"My skin is kind of sort of brownish pinkish yellowish white.
My eyes are greyish blueish green, but I'm told they look orange in the night.
My hair is reddish blondish brown, but it's silver when it's wet,
And all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet."
-Shel Silverstein

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Pinata Tutorial

Here are the instructions on how I made my son's pinata for his ball party. They were 10 dollars at the Flower Factory but I made this one for FREE! Which is great in my book.
You'll need flour (in this picture I had wheat flour because I thought it may work, but it DOESN'T- not at all- don't even waste your time!!), water, a balloon (preferably a punch balloon because they're actually round) and elmer's glue (or ModPodge, which is what I actually ended up using in the final go 'round)
The balloon had this "sticky out thingy" on the bottom for the rubber band to go through, so I took the rubberband out and taped the "sticky out thingy" down.

The paper mache is one part flour, two parts water and about 1/2 part glue/ModPodge. This picture is when I was using the wheat flour and it's nasty looking. The white flour was much smoother.

Take strips of torn up newspaper and dip them in the paper mache'. Then apply them to the entire balloon, leaving an open area (I traced a kids cup on the top of the balloon to use as the guide for the opening) to put the candy in later. Let it sit and dry (or mostly dry, if you're impatient like me) and apply another layer. I did 3 layers total and it was pretty strong. I wasn't sure the kids were going to break it. On the bright side, we got through all kids taking 3 swings each and got back to my son (birthday boy) so he could try until it broke. (This is good, because anyone with a 4 year old knows that they like to be the winner! Or maybe it's just a boy thing. Or a kid thing...)
After my pinata set under the ceiling fan all night, I painted it with a few coats of craft paint and decorated it with a marker to make ball laces. I filled it with tons of goodies and used a hole punch to put holes around the goody hole so that I could thread ribbon through to make it "hangable". Then we hung it from a tree and went to town!
Till it burst open and everyone made a mad dash for goodies!!!
Here is the finished "prehitting" pinata again. :)
Hope this can save you a few $$ at your next party!

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Linked to some or all of the parties here.

12 comments:

  1. Great job on the pinata - those things are WAY too expensive in the store!

    Sam
    momundecided

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  2. Hi, i'm visiting from New Friend Friday at The Girl Creative
    thanks for the tutorial
    it's really helpul

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  3. What a cool pinata! I made a yarn type pinata with flour paste and had so much fun! I think I may have to make a pinata for the fun of it with my 3 year old since we have no birthdays anywhere close.

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  4. Great job - thanks for the 'NO' wheat flour tip. The kids look like the had fun

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  5. That is awesome. I made a basketball once but it didn't look that good!

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  6. vERY Cool! Wonder if I can talk my daughter into making her own Pinata? Trying to cut down on party supply expenses. I even made her table cloth! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  7. We love to have pinatas for birthdays here, but I have never thought to make our own! Thanks so much for the tip!

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  8. Great job! I made one of these too, but used it as a toddler costume instead. It was a hit! I cut a hole in the top and the botom and just placed it under his arms and used suspenders to hold it up.

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  9. Great Job! I can never get mine that round.

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  10. Love it! Very smart to use a punch balloon!
    Thanks for sharing @ Anything Related!
    {Rebekah}

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  11. Great job on the pinata. Thanks for linking up!

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