Dia de los Muertos Blog Hop

WooHoo! It's Abby's Second Annual Dia De Los Muertos Blog Hop. If you've come from Monica's Blog, you're on the right track, but if you've happened here by chance click HERE because I know you'd just hate to miss a thing. This is a big celebration at my house and my entire dining room becomes a giant ofrenda (altar) honoring those important people who are no longer with me. Remember, it is a celebration of life and a very festive and happy occasion. Traditionally in Mexico fiestas include brightly colored cut paper banners (papel picados)and this year I decided to create my own with the help of my Cricut.

I used the Autumn Celebrations cart for the base and added and subtracted elements using Design Studio. The flowers are from the Paper Lace cartridge. Traditional banners are usually cut from tissue paper, but these are quite delicate enough just using card stock.

Besides the sugar skull motif, skeletons are often depicted doing the things they loved to do in life such as dancing. Again, the design began with Autumn Celebrations with flowers from Paper Lace. The most difficult aspect here was that when flipping the image, the words were also flipped so I had to hide the letters on the flipped image and then hide all of the contours of an unflipped image BUT the lettering and move it into place to cut this banner correctly.

I have many keepsakes from my relatives that I cherish and include in my ofrenda. This shelf is honoring my maternal grandparents who both died before I was born. It includes their wedding picture and portraits. If you'll notice, in both pix my grandma is in profile. I have never seen a picture of her head on. Apparently, when she was a very young child, she had an eye infection and the Dr. put the wrong drops in her eye causing it to shrivel. I still think she's beautiful. The embroidered satin slippers are those Grandma wore on her wedding day. I have her wedding gown as well. The pocket watch is my Grandfather's and is engraved with his initials. I also include my little Novios (wedding couple) sculpture which signifies Amor Eterno (eternal love). My last year's post includes many more stories and pix of my family artifacts, so if you're interested, please click HERE. Many of you asked last year how I could possibly have so many family heirlooms. I am an only child with no living aunts or uncles on either side of my family and only have 3 living first cousins, one on my Mom's side (who is 16 years older than I) and two on my Dad's. My parents seemed to have been the caretakers of many treasures which have been passed down to me. I so enjoy reliving the stories that were told to me by my parents and I'm thrilled to be able to share them with you, because we have no children to pass them down to and Goliath and Jezzie pretty much couldn't care less. LOL

I try to add to my collection each year and would love to show you my recent acquisitons. First, a 12x12 original canvas by Megan Suarez inspired by Frida Kahlo. Megan is not only a fab painter, but she also sells her adorable Dilly Beans digi stamps.

Second, a gorgeous Mexican folk art piece that I had hoped to make a decorated shadow box for but time got away from me. (Maybe next year)

And finally (because you can never have too many skulls) 3 handpainted bottles of TEQUILA! Time to party!

But before you go, please be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for my blog candy. November is also a month to give thanks so I'm offering this Cuttlebug With Gratitude Card Making combo. Just leave a comment and stop back on Saturday, November 5th when I announce the winner. BTW, I'll also be announcing the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop that day, so if you haven't entered my giveaway there, please scroll down. Now you're off to Michelle's Blog. Happy hopping!