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Today, my 10 year old daughter Lexi will be taking over the blog. She is our artist in the family and an amazing one at that. Lexi has an amazing ability to create something amazing out of something simple and random. The other day we were filling our outside beds with river rock and before I knew it she was making a small pile for herself. I knew in the back of my head that she had a creative idea bouncing around in her head and I was right! The next day she said that she wanted to create a blog post on how to make sugar skull yard decorations. Of course, I said, ‘YES!’.

My family moved to San Antonio 4+ years ago and I think that is when my daughter fell in love with Sugar Skulls. If you don’t know what Sugar Skulls are, they are a popular symbol of Dia de los Muertos. They are brightly colored, beautiful and fun to make. The great thing about making your own Sugar Skulls is that you can be as creative as you want and it’s a perfect craft for your older kids.

The first step in making a Sugar Skull is to find the perfect river rock. Once you’ve accomplished this task you will create a paint pallet of all of the beautiful and bright colors you want to add to your Sugar Skull. You will first paint the entire rock white. Once the rock has dried, you will use your black paint to create two large eyes, 2 little nostrils, a mouth and then beautiful designs on the chin and top of the skull. Once the black paint has dried you will then paint the embellishments with your color of choice. After everything has dried, you will spray the skull with a clear enamel spray so that the color holds and there is a glossy finish.

I love how you can decorate your yard with these sugar skulls. You can place them sporadically in your yard, along the walkway, and even in flower pots. My daughter chose to put ours in the flower pots by our front door so that everyone that comes into our home can see the beautiful art that she created!

Have you heard of Sugar Skulls? How would you decorate with them?