Dia de los Muertos Lantern Box

I just had to take the Magical Box (also called an Exploding Box) challenge at City Crafter, and decided to make it extra magical by turning it into a Day of the Dead lantern. I'm also entering this into the Paperminutes Skeleton challenge, the 4 Crafty Chicks Paper Piercing challenge, and the Halloween challenge at Allsorts.

Here's the box, all closed up. It's 3.5 x 4.25 inches. I used K&Co. paper, some pretty ribbon, and orange flower tape. I found the images online: the skull on the left is by KitKat79; the one on the right is by Kate Pullen (About.com). I colored them with gel pens and then pierced them with my awl. I wanted big holes, so I used a piece of corrugated cardboard as the piercing mat.

This box has a surprise, in that it contains a battery-powered tea light:

The tea light is velcoed onto another box inside the main box:

The interior box's lid is decorated with Cockscomb flowers, which are traditional for Dia de los Muertos. I love these flowers (my husband's aunt in Mexico has some); they're wrinkly and fuzzy and bright. To mimic the fuzziness, I added flocking to each.

Then you remove the lid on the smaller box to reveal a Dia de los Muertos play set:

The items aren't glued down, so you can set it up however you like.

I put easel backs on the skeletons so that stand up:

I bought the little clay dish while visiting said aunt in Mexico this summer, and added decoration on it with gel pens. The tiny Mexican lime, cup, and vase are polymer clay. I decorated them with gel pens and Copics. The flowers are supposed to be marigolds. These type of dishes are common in Mexico, but I was also inspired by this photo of a Dia de los Muertos altar.

Inspiration:

City Crafter Challenge Blog Week #80: Magical Box

Paperminutes Challenge #189: Skeleton

Allsorts #126: Halloween

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #61: Paper Piercing

Update: This placed in the Top 3 for 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #61: Paper Piercing. Wow, thank you!