Piñata Making

This summer I tried something new for me: three day camps. These sorts of things have never worked for me before because I could never count on the kids coming back day after day, but at this particular library, I've been seeing a good repeat rate so I thought I would give it a try. 

The benefit to the camp is that while I'm usually stuck with craft projects that can be finished in an hour, with a camp I could expand the possibilities to include more complex projects. 

Enter: the piñatas. 

Over three days, we papier-mache-d to our hearts' content and then decorated the results. 

Here's a quick breakdown: 

Monday: blow up the balloons and put on the first layer of papier mache. 

Tuesday: add cones and cups with tape then add another layer of papier mache. 

Wednesday: paint and decorate. 

For the record, the piñatas were awesome. 

Also for the record: it's sooooo much messier than you can possibly imagine. God help you if you have carpet. 

One more thing for the record: the kids LOVED it. 

Here are some of the photos I managed to take (when I wasn't in the kitchen mixing up flour and water):  

Adding party hats and cups to the piñatas.

Some kids had a very specific idea of what they were making (the one on the right will become a pig) while others just enjoyed adding points and cups to the basic round shape. 

More layers of papier mache. 

Painting! I also put out a box of fringed tissue paper for a more traditional look. 

Drying. I have a large number of foam squares and I put them all down on the carpet in a corner of the room.
The piñatas dried there every night. 

Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely. Will I make sure to do it right before we are scheduled to have our carpet cleaned. Even more emphatically: yes.