Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Disclaimer: I am not a crafter and I don’t play one on tv. Craft projects don’t happen very often in our home, and when they do, they aren’t very involved. If you are a real crafter, you might want to avert your eyes. Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to the woman behind the keyboard. If you aren’t a crafter, well then: look what we did!!

My son turned 6 last week. His kid party is this weekend and he is mildly obsessed with having a pinata. As an aside, it’s more than a little bizarre for me to think about kids smacking little Dora the Explorer or fuzzy lil Elmo with a baseball bat. Is it just me? (I must confess I am entertaining the idea of buying this one for my next grown up party. Heh.)

Anyway, since Clay’s party is only a few days before Halloween, we (and by we I mean I) decided to try our hands at a pumpkin pinata. Cute, right? Aside from being optimal timing, I expected it to be optimally easy for us craft-challenged folks. However, my son, my very recently 6 year old son, was less than impressed with my plan. He concocted another plan, and because it’s his party, and because it made the project only slightly more complicated, my pumpkin quickly morphed into a Poke’ Ball.

How we did it:

1. We used a dollar store “punching” balloon. This makes perfect sense because they are round! All we had to do was tape the blower-upper part down. We left the elastic part on the other end intact to act as a built in hanger.

2. We mixed our own “glue” by dissolving a 1/2 cup of flour in 1/2 cup of water. Then we added it to 2 cups of boiling water and simmered it for a minute or 2. This process thickens the glue to a nice gravy-like consistency (mmmm… gravy).

3. I am not the best planner and forgot to take the newspaper out of the recycling bin before trash day. So, I decided to use strips of construction paper. We had a bunch of semi-used cream colored paper which we ripped into strips for the 1st layer.

4. After placing the balloon in a bowl so that only half of it was showing (with the bowl acting as a base) we dipped the strips into the glue and gently slid each strip loosely between 2 fingers to scrape off the excess glue. We laid each strip on top of the balloon with each piece overlapping slightly until the balloon was covered.

5. We allowed it to dry for 24 hours. We hung the elastic from a hanger on our shower rod. Several hours into the drying time it still looked really wet, so I put a fan on low to speed things up. The following morning it was perfectly dry. It looked like this:

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6. Instead of using paint for the next part of this project we decided to use construction paper. Honestly, it’s because I was a little worried about drying time. I didn’t have enough days left in the week to do another layer (for strength) and then wait for it to dry and then paint it and then wait for that to dry. So, I just drew a line at the equator to separate the colors. We worked the top part first and used red construction paper soaked in our homemade glue. Then we flipped over the balloon and worked on the bottom portion. We used a thinner computer style paper for this part and it was much easier to work with.

7. Again, we allowed it to dry for 24 hours.

8. (I know, can you believe the steps? I have taken to calling it the Sistine pinata.) We cut black strips to separate the red and white portions of the ball and added the other details. It looked like this (it was still a little wet when the photo was taken):

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9. Tonight, we will carefully pop the balloon and cut a small hole in the side of the ball which will allow us to fill it up with pinata-y goodness. We will glue red construction paper back over the hole to disguise the incision.

10. Tomorrow, I will stand by silently as 12 small children smack our masterpiece it until it falls to pieces. And then I’ll eat a Tootsie Roll.

This was a really fun project to do with a 5 and 6 year old. The boys were definitely a little freaked out by the gooey-ness of the glue, but they soon got over it. It was a bit messy but everything cleaned up easily with a little soap and water. It might not be perfect, but we are very proud of it! It was also a great way for my boy to play an active role in preparing for his birthday party.

Now, when I solemnly reflect upon our experience with balloons, flour, and small strips of paper, I find myself wondering what else we can mache’ … and what other materials we can use.. tissue paper, fabric scraps, cardboard… perhaps I’ll become a crafter, after all.

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by Megin Hatch

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[tags]kids, parents, caring, pokemon, pinata, poke ball, 6 year-old birthday party, parenting, crafts, project, homemade, candy, love[/tags]
Photos graciously provided by the author, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved