I've never seen it, personally.

You can see the little altar is set with mini breads, empanatas, and tiny sugar skulls. I made a little plate out of cardstock and the napkins under it are squares of washi tape. The skull in the frame is from a piece of washi tape too. I made the little sugar skulls from some Crayola modeling clay I got at Dollar Tree. A good deal of this project is from Dollar Tree.

I painted the sides of my box with flowers and got a chance to use a tool that's made for nail art on this. That worked great to make the tiny dots. For those interested, this is the tool I used:

Nail Art Dotting Tool

That tool is seriously a good use of a dollar. I don't know how I would have gotten some of these tiny details done without it.

So, as you can see, I set up a whole altar space around my mini altar.

This is the way I feel it is meant to be seen, at night with candles.

I love this photo! That big, peeking skull sign is a Dollar Tree purchase from a few years ago.

These sugar skulls were once plain white skulls I bought at Michaels years ago.

I love how they look by candlelight.

There's something about glitter and candles!

To give you guys a quick background of this craft, it started with one of these boxes from Dollar Tree.

See, when you flip these decorative boxes over, you get a nice little niche to build a scene in.

The piece of furniture is also from Dollar Tree and can be found in the toy aisle. It's meant as dollhouse furniture. You can get little chairs, tables, and beds there too. I thought to take a pic of this after I began painting it, but you get the idea.

I took a few in-process shots, like this one of the side. Those pink pearls are again, from Dollar Tree. They come in sheets that are pre-glued. They stay in lines, but you can cut the material between them if you only want to use just a pearl or two.

I painted a little plant design on the side of the furniture and placed more pearls on it.

This penny will give you an idea of the scale I was working in.

This snappy skeleton was another piece of washi tape. The roll has a pattern of plain skeletons on it. I added the accessories.

You may have noticed the sugar skulls around my altar space. These came as a plain wood garland, I believe from JoAnn's last year. I spray painted them white (because who would want to get into those grooves with a paintbrush?) And then used some puffy paint and glitter on them.

I think they turned out like cute little cookies. I am yet to string them on a rope. In part, because I'm not sure how to do that without them all sliding into one another. Any ideas? Maybe beads between them?

These really would be cute as cookie designs.

You may have also noticed this piece of art I had sitting under the altar. It's from (drumroll please) Dollar Tree. I saw this the other day and thought it was a Polish design, but when I got it home it said on the receipt that it was Mexican. So that's a good fit for this. I just love it.

And I have to share these two books that I got for inspiration from the library. They are really worth checking out, if you can. There are so many craft ideas in these.

Book by Paula Pascual ~ Beautiful photos in this one

Authors are at the bottom of that book cover. Amazing craft ideas! 

In related news, my mom and I visited a café I'd been wanting to check out, called La Finca. Here it is, looking good with those beautiful autumn shrubs outside.

La Finca is in St. Francis, for those of you who are familiar with Wisconsin. I'd been really wanting to get over there recently because I read that they had some Day of the Dead decorations out. And they did! This is above the entryway:

How cute is this sugar skull dog?

We had a seat right next to this community Ofrenda.

This close-up is my computer wallpaper now.

I kept seeing this little chocolate skull peeking over at me.

This guy was hanging across from me.

We both had Mexican hot chocolate and it was amazing. There were some good, hot spices in that and the whipped cream was a nice addition. The people working at La Finca were super nice and it was just a good atmosphere. So I'm sure we'll be back.

P.S. ~ I have another skeleton to share with you guys. Remember "Sidekick" the little lizard from the Meier store? He's good to go in lime green now:

Halloween at Target and lots of it!

Get ready to see lots of photos! After going to two different Target stores over the past few days, I have a lot to share. Target has some different "collections" of decorations this year. They have a classy black and metallic purple collection, a traditional orange and black collection, and a pretty impressive Day of the Dead collection! And there were lots of fun toy-like items that moved and lit up.

