Sugar Skull themed birthday party

There was a birthday party on Sunday for a 10 year old who loved Sugar Skulls.

And when I say love, I mean love.

She had on a t-shirt with a skull, skull earrings, and could not of been more excited about all the lovely handmade and bought decorated skulls her friends brought her.

Her mother even made this cake!

From scratch no less!!

I can't decide what I'm more impressed by, her decorating skills or the fact she didn't use boxed cake mix.

The girls sculpted their skulls and then while the sculptures were baking, enjoyed cake and opened presents. When finished I put out permanent black markers and colored markers for them to begin decorating. 

The girls all made such interesting and unique design choices.  As the party came to an end, I put out some tissue scraps for them to add flowers. 

I think the girls were all quite pleased with themselves at the end of the party.  

 

How cute is this "hippie skull". (I think that is what I heard one of the girls call it.) You can only see a little of it, but she did an amazing "pointillism" feature going down the back of the skull in a variety of color.

Aren't these two skulls darling? How great are the peace signs in the eye sockets?! I love how the artist used the purple on the above skull to highlight the facial features.

Look at all the work on this skull! I'm quite amazed all that got done before the party ended. I love how these girls surprised me with the tissue flowers. I had never thought about using a variety of colors to create the flowers and no student has done that before. I wish I had gotten a good picture of it, but this artist used a variety of colors to build up her flower on top of the head, which is perfect given all the color she has going on in the skull.

What's not to love about these next two skulls? The environmental theme of the first one is quite darling. Trees, hearts, peace signs...all good things the world could use right now.

Love the large sun and the way the artist created the radiating lines to show warmth. Maybe it was the torrential rains we had the day before that inspired the design? I don't know, but I'd love a warm sunshine day around here about now.

I wish I had a moment to find out the story behind the animal the artist placed on her skull. I find it quite intriguing. I do love the color palette of this work and am impressed with the constraint the artist showed in her limited palette when faced with a hundred different marker colors on the table.

I feel quite confident saying the party was a success. I have a wall painted from floor to ceiling in chalkboard paint and at the start of the party, while waiting for all the guest to show up, the kids usually decorate it for the birthday child.  As the birthday girl was waiting for her parents to pack up to leave, she was looking at the wall and exclaimed to her mother, "Mom! Someone wrote you're party was awesome!". This made her so happy.

No doubt each child created awesome artwork.

Happy 10th Birthday Ms. Z!  Thank you for letting me be apart of your special day.