Viva Pinata!

Here's a fun thing I did with the kiddos. But, personally, I think it is NOT a kid friendly project! Faith had a horse themed birthday party a couple weeks ago, so we were thinking up all the possible horsey things we could do. Pinatas are not that expensive, but when you are throwing a big party every penny saved helps. Plus I had never done paper mache before and wanted to give it a try.

I don't have pictures of the whole process of making it, there was paste goop all over the place and I didn't want to get my camera messy!

Materials:

cardboard or posterboard, you can use paper towel rolls for the legs

balloons

masking tape

wire hanger

newspaper- (I had a giant roll of paper from our local newspaper that my mom had given me, so I didn't need to buy any.)

paste- 6 cups water to 3 cups white flour

poster paints

crepe paper

How to:

1. Build the shape you want out of the cardboard, balloons, and tape. Cut the newspaper into 3" wide strips x 10" (whatever is easy for you to work with).

2. Using wire cutters, cut the hanger and bend into a doubled up U shape. Bend the ends out into 90 degree angles in opposite directions from each other. Tape the ends to the form. (If this doesn't make sense, use your imagination!) Our horsey was too fat and heavy for a wire hanger, so we had to wrap rope around it's belly, (see pic.).

3. Mix up your paste, (you don't want it too goopy), and dip the strips of paper one at a time into the paste. Hold the paper over the paste bowl with your left hand, place the top of the strip between the index and middle fingers of your right hand, and run your fingers down the strip wiping off all the excess paste. This is important! If you don't get the excess paste off the paper, the cardboard on your form will get soggy and fall apart. We learned this from experience!

4. Lay the wet strips on your form, overlapping each other and smoothing out all the bubbles and folds. Put about 3-5 layers on your form depending on how hard you want it to be. Add more layers if the pinata is for older, more violent kids.

5. Let dry for 24-48 hours. Cut open slit at top for the candy and pop the balloon. Paint with poster paints and let dry for another day. Tape or glue on crepe paper for hair.

6. Fill with yummy goodness (NOT with chocolate on a hot August day!) And have the kids beat the crap out of it. Take pictures first though, it won't last very long.

7. The kids can use the mangled portions for cute party hats afterwards!