Kids Birthday Parties,Cool Birthday Party Ideas,Cool Birthday Parties,Cool Party Theme,Unique Party Ideas,Custom Party Games,Party Supplies,Video Game Theme,Party Tips,Making a Piñata,Cool Party Elements, Party Themes,Nintendo Birthday,Mario Party theme

Halloween Costume Contest for PBS Kids Sprout

Several years ago, my kids wanted to enter into a Halloween costume contest held by PBS kids Sprout. The Contest was to dress like Chica (the little chicken on the Sunny Side up Show on PBS Kids), but both of my kids wanted to participate, so my son dressed up as Kevin (the Sunny Side Up Show host at the time), and my daughter as Chica (the little yellow chicken on PBS Kids). Basically our goal was to re-create the Sunshine barn, which is where the Sunny Side up show took place. Since papier-mache is my choice of medium when it comes to art projects, the kids and I got to work on our contest entry. Below you can see on the left a picture of Kevin; the host of the Sunny Side Up show and Chica the little yellow chicken is to the right of Kevin. Kevin, the host always wore an assortment of fun colorful fruit Hawaiian shirts on the show, the one he is wearing in the picture below is a blue shirt with Orange printed all around. 

                  

You can see below all the fun we had creating this costume contest entry. Oh, and best of all, my kids WON! Yay! They received a big basket filled with all sorts of goodies from PBS Kids Sprout.

UCF Graduate Party Customized

Here's a cool University of Central Florida Graduate Party that I customized some party elements to make the event extra exciting. I thought I would share some images to encourage you to plan out the details of an event, after all its the details that make any event that much more special.

  

For this Graduate Party, I customized cupcake picks and a Knight Helmet (University of Central Florida School Mascot) card holder. This card holder was created to hold all the cards that party guests brought for the grad. Guests were able to insert their cards into the top of the Knight's helmet. The cards would them drop down into a box, where the grad could later retrieve.

I won't go into too much detail, but below you can see the various steps that were taken to create these Graduate party elements.

Super Mario Bros. Party Piñatas

Just for the fun of it, I created a Mario and a Luigi papier-mâché piñata. I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with you how character head piñatas can be a lot of fun at any celebration. Besides the obvious fun (piñata holds goodies), the piñatas can make a picture perfect momentum. You can take a picture of the group, or of each guest with the piñata; solo or with birthday boy/girl. Try this pose for Funny pictures: Hang piñata at head level, have guest stand behind the piñata. Piñata will appear to be the head on the guests’ body. Kids love it!

 

     

   
Want to see step-by-step how to create a papier-mâché Mario pinata. Click here to See full instructions .

Rather just submit an order for a custom pinata? Then click on Cool Party Pinatas.

 

How to make Papier-Mache mixture

I have received several requests on how exactly to make papier-mâché mixture. So I decided to put together a short how to video. The only supplies needed to make papier-mâché is flour and water. I prefer using all-purpose bleached flour, and warm water when mixing mâché. I have found that these together make a nice smooth consistency when mixing the two.

Once you have your mixture ready, you can begin to create something with newspaper strips and dipping them in the mixture. Your imagination is the limit. While you're creating, you may notice your papier-mâché mixture gradually getting thicker. That is normal, just add a little bit of water and stir around to make the mixture thinner, continue on creating. Also you can store the mixture if you have a lot left over. Make sure to store the mixture in the refrigerator or inside an airtight container.

Suggestions when working with papier-mâché

• Don’t leave left over mixture out, the yeast in the flour ferments
  and gets stinky.
• Don’t wait to wash out the bowel that held the mixture.
  It is hard to scrap off once dry.
• Keep a small cup of water on hand while creating, to thin out mixture.
• Spread out newspaper around work area, and wear an apron or grubby clothes.

Creating a Papier-Mache Veggie Tales Party Pinata

Below you can watch the steps taken as I was working with Papier-mâché, to create a custom "Bob & Larry" party piñata for my daughter’s Kindergarten Graduation class party. The entire process took a little over ten days (so much drying time), but I managed to fit it into two detailed videos outlining the entire process. These (2) videos are more for viewing enjoyment as opposed to my more usual instructional how to, so sit back, enjoy…oh, and don’t blink (you may miss something LOL! :o)

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

For creating these pinata forms I used a Punch Balloon to create the form of Bob's body, and a Giant Banner Balloon to form Larry's body.

Authentic Papier-Mache Veggie Tales Party Pinata

Bob and Larry are a couple of veggies that children can never get enough of, especially in my daughters’ class. For her Kindergarten Graduation class party, I volunteered to make the piñata. I first started with the idea to make just Bob the Tomato wearing a grad cap, but soon I upped the ante and added Larry the Cucumber to the mix. Knowing that the Kindergarten class is made up of 20 kids; all who need a turn to swing at the piñata. If not, it could result in many sad, little disappointed faces. With that in mind, I knew I wanted not only to create, but also accommodate.

