How to Make a Pinata

It's a Piñata! My children decided to get ambitious and went D.I.Y. style. From this angle it's a beautiful butterfly resting on a rose bush.

The first step to making a piñata is to decide what type of material you want to construct it from. We used a combination of newspaper and flour, plaster of paris and cardboard.  Next time we will choose only one of these methods.

 

We soaked newspaper strips in a salted 1:2 ratio of flour and water (approximately two tablespoons of salt will help prevent mold).  This is the cheapest method of making a piñata.

 

Cover the balloon with strips of thoroughly soaked newspaper. Let each layer dry in between to help further prevent mold. Keep doing this step until the piñata feels hard and strong.  Apparently, you can sand and drill a flour piñata.  They are that strong!

 

 At this stage the piñata started to get heavier.  We placed a rock in a bowl to anchor it to the table. The layers took at least a day in between to dry.

 

 

While making handmade chalk one morning from plaster of paris we added a layer of it to the piñata. We didn't let the newspaper strips soak long enough and they basically flaked off the next day. 

 

 

Our plan was to add cardboard wings and have the round balloon act as the body of a butterfly. We would need to plaster a long skinny balloon for this to work. Instead we cut a butterfly shape from a cereal box and pretended the balloon was a rose. 

 

 

Taping a cardboard shape together and decorating it is another method of making a piñata we will definitely try in the future. I'm thinking less mess!

 

We chose a traditional method of finishing off our piñata with crepe tissue paper.   We glued the entire piñata with scrunched flowers.  This took us at least half a day.  Next time we will consider fraying the edges of long crepe strips. Thankfully the kids remembered to leave a hole at the top for the candy and toys!

 

 

 A Butterfly!

 

We ran out of pink tissue paper so we changed the rose to a rose bush and added some green along the bottom. From this angle our piñata looks like a Ferbie or dare I say...weirdo bunny!

 

 

The children learned a lot about the artistic process of Paper Mache.  The party will have a two-in-one decoration-activity they can laugh about.   

 

Please feel free to share with us your craft stories.  Also, if you have photo's of your projects we would love to see them on our Facebook Page.

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20+ Fashion Duct Tape Crafts

Today's duct tape craft table brought together younger and older children for some real bust-a-gut laughter and fabulous (bordering on outrageous) imagination. Short of duct taping each other to the wall they came up with some pretty creative "ducktivities".

  

Supplies

I set up a table spread with fashion duct tape and various household items and let the kids go nuts!

Jazzy Kazoo's.

To make a Kazoo the kids made a hole an inch from the top and covered it with wax paper fastened with an elastic band.  

Duct tape barrette was made by sticking a piece of duct tape to scrapbook paper and folding it like an accordion. 

The headband was a floral print before the kids wrapped it with cheetah duct tape.

Upcycled bracelet before and after.

Earrings and hair pretties were the most popular to create! For the earrings the kids simply duct taped paper clips, strung them on an earring post and let them dangle.

 Penny "Tap" Flips. Yup, they work great!

Matching headband.

A sweet ring.

Bratz doll bikini, boots, hairband and I think that's a belly ring...!

Boots before and after.

Ooh, a designer flashlight perfect for sleepovers.

Sunglasses made to be comfy yet cool.

  

Designer fork for school lunches. Nice.

Emily added a darling cheetah heart to her rain coat using a stencil.

Cool zebra print shoes. 

 Flower applique headband and a bracelet 

Claire trying to decide what colour of fashion tape to create with next...it's like a designer workplace in here!

Super cool orange duct taped socks.

Funky taped accessory box. 

Bike helmet sticker.

Brush.

I love that duct tape is easily ripped eliminating the need for scissors. And, it is offered in so many colours and prints!

More Duct Tape fun...

Duck Tape Chop Sticks.

Duct Tape Sparkler Pencil Craft

Duct Tape Craft Stick Dolls

Duct Tape Pom-pom Bracelet

Rain Chain

Feel free to share your duct tape craft projects and photo's on our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!

Cupcake Liner Party Decoration

Tin Can Stilts Craft

 

Ah, it was a resourceful kind of morning. With back to school just around the corner the kids were happy to hang around the house.  We had some old fashioned playtime by balancing on tin can stilts and chalking random pieces of art with handmade sidewalk chalk.  

 

 

We made the stilts out of recycled coffee cans and simply fed a skipping rope through a punctured hole.  The kids decorated the tin cans with craft foam, fashion coloured duct tape and Sharpie pens.

 

 

Yoga Tree!

 

 We discovered tuna cans work better for the younger crowd.  Shoes and a helmet are always a good idea.

 

By the end of the morning most of the neighbourhood kids were sporting a pair of tin can stilts.  I think they liken the "tall walk" to  high heeled stiletto's...so not ready for that!

Three cheers for "Tin Can Stilts" for providing physical exercise, a craft and recycling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoo Sticks D.I.Y. Chopstick Craft

by Claire

Just the other day, my sister and I were happy to see our favourite Zoo Sticks listed on What's in My Therapy Box?: 60+ Supplies for School-Based OT by Mama OT. We were even more excited to find out how to make our own set of kiddie chop stix. 

Eating with chopsticks is educational and fun.  We are learning skills we need for writing and scissoring.

Supplies

We gathered up the supplies for the D.I.Y. Kiddie Chop Stix craft which included a medium sized elastic band, scrap paper, chopsticks and duct tape.

Part 1

Step 1: Draw your animal shape or use a stencil

 

Step 2: Turn your paper over and stick duct tape over the drawing.

 

Step 3: Flip your paper back over to the drawn shape and cut it out.

 

Step 4: Make it two-sided by sticking duct tape to the other side  and cut around again. Set aside.

 

Part 2

 

Step 1: Wrap duct tape around the top of the chopsticks (optional).

 

Step 2: Fold a piece of scrap paper up small. Wrap it in duct tape to make it more water resistant.

 

 

 

Step 3: Sandwich the paper between the chopsticks and wrap the elastic around the paper.  Wrap the rest of the elastic above the paper.

 

Step 4: Duct tape your animal shape to the top of the chopsticks.

 

 Have some fun picking up items or try nibbling a snack with your new do-it-yourself zoo sticks!

 

Left: Zoo Sticks Right D.I.Y. 

 

 

 Feel free to share your project's on our Facebook Page.  We would love to see them!