Day of the Dead Necklace

 

 

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Halloween may be over, but Dia de los Muertos is here.  Celebrate by making a necklace as unique and colorful as the holiday it’s self.  I love the way mine came out using Crafty Chica patches and tattoos for I Love to Create.  I also used a bunch of loot from Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza’s jewelry line Jewel Pop Shop.

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Jewel Pop Shop is just what the name implies, jewelry supplies. There are funky pendants, plastic flowers in juicy colors, beaded chains waiting for charms, and more: so many jewelry-making possibilities. The Crafty Chica line has a strong Day of the Dead theme, with that special Kathy Cano-Murillo twist (like skulls with cupcakes). There are patches that I have made into planters, rub-on tattoos I converted into string lights and now small appliques that I am working into jewelry.

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The first thing I did was paint my Jewel Pop Shop pendant white. These pendants would also be fabulous with Crafty Chica paper decoupaged on them, by the way.

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I love painting sugar skulls too, so I painted two wood beads white so I could adorn them later. I like to paint beads by sitting them on a paintbrush pushed into some Styrofoam. This way, you don’t have to handle your bead as you paint it.

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Using craft glue, I attached the sugar skull appliques to the painted white pendant. I also added some Jewel Pop Shop flowers into the skulls’ hair.

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For good measure, the entire pendant got a once-over with some puffy paint to add more color and texture.

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All that was left, once the paint and glue was dry, was to attach all my parts.

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I had so much fun making this necklace that I decided to do my makeup to match.

Dia de los Muertos is a rich and beautiful tradition from Mexico. I encourage you to read all about it and learn what those sugar skulls mean.

 

 

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