Sugar skulls, or calaveras, are the single most recognizable symbol of Dia de los Muertos, showing up everywhere from delicate acrylic earrings to full wall-art plaques. A laser cutter makes the intricate floral patterning fast to reproduce, whether you are engraving on wood, cutting acrylic, or marking metal.
Below are 32 real sugar skull and day of the dead skull designs pulled straight from the Atomm library, organized by category so you can find jewelry, coasters, wall art, or novelty pieces without scrolling through everything at once.
- All 32 designs below are real, currently published Atomm projects — not mockups.
- Jewelry is the largest category, with 9 earring, pendant, and keychain designs alone.
- Materials span wood, acrylic, metal, slate, stainless steel, and even cardboard.
- The most-viewed design, Mexican Calavera Color Engraving, has over 11,000 views.
- A few pieces mix dia de los muertos imagery with other themes, like a World Cup soccer tile and a Halloween witch mirror.
Sugar Skull Jewelry Ideas (Earrings, Pendants & Keychains)
Jewelry is the most popular sugar skull category in the Atomm library — small enough to cut in acrylic or metal in one sitting, and easy to batch for craft fairs or gifting.
1. Sugar Skull Acrylic Earrings
- Type: Earring
- Material: Acrylic
With nearly 3,000 views, this is the most popular sugar skull earring design in the community — a clean, symmetrical calavera silhouette that cuts quickly in colored acrylic. It's an easy batch-cut for craft fairs, and the bold shape reads clearly even at small earring scale.
2. Sugar Skull Dog Tag / Steel Pendant
- Type: Pendant
- Material: Steel
This dog-tag-style calavera pendant is the single most-downloaded design in this list (138 downloads), likely because steel engraving holds up as everyday jewelry long after the day of the dead season ends. The compact shape keeps the sugar skull details crisp even at pendant size.
3. Laser Engraved Sugar Skull Metal Dog Tag Pendant
- Type: Pendant
- Material: Metal
A second metal dog-tag take on the sugar skull, with slightly denser floral filigree around the eye sockets. Metal pendants like this one are a good choice if you want a design that can be engraved on a fiber laser as well as a diode or CO2 machine.
4. Calavera Key Chain / Bag Tag
- Type: Keychain
A compact calavera silhouette sized for a keychain or bag tag, simple enough to cut in bulk for party favors. It's one of the easiest entry points on this list for a first-time laser project.
5. Sugar Skull Cat Earrings / Key Chain (Two-Sided)
- Type: Earring
A playful mashup that reimagines the sugar skull as a cat face, cut two-sided so both sides show a clean edge. It's a good option if you want a day of the dead accessory that reads as fun and wearable rather than solemn.
6. Laser Engraved Metal Turtle Sugar Skull Keychain Pendant
- Type: Pendant
- Material: Metal
An unusual combination of a turtle shell shape filled with sugar skull patterning, engraved on metal for durability. It stands out from the more traditional calavera face designs on this list if you want something a little more unexpected.
7. Laser Engraved Sugar Skull Metal Keychain Tag
- Type: Keychain
- Material: Metal
A metal keychain tag with a classic calavera face, engraved for a permanent, scratch-resistant finish. Good for everyday carry rather than a seasonal decoration you swap out each year.
8. Laser Engraved Skeleton Lady Decorative Metal Keychain
- Type: Keychain
- Material: Metal
A skeleton-lady variant on the keychain theme, closer to the La Catrina style than a plain sugar skull. It's a nice companion piece if you're already making the La Catrina wall art design above and want a matching small accessory.
9. Pendientes Calavera (Sugar Skull Earrings)
- Type: Earring
A second earring option with a slightly more detailed floral crown than the acrylic pair earlier in this list, contributed by a Spanish-speaking maker — fitting, given the holiday's roots. Good for a matching earring-and-pendant set.
Sugar Skull Coaster Ideas
Coasters are one of the easiest calavera projects to start with — flat, single-layer cuts that work in wood, slate, or acrylic and double as everyday drinkware once the season ends.
10. Slate Coaster – Skeleton Face Sugar Skull "Día de los Muertos"
- Type: Coaster
- Material: Slate
Slate engraves with a clean, permanent white-on-black contrast, which suits the intricate linework of a traditional sugar skull face particularly well. A set of these makes a practical, everyday reminder of the holiday rather than a decoration you pack away.
