Piñata Angry Birds Pig King

It is true: My Etsy store has been neglected. There are hardly any items left in my store. This is indicative of both  good and bad news. Good news is that my mini hats and little characters have nearly all sold! The bad news is that I haven't had time to crochet much this year! I figured I'd give a little insight into why this has happened.

I love to throw parties. Birthday parties. Mother's Day teas. Oscar Parties. 4th of July neighborhood BBQs. If it needs food, decorations, and a game or two, I'm in!

Birthdays, especially, are fun to put on. I love to make my beautiful family feel special on their day of days and I guess using my interests and talents to throw a party is one way I show my love! For my kids, they know that when birthday time comes around, they get to pick a "theme" and mom will sort of just run with it. Now, I have a lot of help. I have the internet with all the world's great ideas at the touch of a button. And I have my Dad, who's great ideas have planned parties for my brother and me as we grew up and have continued now to his grandchildren. With such great resources, I was able to pull off an Angry Birds party for my wonderful eight year old girl! Specifically I've spent many an hour becoming as much an expert at piñata making as I could this past month.

If you are interested in piñata making, check out these pictures and tips but don't forget to stop by http://pinataboy.com where I got most of my tips to make this great Angry Birds Pig King piñata!

SHAPE IT:
Using a large "bop" balloon, I taped on egg carton cups for ears

HANGING DEVICE:
Removing the paper roll from a dry cleaner hanger,
I bent the hanger into a loop and taped it down the sides of the balloon

SUPPLIES:
1 part water, 1 part flour for glue
(add salt and a bit of cinnamon to help preserve mix and make it smell nice!)
LOTS of newspaper strips in a variety of sizes

METHOD:
Dredge the newspaper strips in the flour glue and apply to balloon
and ears leaving a hole near the top where the candy will go in.
LAYERS:
I covered the balloon and it it dry completely FOUR times.
The result was a sturdy piñata that lasted JUST long enough for
12 kids to take a whack at (see below)

PAINT IT!

Definitely an activity for the whole family!
TIP: wear clothes you don't care about!

and MORE paint!
I bought 2 of these small paints
We painted with the first bottle, let it dry over night,
and repainted with the second bottle the next day.
It covered it pretty well.

ADD FEATURES:
I used a Sharpie to draw on the nose and eye brows.
Paper cut outs for the eyes and crown.

Oink! Oink!
TO FINISH:
Pop balloon and pull out. Fill with candy and prizes!

PARTY TIME!!!
We attached the piñata with bungee cords to our basketball hoop.
The pig was bounced for each kid to make it harder.

The Birthday Girl goes first

Then we lined up smallest to tallest.
Littlest ones got a few swings without a blindfold

The older kids were blindfolded and given 3 whacks!

If they'd rather not have a blind fold, we let them have one whack

STAND BACK EVERYONE!

It was PERFECT! Everyone got to help whack open the piñata!

You have been defeated, Pig King!

Candy!!!

A success!

So it may have only lasted 5 minutes, but this pig was a blast to make and I would totally do it again! It takes a long time, so give yourself 2 weeks to allow for all the overnight drying that needs to occur between layers of flour glue as well as paint. Also useful is a fan to help with the drying. But for all the time it takes, it's super cheap to make and the possibilities are endless. Again, check out the Piñata Boy to see some other great ideas for piñata making!

So there it is. Why my etsy store has been neglected :)