Monday, September 17, 2012

Archery Party - Target Pinata



Let it officially be said that this pinata is the prototype of more pinatas to come.
It is the fastest pinata I have ever made.
It is the best-performing pinata I have ever made.
It is the biggest pinata I have ever made.
It is the easiest pinata I have ever made.
It is the longest-lasting pinata I have ever made.

Because it is cardboard. 
(Duh.)

Never again will I sully my hands with newspaper pulp and glue/flour/suspiciously gummy stuff!

For a person who is incurably infatuated with cardboard, I am ashamed to say that, in spite of seeing cardboard bash-up pinatas in every single party store, I'd never made a cardboard bash-up pinata. I've made a cardboard pull-apart pinata and a cardboard pull-candy-out pinata but never a bash-up one. 

Do you know why?  
Because I knew my heart would break to watch a cardboard thing being beaten to a pulp by young thugs wielding baseball bats, that's why.

Oh, the disrespect!

But this party needed a cardboard pinata because - shockingly - there wasn't any other cardboard thing there! There was PVC and wood and vinyl and webbing and fabric and foam and plastic cable ties and cookie dough, even. But no cardboard! Absolutely mortifying.

So cardboard pinata it was.

It was just two huge circles with a gusset of sorts, glued around it. We left a hole at the top for candy-filling

and punched holes on either side of that gap for stringing up.

And then the kids painted it rainbow colors, with one side in reverse color order of the other:


Then we filled it with candy.

And strung it up.

And the kids bashed it to death.

But not before it outperformed all its predecessors in Every. Single. Way. So I grimaced throughout the entire torture session and I might even have closed my eyes and shuddered. 


But it was truly magnificent: each hit produced just a bit of candy. Not an avalanche. Couldn't have been more perfect. It lasted long enough for 14 of the 15 guests to bash it once and release candy (the 15th guest put it out of its misery). And -for once- it took longer to destroy than it took to make. I call that Very Worth It. So from now on, unless there is a special need for a spherical/ovoidal one, I will be making all my pinatas from cardboard. It should've been a no-brainer, but my heart got in the way. I know better now. Cardboard is supreme. All hail cardboard.   

5 comments:

  1. You are so funny, LiEr! Love the tutorials - magnificent, as always. One pinata suggestion that I read about (but never tried, my littles are still too young) is to mix a few rolls of quarters (opened up, that is) in with the candy to heighten the thrill of the bludgeoning.

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  2. It did really look too beautiful to destroy! I hope you've recovered by now. :)

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  3. Amen! You wonder how you can do so much with a material like cardboard, and then have an "I can't believe I never thought of that" moment. Your pinata evolution has been epic. really.

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  4. Funny, I've always considered the relative durability of well-constructed cardboard pinatas to be a disadvantage -- we WANT an avalanche after several hits! In fact, when I've bought party-store pinatas and not converted them to pull-string, I generally prime them by making some razor cuts in inconspicuous places, so that they'll break more easily. Otherwise, it always seems that a parent ends up ripping the darn thing apart and dumping the contents out by hand, after the kids tire of swinging at it.

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  5. I absolutely LOVE the creativity on this.

    I have my daughters birthday coming up and i think we are going to try this!

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