Friday, October 15, 2010

Christmas Piñatas

Here's a quick and inexpensive tutorial for making Christmas pinatas.  Make several and decorate the tree with gifts, or make a group to give as gifts to friends and acquaintances.  These look simple and easy, so you have time to make plenty.  This also looks like a fun craft to make with the kids!

This was discovered on AllCrafts.com.


Alison Pinata 01
I have been wanting to make little papier-mâché Piñatas for such a long time after seeing them on Not Martha, and Christmas seems like the perfect time to make these little balls filled with sweets or toys. They are easy to make with young ones, and fun to find fillings for. Children will enjoy pulling them apart and seeing what’s inside, and everyone will enjoy making them and seeing them hung up around fireplaces, on trees, or clustered on a door or shelf.
With a simple flour and water paste* mixed to a smooth gloopy consistency and papier-mâché strips of tissue paper around semi blown up balloons of about 10-15cm diameter.
Alison Pinata 02
Leave a gap around the top as your opening – enough to get goodies inside.
Alison Pinata 03
Leave to dry till the case is hard, and then deflate the balloon by pricking it or cutting it with scissors (it won’t pop, but will let air out slowly as it removes itself from the inside of the papier-mâché case).
Alison Pinata 04
Once you have the empty shell, you can fill with whatever you like – small bags of sweets, toys, biscuits, glitter or cut out pieces of paper, small puzzles to put together, or even write out your own jokes to tell.
Alison Pinata 04
Then take another piece of tissue paper and a length of ribbon and seal the opening with more flour/water paste.
Alison Pinata 05
Have fun decorating! Finally add a small tag to the ribbon which says ‘Pull Me’ to help open.
Alison Pinata 06
Pull open, and enjoy!
* For those with gluten or wheat allergies, the following alternatives to wheat flour can be used: Tapioca flour, rice flour. Experiment with other flours to see if they work, or alternatively use a white paste with PVA craft glue watered down, however I tried here to limit the amounts of glue being used in the whole project. You may want to add some salt to the paste to prevent mould as well.
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