PigEllie #Handmade

Today I am going to do a bit about my Pinata making. Or should that be attempted Pinata making. Really it was a bit like something from a farce, with all the mess and minor disasters.
It all started with the Idea!!! You know the feeling... the lightbulb moment?? Yes? At the time it seems a fabulous idea. I saw it on a blog: http://www.charlottehupfieldceramics.com/2011/06/27/how-to-make-a-pinata/ and it looked great. How hard could it be? There were step by step instructions, it all looked clean neat and orderly.Hmmm...
The reality? 5 children ranging in age from 14yrs to 2 yrs old. See.. we already differed from the instructional piece....
We blew up balloons, easy part. We decided the easiest way would be to hang them from the washing line and we decided to do a few. They were a little carried away with enthusiasm, to be honest, I was too. There would be nothing we couldn`t make. Hmm...
Started off okay. Just me and the 4yr old. Who is 5 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORGEOUS BOY!!!!! He put on a coverall, great. The 2 yr old decided he wouldn`t wear anything over his clothes and didn`t want to help. We started the older three joined in and before I knew it the patio was covered in white gloop. The littlest one thought it was funny to keep walking underneath and getting white blobs in his hair. The dog kept getting out every time we went in to get more water to make more paste and he thought it was good to race underneath a line of dripping balloons. Hmmm.... By the time we stopped the balloons were well and truly covered... perhaps a bit too much. They seemed a bit heavy.
I had to scrub the patio a bit to get it all off and somehow there were dried bits of gloop on the table even though it had been covered with paper. At that point I realised I had been wearing slippers still and they were now fit for the bin. I also realised that my clothes were pretty white too. Maybe I should have worn an apron.
They took two days to dry out in the greenhouse. Think we overdid it just a bit.
When I went and looked the second morning the shell was on the floor and the shrunken balloon was still hanging from the staging. It looked so funny that I stood there laughing, any neighbours seeing me would have thought I was a mad woman. I should have taken a picture but I didn`t think of it.

We decided to try our hand at a craft
when we did we laughed and laughed.
Flour and water, we used for paste
on the floor was a lot of waste.
paper and
All we needed was balloons and paper
I`m telling you it was quite a caper.
We were white from head to toe,
boy, that paste really did flow.
It all must have looked so funny
good job it was a bit sunny.
Kids and dog all over the place,
white splodges on every face.
Left hanging so they could dry
that`s when we realised, with a sigh.
We really had got carried away
should have done more another day.
Drying out took two days
then it was the next phase.
Adding legs was a bit tricky
that glue was really sticky.
In the end they were stuck fast
and I thought the worst was past.






Because the balloon was going down it was a bit misshapen but that was okay. Did make gluing on the legs tricky though. I had a bright idea though.. We had some loctite glue. Should glue anything I thought... Hmmm... I cut the flaps in the toilet roll, generously covering them in glue and tried to stick them down. Easy... you`d think. Nope, the cardboard and paper seemed to soak it up. I had been very careful not to get it on my fingers but now I was losing patience and forgot about the safety aspect. More glue and then a bit more and I was holding it in place, then I tried to move my fingers. Quick panic, it was setting fast. Managed to get my fingers off in time and then had to stand there and wait for it to set on my fingers before I could touch anything. So not a good look. But the legs stuck on this time. I had to carefully peel my fingers later and was quite surprised how much glue had attached itself. I do still have fingerprints, but only just.


Next I glued paper to the legs and decided that while it was quite wet I would add tissue paper. Coloured of course, to make it look pretty. Pretty simple job... Well... you`d think so. I had made a head from a cone and it ended up long and circular with a rounded end. I slapped tissue paer on both, just taking the colours as they came. There was a lot of red. When I stopped and looked I realised that the head bit looked a bit on the rude side and the older children thought so too. I got a scandalised `NANNY` before they fell about laughing. I hastily recovered it in orange.
At this point I then realised that my hands were dyed all the colours of the tissue paper. More hilarity from the children. Not easy to get off either. But eventually, after much scrubbing, they resembled skin colour once more.
By the time that was dry it was two days before the party and hammering down with rain. I had no intention of doing it indoors, not with my track record so far. On the Friday, while I was preparing for visitors and busy baking, hubby said he would finish it. Now I was going to add ears and things, not to mention cutting the head bit down to have bits to glue, after widening the hole for sweets. By the time I realised what he was doing it was a bit late. Using a spray glue he attached the whole head piece, then had to remove it in a hurry so we could stuff small sweets through the little hole, not easy I can tell you. That done he re-attached it and I left him to it, not wanting to put him off by saying how it should have been done.
Much later I looked.... Oh dear...... What should have been the head was a long nose now and he was busily painting it. I just thought, oh well the children won`t care.
After a while he told me to come and have a look... Well, I couldn`t stop laughing it looked so funny!



I kept looking at it and decided it looked a cross between a pig and an elephant so I named it PigEllie. The children thought it was funny too when we hung it on the washing line for them. I ended up tying laces round it as I hadn`t really thought ahead. I know that will surprise you... not!!
As it was quite thick it took a while, so the children all got quite a few goes at cracking it open.


And finally, here it is all battered and now redundant.


Hope you enjoyed today's little tale of the would be Pinata that turned into a PigEllie.

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