Crafty Time: Pinatas - Angry Birds

We celebrated my nephew's fifth birthday this weekend.  His mom was going to be out of town the week before the party, so I offered to help. My nephew wanted an Angry Birds party.  We explored different ideas and agreed that I would make a pinata. I remember saying these words, " Sure, I'll make a pinata.  It looks really easy. "   Easy.... HA HA HA... little did I know what I was in for!

I looked at a bunch of sites online and they all said about the same thing.   Start with a balloon, then make paper mache, cover balloon with paper mache, let dry, cover with more paper mache.... etc, decorate... and tada, you now have a wonderful pinata for your child's party.  Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, maybe it is easy, but not when everything goes wrong.  This post is not a "how to" post, this is a "what not to do" post.

Tips and Tricks for Pinata Making: What not to do

I bought this really cool ( and expensive) balloon at Michael's called a "Giant Balloon".  And it WAS giant... I had to use my air mattress pump just to blow it up.  However, when I blew it up, it had a tiny hole in it and since I only had one balloon and it cost a lot, I thought I could still use it.

Tip 1:  If you blow up your balloon and there is a hole in it,... don't tape the hole and expect it to hold.   

I did tape the hole, and while it held for the first layer, the second layer appeared to have been too much for it.  The below picture is what happened. :(  It went from a pretty big, cool looking balloon to a crumpled mess.

At this point I was starting to stress a little bit.  Each layer has to have 24 hours to dry and I had now wasted almost two days.  I rushed to the Dollar Tree and found punch balloons.  The package had 3 balloons and I thought that would be enough.

Tip 2:   Don't skimp on how many balloons you have. Better to have too many then too few.

We then blew up two... one for me and one for my little girl to play with.  A few minutes went by and BAM!, they both popped.

Tip 3:  Don't overfill your balloon. Even though you want a really big pinata, resist the urge to blow it bigger then they recommend.  

I still had one balloon left. I thought I'd be fine... Nope, that one had a hole in it too.  See Tip 2.
I quickly called my husband's little sister who was on her way over and asked her to pick up some more.  I blew one up,  put paper mache on it, and put it out to dry.

Tip 4:  Don't think it'll dry outside during the night... the cold air will only make it wet and soggy.

After that first night, I remembered to bring it in at bedtime.

Tip 5: Don't let it dry where the temperature  fluctuates a lot.  

I let it dry outside where it got really cold and it made the balloon shrink.   The picture below shows you the comparison of how much it shrunk.  The paper mache balloon WAS the size of the yellow balloon.
I did read this instruction on one of the sites I looked at and didn't pay much attention because it didn't seem to be that important.  Apparently, I was wrong.

With the way things had been going, I decided to make a back up plan.  Even though the balloon was happily drying ( before I knew it had shrunk), I decided that I would try making a different shape out of something other then a balloon.  I looked around my house for what I could use.  I found a green bean box, a tomato sauce box and a brownie box.  I taped them together with masking tape to make a  triangle.  I figured I could make it look like the yellow bird, if the balloon didn't work out.

We paper mached the yellow bird the next day.  I figured it didn't need as many layers of paper mache due to the fact it was already made out of cardboard.  Boy, was I glad that we did that.  It turned out great!

Since I already had started the shrunken balloon, I decided to finish it and we could always just use it as decoration.

I left a little hole with a flap  in the yellow bird so that we could put the candy in later.  I also wrapped it like a Christmas present with the twine sticking out the top and then paper mached over the twine.  This worked great for holding it.
The red bird, I left figuring out how to hang it until last and we had to cut a hole and duct tape it so that it would hang.  It worked, but wasn't quite as cool.

Tip 6:  Attach your string before you paper mache.  Do not wait until after it's all done to figure out how to hang it.  Or if you are going to use another method, at least attach it before you decorate it, so you can cover any cuts with your paint or tissue paper.