Starting with some nostalgia... I love this mask because it reminds me of my childhood. Do you guys remember those super bright Halloween decorations printed on kind of a cardstock material? These would be from the '80s. I remember a bright green full body skeleton decoration like that and some faces. Well, those are immediately what I thought of when I saw this:

Ah ha! I found a picture of one of those 80s skulls:

Skull pic on Halloween Wizard's blog

There are a lot of skulls on that page, but I'm talking about the first one.

I didn't try to light up these masks, but I'd like to see one in action. It appears they are sensitive to sound. I think this butterfly mask looks like something made to go with a blacklight. Now we're getting into 90s nostalgia!

This a cute new prop: the haunted fishbowl. If you press a button, all these different lights come on and the little skeleton fish move around.

Masquerade birds

These pumpkin pillows were so soft! Like a nice, fluffy blanket. How do you like that Simpsons looking bat?

I LOVE this skull and crossbones. This is the first time I've seen fake skulls go in that piratey direction.

In other new skull news, check out this dragon skull! It said on the tag that it lights up and I think I can see a lightbulb in there.

That red wire or cord looks almost like thin neon rope lighting.

The Wheel of Fate! I like where the hand is pointing now (Treats will be yours), but they're not all good spins.

This thing was massive! We can see that it lights up in purple but I'm not sure if it lights up in other colors.

I liked all the metallic purple accents I was seeing. They had a lot of metallic purple on black stuff.

Check out this Day of the Dead section! I like that they're going in a direction where some of this could actually be used on an altar. The candles and candleholders, for instance.

This wreath was one of my favorite items there. I'm feeling inspired to make something like this.

Some of those little birds Target carries:

Sugar skull dachshunds!

This reminds me of the classic blow molds, only super tiny.

This poison bottle is kind of an old-school liquor jug/bowling pin.

Obviously this spider's legs can be bent down. They look pretty funny like this.

I think these spiders have pretty adorable faces. Their hairdos are adding to the cuteness.

Check out these wicked old school devices! Those specimens in what looks like a mad scientist's lab equipment actually startled me, because they made so much noise. I think the others are pretty fun designs. The boombox brings me back. You can't see in this pic, but if you peel apart that purple center in the phone, there's a big eye.

Here we go:

If you get a chance, give this phone a listen. I think you'll agree with me that it sounds like a close relative to Cookie Monster. The alarm clock opens and rings really loudly. That one was a little much for me. It'll make you jump.

Here's a close-up of that nostalgic boombox. This one wasn't like that crazy alarm clock. It was surprisingly low key in the noise department.

And the specimens! This reminds me of something. A kid's show? I don't know. Somebody help me out here. Do these eyes and teeth remind you of something?

Some big, juicy eyes! I assume these are for sticking on a pumpkin?

More eyes! These were in the party favors section:

One more eye! I can't remember if this does anything aside from glancing around. It reminds me a little of that eye on the spellbook in Hocus Pocus.

I think there's something creepy about a bunch of mascot heads on shelves. I'm reminded of a local costume shop that I don't think exists anymore. It was creepier than this because it wasn't well lit in there. There were rows after rows Easter Bunny suits in there.

I think the cow is kind of cute.

I'm pretty sure I saw this chicken head worn with a full fluffy chicken suit years back, something close to it anyway. A person was doing something like "The Funky Chicken" in this at a street festival. 😁

Funky, tribal pumpkins:

Pretty cute

This one might be on the After Halloween Haul list:

Tiny punk planters! At least I see those plants as hair. I'm now noticing those creeping hand candleholders behind them. They had some of those hands in black too.

A close-up of another punk item: the spiky pumpkin

I'm ending with this Ouija Board tray because it fittingly says "GOOD BYE".  I  can see this tray as holding a number of candles. I think the metallic gold on this tray would look really cool by candlelight.

Do your Target stores have this same general selection? The two I visited varied a bit. One seemed to have more of the traditional orange and black decorations.

I should also mention that now is a good time to visit Target for some discount school supplies/organizers. I ended up with some pretty large plastic magazine or binder holders for only 58¢ each!