Bi-Annual Pinata Project: Part One

The Construction

We are beyond blessed with our two children, and each year as a part of their birthday festivities I construct a pinata. The pinata tradition grew out of the fact that each child's birthday falls after a major candy holiday. My daughter's is right after Easter and my son's is right after Halloween. The day after each of those holidays; candy is discounted in a major way at our local stores. Thus, the tradition was born.

Well, there is a little more backstory than that. Before I started my paper mache odyessy, I had never made a pinata, and my only experience with them was seeing the store bought versions being destroyed rather quickly at birthday parties for friend's kids. The problem I saw with the store bought pinatas is they just wouldn't make it through very many kids before complete candy-spewing destruction. After seeing the sadness upon various youngsters faces for like the tenth time because they didn't get to smack the fancy box full of sweets, I had a light-bulb moment. Why couldn't I construct something that could take a beating and dispense a multitude of confectionery awesomeness? I set out with a goal: My pinata needed to take a beating by at least twenty kids with a metal bat.

Success happened. My first pinata was made out of a cardboard box, that I proceeded to stuff with about twenty pounds of Halloween candy. I then paper mached that puppy with two layers of mache. I painted it to resemble a Creeper off of Minecraft, and that poor thing took a beating. 24 kids got to whack that thing with a metal softball bat, twice! It took a high school softball player and myself to soften it up enough to explode its wealth all over my carport for the screaming horde of kids to grab up. The twice yearly tradition began that day in November. My goal is always to create a pinata that can at least hold up to that first pinata's benchmark, and I haven't failed to meet that goal yet.

So, with that bit of explanation, we arrive at phase one: Construction.

I always put some paper down, because this project is a tad messy. Cat paper weights are optional.

You want to select a cardboard box that has a bit of substance to it. I've also been known to use other boxes to add legs or other appendages to my pinatas, but the candy and prizes go in the main box. After you put all of your loot in the box, you want to tape it shut. I don't want to make it easy for the kids, it's way more fun to watch them have to work for the goodies!

After the box is stuffed with joy and taped shut; it is time to paper mache! I have mached so many things at this point that I can eyeball my creating of the glue and don't really use a recipe. However, a good general ratio is 1 part flour to 1.5 parts water. That's it! Just throw your flour and water in a mixing bowl and whisk it until it's smooth.

Working at the library has an added advantage here, as I have a never-ending supply of old newspapers to use for paper mache-ing. It would probably be more traditional if I ripped the paper into 1 inch wide strips of various lengths, but to be honest, I am a busy person, and I cut tons of 1-2 inch wide strips for my project. Once I have pile the size of a small terrier, I start gluing and sticking the newspaper to the box.

You dip your strips into the glue pool and using your fingers, squeeze some of the excess glue off. Then you stick the sticky strip to the box and smooth it out. Dip, strip, stick, and repeat. Over and over you go until the box is completely covered with a nice layer of paper mache. Give yourself a pat on the back, well, after you wash your hands, and wait at least 24 hours for your pinata to dry.

Kitteh quality control is always so hard to appease...

Next phase, of which I will cover in tomorrow's post, is painting!

Right now though, I might have some laundry to do, as that flour glue is messy!

And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's flour and water glue covered iPhone.