Tonya Coleman here from Soireé Event Design, and I’m back with the “Trend Alert” where I share with you some of the hottest trends in party planning! Today’s guest post is all about the hot new trend — Day of the Dead Parties. Day of the Dead parties are so hot right now they are everywhere and today I’m going to share with you my tutorial for creating your own custom Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Party Decorations made from laser wood cutouts.

At the forefront of this trend is Ten23 Designs who custom designs any image you want from 2″ to as large as 22″ that I used as a wow-factor backdrop for my Day of Dead Candy Buffet. You can see the full candy buffet and all the details on my blog here. Creating these custom sugar skulls is easy with my 5-step DIY plan!

Step 1: Get Your Supplies

First order your 22″ custom laser wood cut sugar skull from Ten23 Designs. It will come delivered to you unfinished and ready for you to paint and customize to match your party decor perfectly. Next, I went to Michaels to gather all the craft supplies needed to customize my sugar skull:

• 1 can of chalkboard spray paint
• 1 pack of chalk markers (fluorescent colors)
• tubes of glitter glue
• 1 pack of flat backed colorful rhinestones
• 1 box of Glue-Dots®
• assorted flower and rhinestone stickers

While shopping in Michaels I came across these small 8″ wood cut sugar skulls that I thought would be great to have guests decorate as a party activity and to use as decor on my candy table flanking the large main sugar skull.

Step 2: Paint the Wood Cuts

Spray paint your wood cut sugar skulls outside or in a very well ventilated area (like an open garage) to coat evenly. You will need to use two coats to get a really good chalkboard finish. Let them dry completely.

Step 3: Color Your Sugar Skulls

Using the chalkboard markers, outline all the open areas of the wood cut. This really brings out all the shapes and cool patterns that make sugar skulls so cool! Be sure to let your sugar skull dry completely before moving to step 3.

Step 4: Embellish Your Sugar Skulls

This is where the magic happens! Using the rhinestones and stickers, embellish your sugar skull any way you want. Be creative! Use the glue dots to place the flat-backed rhinestones over the cut out holes and be sure to use a slightly larger rhinestone over any of the cut out holes so they won’t fall through.

Step 5: Style Your Sugar Skulls in Your Party Decor

Now that you’re done creating your custom sugar skull decorations, now it’s time to style them in your party’s decor. I used the larger sugar skull as the main backdrop to my Day of the Dead Candy Buffet table. The two smaller ones I hot glued to a wooden dowel and used them as centerpiece sticks in the tops of my cupcake tower displays.

Want to see the full Day of the Dead party including the candy bar, dining table and party activities?

CLICK OVER TO MY BLOG HERE to see the full party!