Sugar Skull Votives

$10 - $15 (based on 2017 prices)

Makes three votives

Halloween-themed votives have become a mainstay in do-it-yourself blogs and vlogs and, although they have never appealed to me, I decided to fashion a few for 2017’s haunt, since the concept fit well with the Dia de Los Muertos theme. Because I lined the jars’ openings with artificial flowers (plus, open flames are never a good idea in a haunt), I used battery-operated LED tea lights to illuminate the props.

• Three twenty-four-ounce glass jars
• One roll of multi-surface painter’s tape
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat white*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat blue*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat green*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat orange*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat pink*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat purple*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat red*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat yellow*
• Nine artificial flowers in multiple colors and sizes
• Three battery-operated LED tea lights
  

1. To remove the labels, dampen paper towels with rubbing alcohol, cover the labels with the cloths, and allow them to sit long enough for the alcohol to dissolve the glue. Thoroughly clean and dry the jars and, using painter’s tape, create skull faces and adhere them to the glass. You can make these faces as whimsical or frightening as you desire.

2. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give the jars a light coating of white spray paint. You want the coverage to be thick enough to cover the glass, but thin enough to allow the candle light to shine though. You may want to experiment with another jar beforehand. I found that holding the can roughly twelve inches away from the jars and making quick passes produced the best results.

3. Once the paint has dried, remove the tape and create patterns on the jars. As with the faces, your designs can be as fanciful of frightening as you choose. Since these were used for a Dia de Los Muertos haunt, I stayed with playful imagery; however, you could paint bloody symbols or cryptic messages on them for a darker theme. Also, I did both the front and the back (pictured), but you could cover just the side which will be displayed to save time.

4. Glue the flowers to the tops of the jars. You can create crowns on just the front or use numerous flowers to wrap around the entire opening. For additional detail, consider using beads, paper butterflies, or other decorative trinkets.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.