The Life and Times of Stegosaurus Bob

My big boy celebrated his 5th birthday last week, and since making his piñata has sort of become my "thing", a few weeks ago I asked him what kind of piñata he wanted. 

A {stegosaurus}.

This is the third year I've made his birthday piñata. 

For his fourth birthday (pirate themed) the kiddies busted open a mean shark.

For his third birthday, a cute little red dragon. 

So I got busy and made him a stegosaurus.

How to Make a {Piñata}

You will need:

a plan!

balloons

newspaper

flour paste
paint


You don't have to draw a map of the pinata, but you should plan out what materials you're going to use to make it the shape you need. You can use pretty much anything that is lightweight.

This little guy started out as two balloons. The balloons made up the cavity that holds all the candy, and everything else is just for looks. 

He is a large balloon and a small balloon

taped together.

Make your flour paste by mixing flour (I started out with 1 cup) and warm water until you have a fairly thick paste. Kind of the consistency of... um... snot.

I don't like working with big long strips of wet sticky newspaper, so I tear mine pretty short - about 6-8" long.

I use a small bowl to hold the piñata as I'm working with it. Since the balloons are round, they'll roll away if you don't have something to support them.

Start by one side of a strip of paper in the paste, and drag it along the edge of the paste bowl to remove the excess. 

I like a fairly thick-ish coating

and then stick it on your balloon. 

After I covered the large balloon, (leaving a hole to remove the balloons and add the candy), 

I made the neck

to connect the two balloons in a non-choppy way, just drape the strips from one to the other, and when you've gone all the way around, add a long strip the other direction.

After I covered both balloons, I set the guy up to dry. 

A few hours later, I added a second coat of newspaper to his whole body, and let him dry overnight. 

Here he is with two coats, totally dry.

The next morning, I made his tail, legs and spikes.  

I made his tail with a couple of sheets of construction paper. I made a tube and then used another sheet to bring the tube to a point.

I stuffed the tube with small balloons (water balloons) to keep it rigid while it dried. I cut small tabs all around the edge of where the tail meets the dino-bum , 

and glued and taped it onto the body.

Next I made the legs. I started with construction paper tubes, then cut a curved chunk out of the side to fit it to the side of Bob's body.

I cut tabs along the curved edge, and taped it on.

Repeat for all four legs. For the hind legs, I kept the outside edge longer, so the legs look more like stegosaurus legs. (Like I've ever seen any...)

I put small balloons in the legs to keep them rigid

then covered them with newspaper

It's starting to look like an animal now!

For the bony plates and spikes, I drew the shape I wanted on some lightweight cardboard (a soda box) and cut them out to attach. I left about a 1" tab along the bottom to use to attach it to the body.

I attached them along the length of the back

Then covered them in newspaper. 

After Bob dried completely, I painted him. Some people like to put crepe paper all over, but it is much less work to paint. I put on two coats to cover all the newsprint, and let it dry.

Last, I popped the balloons and removed them, then let the birthday boy fill the cavity up with candy, and patched the hole with a piece of construction paper, which I painted to match.

I rigged up a little harness out of string to hold Bob while the kiddies take turns smacking him. In years past, I've tried building in a wire hanger, but it always falls off... someday I will perfect a way to hold him up without string...

So in all, Bob has two layers of paper over his body, head and tail, and one over his legs. This makes a pretty strong piñata. I let each child have a turn smashing him, (starting with the youngest and going up by age) and blindfold the older kids so they don't kill him with one hit. After everyone has had one or two turns, I open it up to anyone who wants another turn (always the big kids) who crack him open after a few tries. 

Every year the kids fight over who gets to take the head home. Kinda morbid. 

I'm hoping for his sixth birthday, Mr. E asks for an octopus. Wouldn't that be great!? One balloon and streamers for the legs!

Remember: You can buy a piñata at Wal-Mart, but really - this is more fun! :)

<3 AmberLou

sharing at a few of these parties!

She Loves Green!

Since moving into our home two years ago, I have changed my daughters room three times. Our current color palatte...neon green and turquoise. This is what Miss H's room looked like before...


Here is the during process...


and this is the new room with a few things left to do.


I wasn't too sure how it would turn out but I just went with what the adorable three-year old chose and I must say she has some fun taste. Nice choice baby girl...
Amanda

Sweet Baby Handprints

Phew! And we're back! Happy February, everyone! 

I've missed being here. A lot! Weddings, funerals, and missionary farewells are {hopefully} done for the year. 

For Christmas each year since my son was born, he has (well, I have) made a hand print gift for my Mom. 

For his first Christmas, we made her a t-shirt with a reindeer

For his second Christmas, we made a giraffe painting, and we've stuck with framed paintings in the years since. 

Third Christmas

Fourth Christmas

This year we deviated from the jungle theme, and made an undersea painting, and added his baby sister's footprint (the squid) to make it a family affair.

This has been a sweet gift for Tutu (grandma), even though it makes us all a little sad to see how much his little hands are growing!

I found this blog useful for hand and footprint art ideas. I found it very useful to glob the paint onto hands and feet instead of dipping and stamping. I used regular non-toxic acrylic paint, and it washed off very easily. As my boy got bigger, he was able to finger paint the other elements (grass, trees, the sun) by himself, which of course makes him so proud.

<3 AmberLou

Wrap it Up!

Amanda recently posted about our families Christmas countdown with 24 books here. She tells how we made homemade gift wrap to wrap these books up. As my children were young we had so many family traditions and they are remembered fondly. With a new generation beginning I figure, why not start over with the tradition. It's the perfect activity to do on family night so here I go... featuring our recent fun of making gift wrap with a 2 1/2 yr. old.
Here's a pic of our supplies...

We use potatoes as stamps. In this pic we are using a miniature cookie cutter to make the shape, but we also free-handed trees and stars. I use a pencil to "engrave" the shape into the potato and a small paring knife to trim around it. Dab the potato on a paper towel when done cutting to remove excess juices.

Dip in a thin layer of paint and gently press onto your surface (we recycle grocery sacks and also use small lunch-sized sacks). Brown craft paper or butcher paper works well too. Look how easy this is for little hands. The bigger end of the potato are easy for Miss H to handle.

Here is some of the finished product. Lunch sacks and a wrapped gift.

I have actually wrapped the gift with the brown paper and then painted the whole gift if I wanted a particular pattern on the gift box.
The brown grocery sacks are very sturdy. I have been know to use them year after year to wrap new gifts. I have cut out the design and made gift tags. Folding them into small envelopes and sewing up the edges makes a cute way to give gift cards. The possibilities of recycling them keep coming to me and I am sure they will come to you as well.
Happy Christmas crafting.
~jan
I have linked to some fabulous parties.

Painted Christmas Project

I found this adorable sign at Deseret Book that matched my Christmas decor PERFECTLY.

 However, I am too cheap to spend 30 dollars on myself at this gift giving time of year.

So, to put my {wanter} to rest, I made my own version using acrylic paint {it dries faster} and some canvas that I had laying around the house. I also used my cricut to cut out my letters.

This is the end result:

I decided that I wanted it to show more green color since I have a lot of red in other decor already. 

I took a paintbrush and started smearing the paint around. No perfection here! and when I had the border about straight I let it dry for about an hour...just to be sure it wasn't going to smear.

then {using the lid off a condiment in the fridge} I dipped the lid in the paint and used it like a stamp to get the circles in the border....then let it dry again.

I cut the saying out of paper with my cricut and mod podged it on.

It took me 30 minutes of painting and a couple hours of dry time. 

Wallah!!! 

Easy homemade decor that didnt cost me a dime:]
-Amanda

I linked to these parties: