The celebrations for the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) involve ofrendas or shrines to departed loved ones, decorated with photos of the dead, as well as their favorite food, sugar skulls, drink, and sometimes other objects including toys. The decorations usually involve elaborate banners cut from tissue paper called papel picado and the bright flowers of marigolds and cockscomb. The instructions on the next page will help you create miniature versions of papel picado and printable photo frames in three scales for miniature displays. 1:6 scale or playscale, 1:12 scale, and 1:24 scale.
There are also instructions available for making miniature sugar skulls from fondant, polymer clay, or marshmallows to go in your ofrenda. For reference there is also a photo of a miniature ofrenda exibited by Guadalupe Marin at the Seattle Dollhouse Show.
To learn more about papel picado, or to see more examples these sites are useful references:
- Artist's Helping Children, Day of the Dead Projects
- Storyboard Toys, simple Papel Picado design (pdf, acrobat reader file)
- Museum of International Folk Art Papel Picado.