11. Intricate Sugar Skull Design on Wooden Bottle Opener
- Type: Coaster
- Material: Wood
A functional bottle-opener design with dense calavera engraving covering the full surface. It's a good gift-shop or craft-fair item since it's useful year-round, not just during the day of the dead season.
12. Sugar Skull Floral Slate Coaster
- Type: Coaster
- Material: Slate
Another slate coaster option, this one leaning more heavily on the floral crown than the skull itself, for a softer, more ornamental look. Pairs well as a matching set with a plainer calavera coaster design.
13. Calavera Coaster
- Type: Coaster
A straightforward calavera coaster design with clean engraved outlines — a good blank-canvas option if you want to add your own color fill or paint detail after cutting.
14. Harley Mexico Sugar Skull Sombrero Square Drink Coaster
- Type: Coaster
A square coaster combining a sugar skull with a sombrero motif for a more festive, party-ready feel than the plainer round coaster designs above. Good for a themed drink station at a day of the dead gathering.
15. Dia de los Muertos Skull Coaster
- Type: Coaster
Rounding out the list, a clean single-color calavera coaster design — a simple, low-effort starting point if you want to test a sugar skull cut before committing to a more detailed piece like the wall art or lamp designs above. --- ## Wrapping Up Your Dia de los Muertos Decor From wearable earrings to backlit lamps, these 32 sugar skull and day of the dead designs show just how far the calavera motif stretches across laser-cut home decor and jewelry. For the rest of your Dia de los Muertos decorating — altars, flowers, and general home decor — check out our full [Dia de los Muertos Decoration Idea guide] *(internal link — add once the hub article is published)*.
Sugar Skull Wall Art & Lamp Ideas
For a bigger statement piece, these wall art and lamp designs turn the calavera motif into the centerpiece of a room instead of a small accessory.
16. Mexican Calavera Color Engraving
- Type: Art / Color Engraving
This full-color calavera print is the most-viewed sugar skull design in the Atomm community, and it's easy to see why — the traditional floral crown and symmetrical patterning translate beautifully to a color engraver or UV printer. It works as a standalone framed print or as the centerpiece of a dia de los muertos gallery wall.
17. Laser Engraved Floral Skeleton Woman "La Catrina"
- Type: Wall Art
La Catrina — the elegant skeleton lady in a flowered hat — is one of the defining figures of Dia de los Muertos, and this engraved portrait captures her in fine linework detail. Hang it as a single statement piece or pair it with a smaller calavera design for a two-piece entryway display.
18. Decorative Sugar Skull Wall Art (Black and White)
- Type: Wall Art
A high-contrast, black-and-white calavera design built for engraving rather than color work — a good pick if your laser or material doesn't handle color fill well. The bold linework still reads clearly as a classic sugar skull from across a room.
19. Skull Dia de los Muertos Multicolor LED
- Type: Lamp
This layered skull lamp is wired for multicolor LEDs, so the calavera pattern glows through the cut sections instead of relying on ambient light. It's one of the more eye-catching dia de los muertos pieces here, well suited to a nightstand or altar corner.
20. Mexico World Cup Day of the Dead Skull Art Tile
- Type: Wall Art
A crossover design pairing a day of the dead skull with Mexico World Cup soccer imagery — a good example of how flexible the calavera motif is for combining with other Mexican cultural themes beyond the holiday itself.
21. Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Woman LED Night Light
- Type: Lamp
A layered night light combining a sugar skull woman portrait with LED backlighting, designed to sit on a shelf or nightstand year-round. The layered cut gives the design visible depth once the light is turned on.
22. Calavera Cool
- Type: Wall Art
A stylized, more graphic take on the calavera face with bolder geometric shading than the traditional floral style. It suits a more modern or minimalist home decor look than the ornate designs earlier in this list.
Sugar Skull Ornaments, Puzzles & Novelty Ideas
The rest of the community's calavera designs don't fit neatly into jewelry or wall art — layered puzzles, mirrors, ornaments, and a couple of genuinely unusual pieces.
23. Sugar Skull, Waves & Flowers Puzzle
- Type: Puzzle
A layered wooden puzzle that pairs a calavera face with ocean waves and floral trim, this design doubles as a decorative wall piece once assembled. It's a fun option if you want a day of the dead project that's tactile and interactive rather than purely decorative.