A Monsters Inc. Party

Mike and Sully are a couple of monsters that are cute enough to plan a whole party theme around. For my son’s third birthday I did exactly that, a Monsters Inc. birthday party. I was able to find many coordinating Monster Incorporated party supplies to use as decorations. However, I still wanted to put an extra special touch on things.

I was able to get my hands on an 8’ x 4’ corrugated cardboard panel to make a custom party back drop. By utilizing my overhead projector, I was able to make precise outlines of Mike and Sully standing on a giant present. Once my outlines were in place, I used tempera paints to apply the color. After the paint was dry, I used a Permanent marker to go back and make bolder outline marks over the dried paint. As a little added fun, I decided to cut out Mike’s Eye so that guests could pop their faces out through the hole for pictures. I also could have easily replaced the eye, and have the guests stand in front of the party back drop with the birthday boy for a fun picture. I like to send these pictures to the guests along with the “Thank You” notes. This way guests have a memorable reminder of the party, along with a short sweet note of thanks and appreciation for taking part in the celebration.

My Papier-Mache Entry to the Animal Crossing Contest

So this post really has nothing to do with a party per se, but I wanted to share with you the steps I took to try to win this contest because I utilized papier-mache in the entry. This happens to be the same material I use to make party pinatas. Ok, so you may or may not have heard, that Animal Crossing just came out for the Nintendo Wii console. My kids and I have enjoyed playing this game in the past on the Nintendo DS, so naturally they were looking forward to the game release for the Wii. As a sort of kick off, Nintendo of America was running an Animal Crossing costume contest. The criteria was to dress your pet in costume to look as one of the characters from the game. The result could be physically implemented, or graphically, we decided to take it one step further! My kids wanted to participate in the contest picture as well, so I whipped up a couple papier-mache heads for them to wear as a costume head piece. I took pictures to show how the steps are really the same as making a papier-mache pinata. Except to turn it into something wearable, I cut a large hole in the bottom. Papier-mache is really a great forgiving medium to work with, and I have been able to achieve a variety of shapes by experimenting with different characters and their shapes. This Contest is just another fun way for me to experiment using papier-mache.

How To Create An Authentic Pinata (Post 3 of 3)

In this post I will show you the final steps to creating an authentic paper-mâché Mario piñata. This post will focus on decorating the dried paper-mâché structure made from post 1 and post 2. This is a process that has many steps, but I made sure to include many pictures so that you can follow along and achieve the same result. As I stated before I will list the piñata for sale in an auction. If anyone is interested you can click on the link in the right column, and it will take you to Cool Party Elements ebay store. Happy bidding, if you do decide to take part in the auction.

Now let’s get back to the piñata. In order to complete the Mario piñata you will need the following:

• Peach, Brown & Red Tissue Paper or crepe paper
• Scissors
• Kitchen knife
• Glue
• Water
• Paintbrush
• Black yarn
• Hot glue gun
• Reference picture of Mario (this helps with guaging where to place eyes, mouth, etc.)
• Print out face pieces (print mouth, print eyes)

Start by cutting 1”x 1” squares from all three colors. Next, mix glue and water together (roughly about 1 Tbl. Water added, to 2Tbl. Glue). Mix well using paintbrush.

How To Create An Authentic Pinata - (Post 2 of 3)

In this post I will show you the next steps to creating an authentic paper-mâché Mario piñata. This portion will focus on taking all the dried paper-mâché balloons made from post 1 of 3 and piecing them together to construct Mario’s face. This is a lengthy process, but I made sure that I included every step so that you can achieve the same result. As I stated before, once the piñata is finished I will list it for auction, if anyone is interested in it I will include more info pertaining to the auction in the final post of this three part post series.

In order to construct your own Mario piñata you will need the following:

• All 6 dried paper-mâché balloons from post one
• 1” Strips plain news print paper
• paper-mâché mixture (1 cup flour mixed to  1 1/2 cups warm water)
• Kitchen knife
• Scissors
• Mason string
• Hot glue gun

We will need to create a way to hang the piñata. To do this, we will need to harness a string around the main part of the piñata, which in this case would be the head of Mario. Use the Mason line to wrap around the large paper-mâché punch balloon. Use the belly button of the ballon as the guide. Make two passes, so that the Mason line is doubled. Then tie a knot at the base. Allow for 3-4 inches of space from the base knot and tie another knot with the remainder of the string. You can reinforce this by making several knots over. Now we have made a loop where the piñata can later be hung from.