Homemade Pinatas

Yesterday we hosted a Cinco de Mayo party and we knew we wanted a pinata for the kids to break but they were more expensive than I was willing to pay for 5 minutes of beating fun.  So we decided to make two of them out of balloons.  I have never used paper mache to make anything so it was nice having Joseph around to help.  He didn't mind getting his hands all messy since the idea is similar to putting on a cast. 

Ready to begin the process.

Joseph hard at work.

All smiles despite the mess.

The pinatas took forever to dry...hanging them in the basement to dry may have had something to do with it...so we weren't ready to decorate them until the day before the party.  I knew the kids would want to help with this part and I wanted them to be able to help so we ended up with two designs:  Design #1 was the fast "Rebecah Friendly" version.  I spread glue on the pinata and she put the squares of tissue paper wherever she wanted without care for color or design.  It ended up being cuter than I first thought.

Design #1.  This took maybe 15 minutes and it was the way to go!

Design #2 was supposed to look more authentic and fun, but it took FOREVER!  I also thought Kimball would be able and willing to help with this one.  He patiently did about half of one of the cones and then declared himself done.  I then spent almost 3 hours applying each little tissue paper square with a pencil or my finger.  It was VERY tedious and if I ever do a pinata again I would use a different method.   As I got more and more burnt out on the project I kept asking myself why I was finishing the project when it would be smashed in 5 minutes, but I just couldn't leave the project half finished OR do a different design for half of the pinata so I just muddled through. It turned out pretty well though and it was colorful.  I LOVED the bright colors.

I originally planned to have tassels coming out of the cones on the sides,  but
after about an hour I didn't care to do anything extra on it.