Superhero birthday extravaganza!

I am a giant nerd.  My boyfriend is a bigger nerd.  Together we are also big kids, and it's pretty awesome.  For our birthday party last month (our birthdays are one week apart) we decided to have a super hero birthday party!

As part of this party, we decided we wanted pinatas- two of them, one for the kids and one for the adults.  Have you ever shopped for a super hero piniata? They are expensive, so I decided to let my crazy out and build my own.  I made a huge mess, took a lot of time, but had fun making them so it was totally worth it.  I like crafting, so it was actually very relaxing for me to paper mache and paint.  I also did way too good of a job, they were unbreakable.

For the kids I went with a Captain America shield.  I took the idea from a few different websites and made it my own.  For this one, I started with cardboard and a xacto knife.


I first cut two circles from a cardboard box-- word of advice, trace something round.  It took me a bit of trimming to get the sides to match.

Step 1: Cut two circles out of cardboard

Step 2: Cut strips of light weight cardboard to form the outside. Tape to the base.

Step 3: Tape two bases together, leaving an opening to add candy

I then cut a cereal box and taped it to the edges of the cardboard. I used duct tape to stick it on, but secured it with scotch tape all around.  If you use too much duct tape you'll never break it.  I left an open part to get the candy in.


After that, I made my own paper mache mix. For this, I have no measurements, I just mixed a bunch of flour and water to make a thick paste.  At this point, one would normally cover it with newspaper.  I didn't think the whole process out, so I used old junk mail and student papers.  I ripped the paper into strips and overlapped one layer to cover the whole shield. Once this step was complete, I left it to dry overnight.

Step 4: Cover outside with paper mache.  Mix flour and water to form a glue, paint on the base, add strips of paper, and cover with more glue.  Let dry a few hours or over night.

To add the colors, I used a combo of streamers and tissue paper.  I had blue streamers that I wrapped around the outer edge with tape.  For the inside of the shield, I cut up red streamers and white tissue paper and layered it on with the paper mache mix. I cut them into about 3 inch strips and frayed the edges. I found the streamers to work better because they were thicker.   I also cut a blue circle out of tissue for the center.  I did this on both sides, waiting again, overnight to let each side dry.  I also happened to have a cool silver star cut out so I used that for the center star and glued it on.  Any short cuts are a good one- besides, I can't even cut a circle never mind a star!

Step 5: Cut strips of tissue paper and/or streamers for the inside color. Fray the edges to give it that fun effect. 

Step 6: Use blue streamers to cover the outside edge. Tape or glue as you wrap around.  Tissue would also work, but the streamers flowed so were easy. 

Once it was all dry it looked pretty awesome!  The kids loved it, although as I said, I may have over done it and they couldn't break it.  After they took a bunch of swings at it, a friend ripped it open Hulk style so they could get to the goods inside.  My boyfriend and I find it our jobs to be the fun "Uncle" and "Aunt" who sugar up our friends' kids and send them home.  One of his friends called the next day "thanking" him for sending his two kids home with more candy than they get on Halloween...

Step 7: Cut out blue circle for the middle and add a star, either cut out your own or if you're lucky enough to have random party supplies laying around like I do, glue a star cut out to the center. 

As for the adults, we also had a piniata.  I made a Deadpool one using a balloon and more paper mache.  The process was essentially the same, except no cardboard.  I paper mached a balloon over the course of a few days. Hanging it up to dry in between.

I did about 3-4 layers... again, maybe a bit much as it was a challenge to break.  After the paper mache was dry, I painted Deadpool's face on it.  Not bad if I do say so myself...

It was really heavy and fell to the ground when trying to break it.  I finally smashed it on the ground.  The adult one was filled with candy and nippers... my friends attacked the goods even quicker than the kids did. Oddly, they left a couple nips behind but took all the gummy bears. 

Ta-Da. This was my fun creation. I would totally do it again. Word of advice-- it makes a mess. Be sure to cover your work area with something.