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Can you believe Halloween is only about a month away?! If you’re like me, you like to change things up without spending a lot of money. So this year, I’m keeping with the Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead theme I did last year, but brightening up the colors AND repurposing some of the old decorations.

Day of the Dead Wreath Tutorial

Since I always try to have a front door wreath, my first spooktacular project is a Day of the Dead Halloween Wreath. For this wreath, I used a few items from last year and added Dollar Tree flowers to add some color and brighten up the look.

Dia de los Muertos Colors

Read more about this celebration on the University of New Mexico’s website.

Day of the Dead Halloween Wreath

Supplies: 

  • Tinsel wreath form* (I used a purple/black combo from Michaels)
  • 5 different flower sprays (I used purple, orange, red*, white*, and yellow)
  • 2 glitter branch spray (Optional – I used orange)
  • scissors*
  • ribbon*
  • decorated sugar skull* (last year’s Dollar Tree skull decoration, but is optional)
  • hot glue/glue gun*
  • wire*
  • drill*

*Decorations from last year or items I already had in my craft supply stash.

Putting It Together:

Day of the Dead Wreath supplies
Not all supplies shown

Gather up the supplies. I used several items from my craft stash – red roses, white flowers, a tinsel wreath form, purple wired ribbon (came from a wrapped gift), and last year’s Dollar Tree decorated skull. New items bought for this wreath ($5 total) – orange glitter sprays, yellow flowers, orange flowers, and purple flowers.

Fluff wreath and cut flowers

Fluff up the wreath.

Cut each flower off the spray at the bottom of the stem if you want to reuse the flowers for other crafts. If you don’t plan on reusing the flowers, you can cut the flowers off the stems and glue them directly onto the wreath.

Dry arrange the flowers onto the wreath, leaving an empty space for the skull/ribbon placement.

Wrapping flowers around wreath formOnce you have a flower arrangement you like, wrap the flower stems around the wreath form. You will have to hold the flower in place with one hand and wrap with the other. Do this until all the flowers are attached to the wreath. Set aside.Ribbon

Make a large ribbon bow to fill the space between the flowers. I made six loops (three on each side). Take a wire flower stem or wire and glue it to the back of the ribbon bow. Once the glue is dry, attach the bow to the wreath form. You can stop here or continue on to add a skull, white flowers, and glitter branch spray.

Prep skull flowers

To prep the skull for a flower crown, I removed the stems and the plastic back from a large yellow flower, two purple flowers, and two orange flowers. To ensure the flowers did not fall apart, I also placed a dot of glue between each petal layer. Next, I glued the yellow flower in half to create a fuller look for the crown.

Glue flowers on skull crown

Glue the large yellow flower on the top of the skull. Glue two orange flowers directly behind the yellow flower and add purple flowers onto the side of the skull.

Drill holes in skull

Drill two holes in the back upper portion of the skull (holes too low will make the skull tip forward). Thread a wire through the holes. Attach the skull to the wire form over the ribbon by twisting the wires together to keep the skull in place.

Final touches Day of the Dead wreath

Final touches – add small white flower accents and orange glitter twigs. The white flowers are individual groups of flowers cut from a hydrangea spray and hot glued into place. The glitter twigs were sprayed with hair spray to control flaking. Then individual twig stems were cut off the spray and hot glued into place behind the center skull (6 stems total).

Day of the Dead of Wreath

And now I have a totally new look for my Day of the Dead Halloween Wreath. What do you think? Do you use flowers to decorate for Halloween?

More Day of the Dead Ideas

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70 Comments

  1. Lovely DIY!! I recently made a Halloween wreath too and it was really fun making it 🙂 Thanks a lot for joining us at the Family Joy blog link up party. Pinned your post to our Pinterest party board 🙂
    -Shamira

  2. This looks absolutely amazing! Pinned and tweeted. You always bring the most amazing creations to our party. Thank you! I hope to see you again, this Monday at 7 pm. It wouldn’t be a party without you! Lou Lou Girls

  3. I dig this idea a lot. The day of the Dead is also my birthday and it is so hard not to just decorate my place will all different skulls. Thank you for the inspiration.

