Friday, March 30, 2012

World Party Day Part 2: El Diamante (o un diente) / The Diamond (or a tooth)


Welcome to Part II of our World Party Day party-making tutorial! Maybe you've guessed what we're making from reading Part I (if you did, you are cool and smart!) but we're going to make a Piñata.

A few years ago, Lilian made one for her birthday party in the shape of A BUTT and it was total genius. So I asked if she would show all of us how to make one. This time we are making one in the shape of a diamond. 

*Note that we encourage the use of scraps you may have lying around. If you don't have certain things on our list, please feel free to improvise with whatever you have (or you can buy new of course). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! 

The recipe is as follows:


Recipe for 1 Piñata


You will need:

A balloon
A 36"dowel or any stick like thing
Shipping or packing tape
A newspaper 
Some cardboard 
Some cardstock  
Flour
Colorful Paper or wrapping paper
A skewer
Twine or rope
CANDY!




1. Cut up a whole newspaper into strips. 

2. Blow up the balloon. The larger the balloon, the larger your piñata will be. 


3. Start building the structure of the diamond by breaking down your dowel or stick into four pieces and taping it to your balloon. You can make your diamond as short or as long as you want. We went with long here.

4. Cut down your cardboard/cardstock into rectangles and triangles and tape them to your balloon to form the angular top of the diamond. Do not tape anything over the very top as you will use the space to pop the balloon at the end.

You can make the diamond as exact as you want it to be but we just eye-balled it. You can tell we were not very precise in the last image where our diamond went a little 'toothy'.

5. Set toothy aside. 




At this point, make sure you are working on a surface you don't mind getting messy. Or lay down some extra sheets of newspaper or brown paper for easy clean-up.

6. In a large bowl, mix enough flour and water until you get the consistency of cake batter.

7. Going strip by strip, dip your newspaper pieces into the flour mixture, squeezing out any excess and start papier mâché-ing your diamond. Lay the first layer by placing the strips horizontally across the diamond. Your second papier mâché layer will go vertically. Make sure to do two layers over the entire structure.

If you feel like you are losing the angles of the diamond, fold pieces of thicker paper and lay the folded parts where you want your corners to be and spread with a thin layer of the flour mixture to make it stick. 

8. Let your piñata dry overnight !


9. Gather all the paper you want to cover the piñata with. You can use, crepe paper, wrapping paper (shown above) but we went with various electric colored paper (also shown above). 

10. Cut your paper into at least 3.5" wide strips and then cut fringes into them. 



11. Starting from the bottom and working your way up, tape your fringed strips onto your piñata.  We covered each section of the diamond with different colors -- this is another good way of emphasizing the angles of the diamond. Ours still looked toothy but thats OK. As proud parents of toothy, we love and accept toothy exactly the way he or she is. 

12. Before you cover up your piñata entirely, make sure you cut a hole towards the top of one side so you have an opening to stuff the candy into. Also, don't forget to pop the balloon inside and punch holes into the top to string the rope through later on. 

We popped the balloon at the top center of the piñata and we punched holes in the sides (shown below with arrows). 




13. Cover the rest of the diamond with paper. Clean up the edges of your fringe with scissors. Again, to emphasize the diamond's angles.

14. Pour the candy into the hole you cut in the side. Attach your twine or rope to your skewer with a little tape and then thread it through the piñata. It may be a little tricky. Once threaded, you can take the rope off the skewer and tie the rope securely to the piñata. Make sure to leave enough rope to hang your diamond tooth from the ceiling.




Et Voila! You have your own piñata hecho a mano (handmade!)!



Extra credit: Fringe crowns for your guests made from left over paper strips!


• • • • Need some tunes to go with your piñata party? • • • •
Lilian made an 80's 90's Mexican teenager party mix!

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