How to make a traditional star piñata

Piñatas are found at almost every Mexican celebration. Piñatas were traditionally in the shape of a six-pointed star and were filled with fruit, candy, and small toys. At fiestas, the pinatas are hung in the air and children are blindfolded and take turns swinging at the pinatas with a stick. Eventually, the pinata is hit hard enough and it breaks releasing the candy and toys that it contains.

I’m so excited to show you how to make your own piñata!

Material:

Glue

Scissors

Newspaper/Paper

One balloon

Tissue paper

Glue gun

Tape

Foil paper

Water

Plastic container

Ok. Ready, GO!

First, you are going to cut the newspaper into squares or rectangles.

Blow up a large balloon and tie the end. You’ll need something to put the balloon while you glue the squares of newspaper to the balloon (I used a cup).

Then, put the glue into the plastic bowl and add some water. Wet the paper in the glue/water mixture and carefully place the strips on the balloon until it is covered, leaving a hole at the top.

Set aside and let the balloon dry. Repeat with two or three more layers, making sure you leave the hole at the top and let it dry each time you repeat it. 

When dry, pop and remove the balloon.

 Make cones with construction paper and cover them with tissue paper.

Then, cover the balloon with foil paper. Once you are done, carefully tape the cones to the piñata.

Cut squares of tissue paper. They should be around 5” by 5” (You’ll need close to 200 pieces). When you have all the squares ready, pick one up by the center of the paper and draw it through the forefinger and thumb of your other hand, held in a circle. This will create the ruffles as you see them in the picture.

Start gluing the ruffles around each cone, gluing the center (where you grabbed the paper to make the ruffle) to the base of the cone.

Hang stripes of tissue paper from each cone’s tip

 Punch two small holes in the top near the opening and tie a large piece of cord through the two holes.  Fill your pinata (through the hole you left at the top) with candy and/or toys.

You’re done! Have fun J

You can be very creative with this project. You can design your piñata into any shape  you want (animal, flower, cartoons, etc,). You just need some imagination.

Hope you enjoy making your piñata as much I did. 

A Brand New Item

We've just posted a brand new bracelet! It's a lot of fun. If you like ruby colored crystals, this one's got'em!


On a side note, we've been very busy these past couple weeks. Or however long it's been. I've had a bunch of work to do in my day job and Karla's been working in every bit of free-time she's had to create new pieces. She has a jewelry party scheduled for later this month. A lady from church is setting it up. And I'll get to stay home and take care of the little guy. I'm sure she'll have a lot of fun!

And, I still have those photos for the tutorial, I just haven't made time to write anything yet. Hopefully soon!

One of a Kind: Take Two

We just had an interesting experience last night. We had another in home jewelry showing and got quite a bit of business. It was very nice, to be there with all those people and talk to them and they were quite kind with their purchases, as well.

However, when we got home afterwards and Karla checked Etsy, we'd had a sale, one of the very things that someone had set aside as a reservation. Luckily, I was able to call the customer and explain that someone had bought that same article, and would she mind terribly if we sent it to the paying customer? She was very understanding and agreed and we made a deal for her next purchase. It's a good deal for her and for us, as it guarantees that she'll be a future customer. And it's good that we got to actually sell the item that had been listed on Etsy.

As I explained to Karla last night, this is one of those dangers of having only OOAK pieces. If we can't make duplicates, how will we handle this situation in the future? I think the solution we worked out today will work in the future.

Problem solved!

Home Jewelry Party

Karla and I just got back from our very first Home Jewelry Party! It was very much a success. Only 4 people came, but they came to buy, so it turned out really well. If they happen to be reading this (does anyone read this?) I would like to send a huge hello and thank you!

If you weren't there, but would like to schedule a Home Jewelry Party, just send an email to kelleyaccents@gmail.com. Of course, you'll need to be in the Kansas City area. If you're too far away from here, you can always follow the Etsy link to the right and see some of our choice items!

I was a little nervous at first about how it would turn out. We were there for a couple hours and came out with a little bit more money in our pockets when we came out. Success is such a good feeling. We have another scheduled for tomorrow night. Yeah!