Homemade Monster Pinata with Pictures!

Hey there again, I know it's been a bit. I've been trying to finish this pinata for my son's first birthday. I never really realized how much went into a child's birthday party let alone their first. There are decorations, food, drinks, cups, tableware, etc. Oh! and the goodie bags on top of the pinata.  I'm planning a monster party for my son' first birthday and truth be told I'm incredibly "frugal." I went online for party ideas and tried finding a pattern I liked that did not require $45 just to print it out myself. So I decided to create my own, aside from the invite because I was on a tight deadline. I found a free print out that was already created for those.However, I created the rest of the party monsters on PowerPoint, which definitely took some time. Anyway I was trying to find an actual monster, versus a sphere pinata with a monster face glued to it. So I looked up different way to make my own and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it!

P.s. I will be posting the monsters I created for reference as well as all the party decorations that I made. On party day (Saturday) you'll be able to see the amazing set up I created.

Skip reading below if you're not interested in how it was made. 




It's really fairly simple.
Here are the supplies I used:

masking tape
balloons, in various sizes
card stock (any color)
newspaper
flour
cornstarch
water
glue, Elmer's and Tacky
tissue paper
acrylic paint
card stock (white, black, red) ...for the face.

Step 1: Make the frame.

I used a large 12" balloon for the body, and wrapped two pieces of standard card stock on the bottom so that it was even with the base of the large balloon. 

For the eyes I used smaller balloon I believe 8" and did not inflate them very much.
 ( I just bought a variety bag of balloons) 

and i used masking tape to make the sticks or posts that they are resting on. I'm not really sure the technical name for them sorry. For the feet same concept, 4 smaller balloons inflated slightly more than the eyes and taped to the inside of the card stock body. 

Step 2: Paper Mache!

So this step is fairly basic. To make the paste for the newspaper, mix 2 cups water, 1 flour and 1/2 cup cornstarch. (THIS IS A HUGE GUESSTIMATE) I don't ever measure out anything with crafts or even my meals. I just eye ball and taste, or with crafts I just judge the thickness of the mixture. For this paste you want it almost watery, like that of a pancake batter. 

Once you've got it mixed, make sure you have a large pile of newspaper shredded anywhere from an inch to two inches. Then when you're ready dip a strip of newspaper in the mixture and make sure to squeeze a good amount of it out of each strip before you lay in on the frame. Otherwise it will take even longer to dry.

Make sure to do a couple of layers before each drying session. Let dry for about 10-12 hours in between each couple of layers. For children's pinatas it should be about 4 layers, adults will be more like 6 so that they are much tougher.

Step 3: PAINT!

Easiest step of all, paint how you wish :) Originally I wanted tissue all over but with some sort of separation so I went with blue and green to go with the monster theme colors. 

Step 4 and Step 5:

Step 4: get the color tissue paper you'd like and cut into long strips then cut fringe along one side. 

Once you've gotten your tissue paper all cut (you'll only need able 5 sheets) glue (with the Elmer's- it'll try quickly and you need very little) individual strands wrapping around the body starting at the bottom. I doubled up on some strands that just looked to flat and not fluffy enough for my monster. It all depends on your pinata. 

The top was tricky, I had to arrange the tissue paper in a circle pattern so that it would stick up like monster hair, there is lots of overlapping for that. 

Step 5: Cut out your mouth and eye balls. Now when I did the eye balls for the monster, I did not smooth the paper mache down as much as I could so they came out fairly bumpy so my solution was to cut circles and draw eyes to glue on the front of the eye balls. Make sure to glue them on with tacky glue because it is much stronger so they won't peel off.

For the mouth I cut a crescent shaped mouth and about 30-40 tiny triangles in different sizes for the teeth. Really this part is up to you and how you'd like to arrange them. As you can see in the picture I sort of did them all over. Once I started i realized I wanted more of a mouth. So I added a second crescent shape mouth to the top and bent the teeth down. 

Well I hope this was helpful. It was an incredibly fun project to do. It took me a lot longer than I would have like but I had to do it in a few hours increments after my son went to bed. Be sure to check back or follow my blog to see the rest of the birthday decorations! :D