How to Make a Pig Pinata

How to Make a Pig Pinata

My daughter Abbi is currently obsessed with all things piggy.   Especially Micro pigs.  She talks about pigs all the time, and even has her own pinterest board for all things micro piggy. It was her birthday last week, and she has been dropping not so subtle hints since last year that she wants a pig for her birthday.  It not happening.  No really Abbi we aren’t pretending.  Its not happening.  We did however go for a Pig Themed Party.  In preparation, we made our own pig pinata.  Because second to pigs, she probably likes large amounts of sweets!

Materials Needed:

• Ballon
• Newspaper cut into small strips
• PVA Glue
• Tin Foil
• Packing tape
• Paint in a suitable piggy colour
• String

Method:

This was really easy to make, though it was quite time consuming.

First blow up your balloon, and cover it all over in strips of newspaper and pva glue /modge podge.   Aim for about 5-6 layers; enough to stand up to a bit of bashing but not so thick that the kids will be bashing it for 5 hours to split it.
Build up the layers by overlapping the strips of papers. This is a fairly tedious job, as you need to allow the glue to dry between layers. Ideally outsource this role to a willing ten year old. After the first couple of layers are dry, and the the papier mache has some rigidity, pop the balloon. Continue with the remaining layers covering over the end of the ballon.Set the body of the pig pinata aside to fully dry out, and continue with the features.

Legs

Make little bullet shapes with crushed up tin foil.  Tape them on to the body, and cover with a layer of paper and glue. 

Ears

Fold over 3-4 layers of tin foil to make a thicker wedge of foil.  Glue a layer of newspaper to each side, and set aside to dry, before cutting two piggy ear shapes out of the strip.

Once the strips are dry, cut a tab in the middle to allow it to be taped on to the body.  Because of the foil, the easrs can be curved / bent for a bit more character.

Eyes

Roll up satsuma sized ball of foil for the eyes.  Push a flat side for the eyeball, and tape in place on the balloon.  Cover the eyes and the ears in a final layer of paper and glue.

Snout

For the snout; Make two balls of foil, then take a strip of rolled up foil and wrap it all the way round.  Tape the three pieces together.  Add two more little foil donuts, and cover the whole snout in paper before attaching to the body.

Tail

Roll tinfoil, twist and cover in newspaper.  Attach to the body. 

The Finishing Touches

Once all the ‘features’ are in place, cover over any exposed tape.

Paint his a suitable piggy colour.  We used fluorescent orange because we didnt have any pink.  Lets assume he’s a little sunburned.

Cut a slit in the top, before pushing sweets into the belly of the Pig Pinata.  And he is ready to party!

This guy was in our kitchen for about 10 days before the party, and I became rather fond of him.  It was a bit sad to see the girls smashing him to pieces at the weekend. But that was what he was bred to do.  The circle of life!

You could adapt this approach to make any animal -basic ballon body (use a long sausage ballon for taller thin animals), then fashion features in to any shape using tin foil taped in to place.  The final layer of paper just makes sure the paint sticks to the animal properly.