Book of Life Party for the Day of the Dead

This post is spon­sored by World Mar­ket, but as always, all ideas and opin­ions are my own! As soon as my fam­i­ly and I watched the pre­views for the upcom­ing FOX ani­mat­ed movie The Book of Life a few months back, the gor­geous col­ors, graph­ics and sto­ry line had us imme­di­ate­ly hooked! Here’s a quick syn­op­sis of the film, out in the­aters on Octo­ber 17th:

An ani­mat­ed movie of a Romeo and Juli­et-inspired love sto­ry set dur­ing a Day of the Dead cel­e­bra­tion: Manolo (Diego) is a young mata­dor who wants to shed the expec­ta­tions of his fam­i­ly to fol­low his dreams of being a musi­cian and his best friend, Joaquin (Chan­ning), is the suc­cess­ful pride of the town. They com­pete for the heart of Maria (Zoe). In order to win Maria’s heart and save her life, Manolo must face his great­est fears and fol­low his heart to rewrite his destiny.

I could­n’t wait to style a dessert table cen­tered around the movie’s back­drop of a Dia de los Muer­tos theme for the upcom­ing release! The designs were inspired direct­ly from both the film’s plot, as well as the tra­di­tion­al Mex­i­can hol­i­day where friends and fam­i­ly remem­ber and cel­e­brate those who have passed. I found both Day of the Dead décor and spe­cif­ic Book of Life items at World Mar­ket that were per­fect for the cel­e­bra­tion and added my own projects and crafts to accen­tu­ate the entire pre­sen­ta­tion. Browse through all the par­ty ideas and details and be sure to check out all the specifics for enter­ing The Book of Life Sweep­stakes below! So, of course, I could­n’t style a dessert table with­out cup­cakes and most impor­tant­ly, fon­dant top­pers! For the table’s cen­ter­piece, I cre­at­ed a lit­tle cup­cake arrange­ment with books I found at a sec­ond-hand store, paired dec­o­ra­tions relat­ed to the film {the pig stamp, gui­tar and heart orna­ment}. The top­pers I made were inspired direct­ly from the movie char­ac­ters, while addi­tion­al fon­dant skull and flo­ral dec­o­ra­tions adorned the cup­cakes dis­played on the can­de­labra. As you can see, a large part of the table revolves around col­or­ful flow­ers, which I made from tis­sue paper in a vari­ety of sizes and hues. The vibran­cy of the col­ors in the flo­rals and decor real­ly popped, espe­cial­ly against the beau­ti­ful black tulle table­cloth from Can­dy Crush. Also play­ing into The Book of Life title and notion of writ­ing your own story/destiny, I made paper fans with book pages to accen­tu­ate the flo­ral back­drop and can­dles. In the cen­ter of the larg­er ones, I added sug­ar skull graph­ics from Pret­ty Grafik Designs, which were also uti­lized for addi­tion­al food signs. Some sup­ple­men­tary desserts I found at World Mar­ket were ide­al for the theme, includ­ing sug­ar skull marsh­mal­low pops, Mex­i­can wed­ding and orange cook­ies. Since all the food offer­ings were sweet, I served milk in skull cups, accen­tu­at­ed with paper straws and metal­lic skull orna­ments, which I actu­al­ly acquired from a ban­ner at World Mar­ket! If your kid­dos are any­thing like my daugh­ter, they are prob­a­bly drawn to items and toys direct­ly relat­ed to a movie with which they are cur­rent­ly obsessed! I always try so hard to come up with favors for our par­ties that are not only cute and relat­ed to the par­ty, but are actu­al­ly prac­ti­cal and can actu­al­ly be uti­lized. I just feel bad­ly when so many favors that are hand­ed out at par­ties quick­ly end up in the trash, so I was thrilled to find these fun toys at World Mar­ket that not only were sub­stan­tial, but were super fun! Between mara­cas and pig stamps {of the char­ac­ter Chuy} and flash­light pro­jec­tors {my daugh­ter’s absolute fave of the mix}, they were all per­fect to fill the cute Book of Life met­al lunch­box. Last, but not least, I could­n’t leave out my trusty mod­el from the cel­e­bra­tion! Ever since I brought home all the fun and deli­cious good­ies, my daugh­ter, Anabelle, has been dying to par­take in all the fun. And how can you have a Day of the Dead themed cel­e­bra­tion with­out the tra­di­tion­al make-up?! Anabelle was a troop­er, as she patient­ly sat as I paint­ed her face {inspired by one of the film’s main char­ac­ters} and played the part well! And yes, this face was def­i­nite­ly attempt­ing to play the part and not a response to me being a stage mom… or rather, a par­ty mom! 😉 See?! She did smile, too! In cel­e­bra­tion of the upcom­ing The Book of Life release, World Mar­ket is giv­ing away uh-maz­ing prizes inspired by the adven­tures of the film! The give­away details are as follows:

Grand prize package

♥ 5 Days/6 Nights at Grand Velas Riv­iera Maya {hotel & accommodations}

♥ Free Movies for a Year

♥ $1,000 World Mar­ket gift card

♥ Book of Life Merchandise

Three first prizes

♥ $500 World Mar­ket gift card

Hur­ry and ENTER HERE for a chance to win these fab­u­lous prizes! Sweep­stakes ends Octo­ber 24, 2014.

We’ve already been hear­ing great things about The Book of Life and can’t wait to see it when it comes out in less than two weeks!

Merci Beaucoup!

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