CRAFT and I Love to Create are presenting the Crafty Chica Challenge: Create a Day of the Dead Shrine.

Little altars to place offerings for the dead are an important part of the Dia de los Muertos celebrations, and many of them are personalized to represent the departed’s tastes. To enter the contest, create your own Day of the Dead shrine and submit it to the challenge Flickr group. Include a description (250 words or less) of what the altar represents and what materials were used to create it. The deadline is October 28, 2009, and winners will be announced on November 2, the Day of the Dead.

There are loads of examples on the Web to inspire you: Google Image results, AZ Central, About.com. 123 Holiday, and Cut Out and Keep amongst many others, plus CRAFT has promised to post additional examples.

This would be a fun and reasonably easy project because the altars don’t have to be very big but they can be extremely elaborate, so you can paint and embellish to your heart’s content. It’s also a nice project for kids, since the altars tend to be colorful. The Shadowspawn have lost two grandparents this year (yes, we looked under the sofa cushions), so I may set them to work decorating a little shrine of their own as a way to let them pay their respects.

If you enter the contest, put your entry in the comments so we can all go admire your handiwork!