Mexi-Halloween: Sugar Skull Pumpkins

I am not much for Halloween decorations. I know, I know! The chil'rens, deprived of giant spiders hanging near the front door, spider webs draped on the bushes in the patio and a huge blow-up jack 'o lantern on the front line.

Poor kids. Suffering and whatnot.

It's not that I don't like Halloween decorations. I do. I had grand plans to get crafty with a can of Krylon Glitter Blast, a wreath and black crows. But life, laundry (my excuse for everything), blogging, homeschool, my husband's birthday and prep for Dia de los Muertos happened and before you know it, Halloween is almost over.

Eeek.

So I thought I would find some middle ground. I've been loving Crafty Chica's Mexi-Halloween series! I was totes inspired. You can see some of the awesomeness here:

Glittered Papel Picado Pumpkins
Lucha Libre, Aztec & Oilcloth Pumpkins

I thought it was high time I break out of my non-Halloween decorating funk and hook up some pumpkins. But not just any old pumpkins--Mexi-Pumpkins! Thank you, Kathy, for coming up with this cool idea. Now, onto my contribution to the series:

Oh hai sad, forlorn pumpkin looking as nekkid as the day you were born.

I got as far as primer and a loose sketch of a few sugar skulls and then they sat on my desk to mock me. And yes, that is a pic of one of my hot boyfranns on my desk. And by hot boyfranns, I totally mean my husband.

Commence pumpkin painting party with Boifromipanema on a Saturday night. Yes, we have no lives. Well, at least I have a husband and children. Heh.

I'm happy with the direction of our Mexi-Halloween pumpkins. I decided to meld Day of the Dead with Halloween and decorate my pumpkins with some rad sugar skulls. What can I say? I love Day of the Dead! Did you expect anything less from me, people?

Oh, my sweet Frida.

I absolutely LOVE my cholo pumpkin. Cholo culture is huge in Southern California. If you don't know what a cholo is...ya better ask somebody. <==said like Ice Cube

I love my sweet rockabilly girl! All my rockabilly sugar skulls are inspired by my cousin Sam, who looks just this in real life. Beautiful!

I'm loving the way they all turned out. Aren't BoifromIpanema's Mexi-pumpkins boss, too? They were so easy to make, friends. We just traced them with a pencil, used various craft paints and paint markers. Paint markers are your friend--I used to spend all my time using a #000 brush, being super obsessive about everything. Paint markers took care of all that. Thank you, extra fine tip paint markers.

To protect our pumpkins (some are plastic, a couple of them are real), we coated them with Aleene's Collage Pauge in Sparkle by iLovetoCreate. Can I tell you that Sparkle Collage Pauge is like crack? It makes everything pretty and sparkly! See for yourselves.

How adorbs is that leopard-print flower? And how marvelous is that Sparkle finish? See, I told you!

I hope our Mexi-Pumpkins inspire you to do something cool with your round, orange friends of the season. Happy Halloween!