Day of The Dead Calaveras

Fear not, friends. I haven't stopped blogging. I just needed to step away for a week. Not only was I making LOTS of treats for my friends' wedding all of last week, but Bryan also went on a surprise work trip to Oklahoma AND I was starting a new job! So I just decided to focus on the tasks at hand. But I'm back now, and I've got something really neat to share with you today!

(GET READY FOR LOTS OF PHOTOS)

My friend Erica is an amazing artist and she loves a good DIY project as much as I do! I was SO jazzed when she invited me over to her house to decorate these Day of the Dead sugar skulls (aka calaveras). Erica explained The Day of the Dead to me as a Mexican holiday  that celebrates the lives of loved ones who have passed away. I have never celebrated it before, but I think there is something so beautiful about remembering and honoring relatives, and not letting them be forgotten.



Erica made these sugar skull parts in advance by using a mixture of ultra fine baker's sugar, meringue powder, a little bit of water and some skull molds that she found here: Mexican Sugar Skull Website
(That's also where she got the exact recipe for them!)

After they had hardened and set, I came over to help decorate! Erica made a large batch of royal icing (that recipe can also be found on the Mexican Sugar Skull website) and we got to work. Step one was to "glue" the front and back pieces of the skull together with icing.



After the skulls were fully assembled, we separated the rest of the royal icing into small bowls and made our colors bright and beautiful!



Then we put our brightly colored icings into small ziploc bags ASAP, which both kept the icing from drying out and served as our piping bags.


We did end up using a frosting tip with a couple of the bags, but for most of them, we just cut a small part of the corner of the bag and frosted!

Honestly, the scariest part was applying the first bit of frosting to the skulls. Erica had made the skulls look so flawless and I didn't want to ruin them with messy icing! So before we started, we looked on Pinterest for some inspiration.


Erica also had glitter, sequins, and shiny foil available for us to embellish them! I think they really put our skulls over the top.....in a good way!!! Here are some close-ups of a few of our beauties:




In Mexico, they often write the names of their loved ones on the foreheads of the sugar skulls, as Erica did in the ones above. The earrings on the second one were such a beautiful touch. All of the skulls she made were so intricate and detailed.

The two below were a couple of mine:







We learned a lot while making these, and if you're thinking of trying it, we would be happy to share some of our new found wisdom. Here's a few of our most important tips:

- Making them beautiful will take time. We probably spent 20-30 minutes on each skull. But it's a great way to spend the afternoon with a friend. We had so much fun!

- More is More! Usually less is supposed to be more, but with these sugar skulls that is not the case! You can keep adding on more designs and flowers and sparkles, and they only seem to get prettier. It's also pretty easy to hide any mistakes you might've made this way, so don't ever think that it's ruined.

- The Icing Dries Quickly. It's important to keep your icings sealed in plastic bags or covered with a wet paper towel. They will be pretty impossible to use if they dry out.

- Steady Hands are a Plus. There's a chance I may have downed three cups of coffee while making these. And it made my hands pretty shaky. I don't regret the coffee, but I will say that it made things more difficult. If you want your skulls to look nice and symmetrical, shaky hands will not be your friend.

Here's the whole gang, all finished up!





We were both so pleased with the outcome. Personally, I can't remember the last time I was able to do a craft project solely for the purpose of fun and enjoyment, and it was seriously such a great time.