I painted them, and we then had two angry birds for the party.

Tip 7:  Paint the shape white until you can't see the newspaper anymore, then paint it the color you want it.  
Don't think you can paint it  just one or two coats of a light color, because you'll still be able to see the newspaper.  

We ended up using both of them for pinatas and the yellow bird turned out much better.  The red bird didn't even allow the entire line of kids to go through before it fell apart.

The yellow bird was definitely sturdy.  It allowed about 10 kids to each get about 3 turns of 3 hits each.  You could see it starting to crack as they hit it.  It wasn't too frustrating, but not too easy either.  Just right!

In the future, I would give myself about 2 weeks ahead of time to start it. That way if things went wrong, I wouldn't be stressed.

The other thing I would do differently was if I tried a round shape again, I would maybe just use a beach ball or cheap bouncy ball as my base shape.  Another tip I saw was to wrap a balloon in newspaper and tape it with masking tape to hold it's shape that way you aren't putting paper mache directly onto the balloon.  Not sure if that would work but it might be worth a shot.

Here are the websites I used to make my pinata:
Angry Bird Pinata by Simply Styled Home
Pinata Tutorial by Whimsy Love
Learn How to Make a Pinata by coolest kid birthday parties. com

In the end,  I sure learned a lot, and my nephew loved his pinata.  Despite everything that went wrong, it was a huge success after all!

Chevron and Circles Boy Baby Shower: Free Printables

I recently was able to help decorate for a baby shower.  Two of my friends from my mommy's group were having their second babies, both boys.  We threw them a mini baby shower - or as I've heard it called, - a baby sprinkle.  They don't need to be showered with all the big gifts and don't need all the basics that a first baby does, but they still need to be sprinkled with love and support to welcome in a new life.

I was asked to make a banner, and here it is.  I got the chevron digital images from Melstampz .  She has all sorts of colors.  I absolutly love her site, she has LOTS of free digital images.  I don't have any cool editing software as of yet, so I just used Paint.  It wasn't that hard, but I wanted Paint to do more things then it was actually capable of.  So this is what I was able to come up with.  The letters are in more ovals rather then perfect circles, but I think it turned out rather cute. 

 
Download the free printable banner here: Chevron and Cars: It's A Boy Banner
Cut out the circles and punch out holes in the top so that you can put a string or a ribbon through to hang it.

I decided to do a little extra at the last minute, and the night before I searched the internet for cute ideas to decorate that would be easy but make it look extra special.   I found a pic of hanging circles sewn together and thought "I could do that!"  It was so easy and sooo worth it.

Here's how:
 I used cardstock that I had on hand, and traced out some circles with a measuring cup.  I cut through two pages at once to make it quicker and only used 6 pieces of paper to make 8 strands with 12 circles each.  I had never sewed paper before and was a bit nervous but it was no problem. 

The one trick was to sew on the first circle and then slowly guide it through.  Your needle will be sewing nothing for a bit but it's okay as long as you put the next circle in right before the current circle moves from under your sewing foot.  This keeps the tension correct and doesn't let the thread get tangled. When you're finished, be sure to leave a length of extra thread so you can hang it. 

The shapes weren't exact circles, but that was okay with me.  If you don't sew or want different shapes or precise circles, I did spot an etsy shop or two that will do it for you and will save you the time and energy. 

I also made a couple signs for the party. 

Download the sign here: Planes, Trucks and Toys Sign

I created a blank sign for you to fill in your own information. 

Download it here: Blank Boy Sign 

I used Lucida Handwriting font, size 30 if you want to match with the Planes, Trucks, and Trains sign.

There were also blue, green and yellow balloons, and a coordinating paper chain.  One of my friends also made the cutest cake which she tied a blue ribbon around.   It was a fun little get together and I can't wait to meet their new little boys!