  4. This is a great wreath! I love the fun bright colors. It’s a great alternative to a typical Halloween wreath. Thanks for sharing at Inspiration Thursday!

  5. I love this post, but I especially love that you broke down the colors and their meanings. I never knew that they even had meanings, so this was so cool to me.

    I’m glad you added this post to the Tips & Tricks party so I was able to find it. I hope you’ll join the party again next Monday!

  6. This is great, Erlene- colorful and fun, and such a nice departure from the typical door decor at Halloween! Thanks for coming by the 100th Snickerdoodle Sunday- hope you entered our Amazon Gift Card contest!! And please come back this weekend with your latest makes & bakes. 🙂

    Sarah (Sadie Seasongoods)

  7. You are very creative and job well done on the tutorial. I love your bright and cheerful colors. Like some others here, we don’t celebrate these holidays but this is a great idea for other things!

  8. You are truly creative, what a neat way to celebrate. I love how you included the meaning of the colors for the day. I love to learn about other traditions and celebrations. Thank you for sharing your talent. I think making your own decorations adds a personal touch to your home, and this one is quite nice.

  9. You’re very talented, and it’s interesting learning more about the Mexican traditions. We don’t celebrate Halloween, nor do we tend to decorate for other holidays, but this would definitely be an interesting and different idea for those who do.

  10. This is quite creative and a great tutorial! I am not organized enough to make Halloween crafts. By the time I made them, the holiday would be over

  11. I loved learning about the colors I didn’t realize their symbolism. Thanks for linking up to Pin Worthy Wednesday, I have pinned your post to the Pin Worthy Wednesday Pinterest Board.

  12. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use flowers and such an assortment of colors for Halloween before. I don’t celebrate that holiday but if I did I would want to do something like this.

  13. I had no idea the colors had significance; that’s so interesting! This is such a cool wreath. I love that it’s spooky but still cute. This is an awesome tutorial; you’re so talented!!

  14. You are definitely very talented. I don’t celebrate Halloween or Day of the Dead but I’m sure you make amazing wreaths for Christmas.

  15. Erlene, Brilliant idea and so creative to go non-traditional with your Day of the Dead wreath, it’s so colorful and spooky! I just love it! Thank you for sharing at #OhMyHeartsieGirlWW. I’ll be featuring your wreath on Tuesday! Have a fun weekend! =)

  16. Thank you for this cool tutorial. I never knew that the colors were significant for Day of the Dead! Very interesting. I can’t wait for the next idea you share. : )

  17. Very creative! I love how you added the extra touches of the flowers on the skull and the branches. Also fun to get to know what the different colors represent. Thanks!

  18. Wow! I love your wreath! I don’t usually decorate for Halloween, but your ideas could be used to make a beautiful fall wreath or, later on, one for Christmas. 🙂 Thank you for the tutorial!

  19. Oh this is so colourful! I have seen a television program about this celebration The Day of the Dead remembering your loved ones. Thank you for sharing with us at #WednesdaysWisdom.

  20. I’ve never heard of the Day of the Dead! The colors on your wreath are gorgeous! I honestly need to get out there and make some wreaths for the upcoming holidays. You have inspired me to make my own rather than buy them.

  21. Wow Erlene this turned out so beautiful! I love when people decorate for Day of the Dead, the décor is always so fascinating. I know you said you got the skull from the Dollar Store, did you decorate it yourself? This turned out so great, also thanks for including the color scheme…I might want to make my own things now!(and yes, I definitely am like you and love frugal ways to decorate). Thanks for linking up with us at Welcome Home Wednesday!!!

  22. What a fun and spooky Halloween wreath. Using flowers really gives it so much pop. That’s a great tip about using hairspray on the glitter branches. I’m going to remember that one.