I contributed the pinata. My gift to my mom. I made her one a few years ago for her pirate themed birthday party. I worked and slaved making her a life sized pirate skeleton, complete with a little parate perched on his shoulder. Overboard is an understatement. I can't help myself when it comes to artsy stuff.
The paper mache recipe I used called for 1 cup flour and 2 cups water. However, I found the mixture was too watery and added more flour until I had a thicker paste. I also discovered that magazines work just as well as newspaper for this project. I didn't have any old newspapers laying around but had a stack of old magazines. I tried buying a newspaper at a stand, but for 50 cents I only got a very thin paper. Not going to work! And I didn't leave myself enough time to come up any other solutions to my newspaper shortage, I needed to start it pronto to give myself enough time to let it dry between layers. So I substitute magazines for newspaper with good results.
I used, of course, a balloon for the belly--to leave it hollow for candy. For everything else, I just experimented with what I had lying around the house. I used acrylic paint I had stashed away in my art supplies. So when all was said and done, the pinata cost me 50 cents to make (the cost of that newspaper I bought)! Not bad.
This what we ended up with. Those are coffee filters on the cuffs.
Originally I tried going to the Internet for clown face inspiration. BIG MISTAKE! I freaked myself out. There are far too many scary and freaky faces out there.
We settled for a generic, non-threatening face in the end.
