Busy Busy Busy week

This past week has been a busy one for me. I pretty much didn't do anything but make a pinata.   Last year for a church picnic I made an Ice Cream Cone pinata for the kids to break.  They all seemed to enjoy that very much and some had really never seen a pinata so they were thrilled and for the most part all the kids got to take a whack at it.  Then when all the candy fell out, well...you get the picture.

Well that pinata led to one of my friends at church asking me if I could make a pinata for their daughters birthday party the next month.  I guess when they got home from the picnic, all Paige could talk about was the pinata and how much fun it was.  The theme of her party was "Paige's Pink Purple Plane Pony's" (she was turning 4)  so we decided on me making a "P"   I decided to decorate this pinata with little pink and purple tissue paper flowers.  I think I made approximately 1000 flowers to cover this pinata.  It took about 3 days to make the flowers and then another 2 days to make the form. You have to let the layers dry in-between when using paper mache.  It took about 3 days to glue all the flowers on.  But in the end she loved it and the kids at the party thought it was pretty cool and had fun breaking it all apart. 

Now this year again I was asked to make her another pinata for her 5th birthday party. This years theme was Unicorn Rainbow.  I couldn't seem to wrap my head around how to make the horse/unicorn form as far as what to use to make it and still be able to get the paper mache on it and still have it open on the inside so that you could put the candy in it. Yeah it could have been made in pieces and then put all together but sometimes they just aren't as strong and fall apart to easy.  So since she also wanted rainbows, we ended up deciding that would be what I would make.  The size to make the pinata was up to me.  Well I never can seem to gauge size very well, it always ends up being bigger then I planned. But its all good.

I had the from all made and proceeded to add the paper mache strips and it took about 3 days total this time. It just wouldn't dry. I think the humidity had a lot to do with that. I even had a fan turned on it the whole time hoping it would help.  While waiting for this to dry, I cut out the 2in squares of tissue paper in the rainbow colors.  I made one change in the colors and that was to use pink instead of the indigo.  Now on to the decorating.  For this one I basically just twisted up each tissue paper square and dipped in glue then put it on the form in a rainbow pattern.  Well approximately 4 days and over 5000 squares later the pinata was done. A layer of batting was added to each side of the rainbow to resemble clouds which her mother wanted on the pinata.  It turned out pretty cute, but then I might be a little prejudice. :)    

Making a pinata is a lot of time, love and patience. And I have had a number of people tell me that's to much work. And yeah it is a lot of work to just be beaten and destroyed with a stick by a bunch of kids in like 5 minutes tops.  But that's what it is made for.  

I delivered the pinata last night and everyone in her family was pleased with it and really loved it.  I got a message from the father last night on picture I posted on my Facebook that said they decided to not break it and to hang it in Paige's rainbow themed bedroom.  Although it was made to be broken it sort of was a relief that all that time and work put into it would last longer and be enjoyed for awhile in her room.  I am sure she will enjoy it being in her room.

Well for the next couple days I won't be doing much as my shoulders, back, arms and hands are going to take a break.  Sitting in one position doing very repetitive movements for long periods of time (I usually worked about 5-6hrs at a stretch with a little 30 min break in-between) really takes its toll.  There were times it felt someone was sticking knives all across my back from shoulder to shoulder.  I noticed last night my left index finger felt bruised and at first couldn't figure out why then it occurred to me that was the finger I used to roll up the squares against with the stick.  I will be fine in a couple days then its on to my next project of which I have a number of things to choose from that need to get done. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.