Pink and Yellow Butterfly Birthday

Earlier this month my baby girl turned one!!  We had a fun little party for her with the family and a few of her playgroup friends.  It was just a casual affair with BBQ and swimming.   The theme was butterflies with pink and yellow accents. 
I tried to keep it pretty simple because I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  I didn't want to be too stressed out on a day that she wouldn't even remember.  Sure, she'll see pictures, but the party is more for the us then for her. 

I picked butterflies because I went to the Dollar Tree and they had a cute set for cheap.  It had invitations, plates, a banner, party hats, and cups.  I also picked up some coordinating streamers, balloons, tablecloths, and cake plates. 

And then I decided to get crafty.

Tissue Paper Butterflies: I was going to hang those cool looking pom pom balls but when I went to make them them, they didn't quite turn out so I decided to make butterflies.

• I took 20 x 20 size tissue paper and cut them in fours.
• I stacked four pieces of the 10 x 10 squares and folded them like an accordion. 
• I then twisted pipe cleaners around the middle like a body and made atennaes. 
• I pulled the papers apart a bit to give the wings some body. 

I then hung them up all around the yard and deck, so we had a little butterfly wonderland with them all flying in breeze. I'm sure I didn't make this up and you can probably find it somewhere, but I just improvised with what I had.

 I also saw this fun idea on pinterest.  There are a dozen such sites which show these cute little baggies so it was hard to find the original source, but I think this is it.

Butterfly Snack Bags from Family Fun Magazine

I painted the bodies pink and yellow to coordinate with the colors of the party, and then I used hot glue to put on the eyes and atennaes.  I didn't want any little parts coming off when the kids tried to stick the clothespins in their mouths.  I filled them with goldfishes for the kids and M & M's for the adults. 

These cute butterfly bodies make great chip clips afterward, so they have a two in one purpose!

I don't think cake decorating is my specific talent.  I discovered the hard way how difficult it is to decorate when you don't have the right tools or ingredients.  The writing fudge I bought was too runny so I just used it for the bodies... as you can see in the top left corner, I tried to outline the whole butterfly and it just ran, so I nixed that idea.  I also had bought this weird frosting pen that I thought would make it easier, but instead I just was up to my elbows in frosting and all my butterflies came out looking like a five year old drew them.  I finally figured it out when I only had one or two left to do.  See if you can find the 2 good ones in the picture.  :)

If you want to learn from my mistake this is what you do...

Cake decorating the inexpensive way:

• Use the tips from one of those aerosol frosting cans. 
• Mix the colors of frosting you want by combining food coloring and white frosting in different bowls
• Snip end off of one corner of Ziploc baggy
• Put tip in hole in Ziploc bag
• Squeeze frosting toward tip and decorate!

By the time I got to the second batch, I had wasted too much frosting so had to do something a little different.  In the picture below, some of the writing had peeled off, but you can still get the idea.  Again, the fudge being runny was a problem, but I had to make do with what I had.

 I also made her an individual mini cake which I was actually pretty proud of.  I didn't have the right size cake pan and didn't see one at the store that I liked, so I had to get inventive.  I had these pancake molds on hand that were the perfect size and shape.  I put the molds on a cookie sheet, sprayed it with PAM and filled them about a third of the way up with some extra batter. I ended up with 3 thin cakes that I stacked on top each other.  Her cake was actually layered chocolate, yellow, and chocolate.  The mini cakes had a slightly raised top which actually made the perfect shape, like a giant cupcake.  I frosted it with a big butterfly, dusted on pink sprinkles and voila!!

There were a few more little details here and there.  I made lemonade with floating rasberries and slices of lemon, which I forgot to take a picture of.  My little girl wore a frilly party dress and shoes, both with butterflies on them.  For only having planned it in a little over a week, it all came together well.

We had fun celebrating her birthday and I know she had a good time.  She ate lots of watermelon which is her favorite and enjoyed smashing the cake to bits.  I can't believe how time has flown!  Happy Birthday to my baby!