24. 3D Wood Carving Canna Sugar Skull Flower Puzzle
- Type: Puzzle
- Material: Wood
A thicker, more sculptural take on the skull-and-flower puzzle theme, carved from layered wood for a 3D relief effect. It's a satisfying weekend project for anyone who wants their day of the dead decor to have real depth and texture rather than a flat engraving.
25. Sugar Skull Witch Halloween Mirror Engraving
- Type: Mirror
This engraved mirror blends a witch silhouette with sugar skull patterning, (Need more Halloween decor to go with it? There are 53 free Halloween decor ideas for every room.). The engraving sits directly on the mirror surface for a frosted-glass look.
26. Zombie / Sugar Skull Girl Mirror
- Type: Mirror
Another engraved-mirror take on the calavera theme, this one leaning into a stylized "skull girl" portrait. It's a good option if you want a mirror piece with more character illustration than the traditional symmetrical sugar skull pattern.
27. Laser Cut Wooden Sugar Skull Ornament
- Type: Ornament
- Material: Wood
A simple layered wood ornament that works equally well hung on an altar, a wreath, or a mini dia de los muertos tree. The open-cut eye and floral details let light or string lights show through when backlit.
28. Masques de Crâne en Carton (Cardboard Skull Masks)
- Type: Ornament
- Material: Cardboard
The rare wearable design in this list — a set of cardboard calavera masks, cut flat and designed to fold or strap into a wearable face piece. If you're after a mask for a day of the dead costume rather than pure wall decor, this is the closest match currently in the Atomm library.
29. Sugar Skull Crystal Cube with Floral Pattern
- Type: 3D Crystal
Instead of a flat cut, this design is etched inside a solid crystal cube using a 3D crystal engraving process, giving the calavera pattern a glowing, suspended-in-glass look. It's a higher-end gift option compared to the wood and acrylic pieces on this list.
30. Skull Bow Tie
- Type: Accessory
A wearable bow tie cut in a skull silhouette — one of the few genuinely wearable accessory designs in this list, and a simple way to add a day of the dead touch to an outfit without a full mask or costume.
31. Calavera 40mm Stainless Steel Coin
- Type: Ornament
- Material: Stainless Steel
A round coin-style calavera design sized at 40mm, engraved on stainless steel for a durable, pocket-sized keepsake. It's a good small-batch giveaway item for events or classroom celebrations.
32. Dekorativní Dřevěná Lebka (Decorative Wooden Skull)
- Type: Ornament
- Material: Wood
A decorative wooden skull ornament from the Czech maker community, proof that the dia de los muertos calavera motif has spread well beyond Mexico into laser cutting communities worldwide. It's a clean, freestanding piece that doesn't need mounting hardware.
Final Thoughts
From wearable earrings to backlit lamps, these 32 sugar skull and day of the dead designs show how far the calavera motif stretches across laser-cut jewelry and home decor. Pick a category, grab a file, and start cutting — there is enough variety here to build a full Dia de los Muertos display without designing anything from scratch. For altars, flowers, art, and party decor beyond the skull motif, we've rounded up the rest of the community's dia de los muertos decor in a separate guide.
Frequently Asked Questions about Sugar Skull & Day of the Dead Designs
What is the difference between a sugar skull and a calavera?
They refer to the same thing — calavera is simply the Spanish word for skull, and "sugar skull" describes the traditional decorated skull imagery used in Dia de los Muertos celebrations, originally modeled after sugar candy skulls.
What material works best for sugar skull designs?
Acrylic is the most common choice for jewelry because it cuts with clean edges and comes in bold colors. Wood and slate suit coasters and wall art, while metal (steel or stainless) holds up best for pendants and keychains meant for everyday wear.
Do these designs work with any laser cutter?
Most files in this list work with any laser cutter that accepts SVG files, including xTool machines. Check each project's file format notes before cutting.
Can sugar skull jewelry designs double as other accessories?
Yes — several designs on this list, like the sugar skull keychains, work equally well as bag tags or zipper pulls, and a few pendant designs can be restrung as necklaces.
Are these designs appropriate to use outside of Dia de los Muertos?
Sugar skull and calavera imagery is also popular during Halloween and as a year-round Mexican folk-art motif, so most of these designs work well beyond the holiday season.
Ready to make your own sugar skull design?
Explore community Day of the Dead designs for inspiration, or use AImake to generate a custom sugar skull design.
