Piñatas are always a fun way to help children celebrate their birthdays. Why not make the creation of the piñata into a family project.
Materials Needed:
- 2 sheets of white poster board
- Red and black permanent marker
- Masking tape
- Scissors
- One dinner plate
- One dessert plate
- Red crepe paper streamers
- Black crepe paper streamers
- White glue
- Candy
- Pencil
- Newspaper
- Liquid Starch
- Duct Tape-if piñata is meant for older children
- Plastic trash bag
- Flesh toned, white and black acrylic paint and brush
Preparation
- From each poster board cut a 4 inch strip off of the side to give you two strips measuring 4” X 36”. Set these aside to use later.
- On one of the remaining poster board sheets lay your dinner plate out and trace a circle around the edge onto the paper.
- Now take your dessert plate and overlap it over the drawn dinner plate and trace. This is one of Mickey’s ears. Shift the dessert plate over next to the small plate tracing and overlapping the dinner plate tracing but leave at least three inches in between the small dinner plates and trace again. You should now have a large circle with two smaller circles coming off of it as in a head with two ears.
- Cut out the head making sure not to cut off the ears.
- Trace your head with ears onto the other poster board and cut it out also.
- Cut or tear all of the newspaper into approx. two inch strips
- Lay your head pieces out on a plastic garbage bag.
- In a bowl pour liquid starch. Add several pieces of newspaper to the starch and make sure they get well coated. Run the strip through your fingers to remove the excess liquid and lay it across the poster board head. Completely cover each head making sure to overlap the newspaper strips. Allow them to dry before adding the next layer. Repeat this process two more times laying the newspaper in a different direction each time.
- Cut the crepe paper into six inch strips.
- Cut slits along the crepe paper about 1 ½ inches deep and about every ¼ inch. You do not have to do each piece individually. Stack them and cut several pieces at the same time.
Assembly
- Go back to the 4” strip you cut earlier. On each long side cut a half inch slit at every inch or so. You don’t need to measure. It is not exacting.
- The strip is the piece that goes between the two heads. Bend in the tabs you just created at a 90 degree angle from the strip itself.
- Now comes the tricky part, beginning at the inside edge of one ear, masking tape the strip up and over the ear, around the head and up and over the other ear.
- If you need a longer strip add your second strip by taping the strip ends together on both sides.
- Now tape the other head piece onto the side of the strip remaining.* If your piñata is meant for older children, duct tape over the masking tape for added strength. If you do this for younger children there will have a difficult time getting the piñata to open.
- Beginning at the inside of one ear generously glue the area between the heads.
- Lay one red strip across the glue beginning just over onto the face on one side and ending just over the face on the other side. Use these to help you cover any tape.
- Repeat with the remaining crepe paper alternating colors as you go. You will continue all the way around to the inside of the opposite ear. Make sure the cut part isn't glued down.
- Cut a "U" shape in the posterboard between the ears big enough for you to get the candy in.
- Punch a hole in the tab created by the "U" to use for suspending the piñata.
- Allow to dry.
- Paint the face, ears and eyes.
- Use your permanent markers to outline and add detail in the face on both sides. Give your piñata a different expression on each side for fun. You can use a little red paint or red nail polish to add a tongue. Use extra black paint to give him sunglasses. You can even turn one side into Minnie Mouse and leave one side as Mickey.
- Fill with candy.
- Don't forget the blindfold, rope and a stick.
*Note: The piñata at this point is very delicate. It should not be strong enough to hold candy yet. The key is to make it strong enough to hold but not so strong that it won’t break. Keep in mind that you are still going to be adding a lot of glue.
The copyright of the article Make a Mickey Mouse Piñata in Crafts is owned by Mary Welling-Bonney. Permission to republish Make a Mickey Mouse Piñata in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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