Day of the Dead -Mostly the Flowers

Friday, November 1 was my day off.

I called the place that does tires, all day, but only got the answering machine!

So the tires will have to wait until Monday.


I knew I was going to be busy Friday afternoon, anyway.

I was making a Day of the Dead altar.

My family never made an altar, but it is a familiar Mexican tradition.

One thing that I had to buy at the store for my altar were these marigolds.

These are the traditional flowers to use on the Day of the Dead.


I like making paper flowers so I made some of those, too.

Since I make a lot of crafts, I had lots of tissue paper and pipe cleaners laying around.

I made large flowers by folding sheets of paper into a fan shape.

I trimmed the ends into points and tied it with a pipe cleaner.

Then you spread it out.

Then you separate each petal. This makes like a pom-pom.

With smaller scraps, I made smaller round flowers with a flat bottom.

These are made by cutting several round sheets and stapling them in the middle.

Then you start from the center and form the flower like this:

The rest of preparation for the altar was choosing the photos of family members.

There were a few other objects to go on the altar, like bread, and candles.


The organizers had a table set outside for each altar.

The altars usually have several levels or steps.

Some people made backdrops made from pipe and sheets.

My spot was next to a bench, so I incorporated it into my design.

I used the plastic storage container to make another step.

I draped it all with an orange sheet and orange curtains that I already had.

I also have some traditional Mexican cloth.


Here is a not-so great picture of the finished altar:

I will go more into details about the event, in another post...