MINI STAR PIÑATA

I love piñatas. My first encounter with a piñata was when I was 11 years old. I had recently moved to Texas (from Norway), and was eating at a Mexican restaurant with my family, where they had hung up a piñata to entertain the kids. I'd never come across anything like it before and was super excited until the waitress told me I was too old for the piñata  and that it was meant for the younger kids. I didn't speak much English at the time, so I couldn't really argue against, but I do remember being quite disappointed and thinking that it was pretty unfair that I qualified for the kids' colouring in menu and crayons, but not this magical thing filled with candy, wonder and joy. Did she think I was too old for candy? I experienced my first American Halloween the same year, and trust me I was not too old for candy. Are you ever too old for candy?

As you may also know, me and Graeme are planning on getting married in 2014. It's still a good while away though, so we're very much in the beginning of the planning stages. As in, all I've decided so far is what my nails will look like, and more recently, that I want piñatas  I told Graeme I'd get my El Salvadorian friend who's going to be in the wedding to help out, as she probably had experience. Graeme said I was being racist. Either way, I figured it'd probably be an idea to get some piñata-making practise in before that day comes.

You don't really need a massive list of supplies to make a piñata  but it can be time consuming. The whole thing from start to finish took me about three to four hours on a Sunday. Since you're making your piñata shape out of cardboard and not paper mache though, this saves a lot of time. No need to wait for it to dry. You can of course also make whatever shape you want. I chose a star because a) I like stars, and b) it's a pretty simple shape. So for this project, you will need cardboard, scissors, tape, glue and of course tissue paper. I used the cardboard from a shoebox lid for this, as I wanted it a bit sturdy so that it wouldn't break in the post. If your piñata isn't travelling across the sea then I'm sure an old cereal box would do just fine.

Step 1: Draw and cut out your shapes. Your star doesn't have to be perfect, as long as the two pieces match each other. Remember that you'll also nee to cut out ten rectangular pieces to make the shape three dimensional  and that these should correspond to the sides of the spikes of your stars. Step 2: Tape all your cardboard pieces together! Reinforce where needed with extra tape. It'll just make it a little bit more difficult for the person bashing it! Step 3: Fill it! I chose to fill mine with confetti that I made with some colourful paper and a hole puncher. You could of course fill it with candy as well, or pretty much anything you like. Step 4: Attach the final cardboard piece with lots of tape, making sure your confetti (or whatever else you put in there) won't escape.

Once you your piñata's shape is finished, all that's left to do is cut up your tissue paper and glue it on! The best strategy here is to start at the bottom and work your way up. Since this shape has so many edges and corners, this part can be a bit time consuming. Once your piñata's all colourful and dressed up it'll be worth it though! Piñatas make me so happy. How fun would it be to make this for someones birthday and send it in the post? Happy birthday! Surprise! Have a piñata!  Party-in-the-post.