Mache Much?

Last year I was inspired by my little brother to create a fun project for my children to enjoy! I have four brothers and not one of them has ever wanted to do anything artistic. I love hands on projects and they REALLY did not want to take part in them. So, I was pretty excited by the effort that he wanted to put into the birthday party for his son who was turning four. He wanted to make and decorate a cake (with me! I finally got to do a hands on project with a brother!) but also wanted to do a treasure hunt for the kids. He had an idea that he wanted to do dinosaur eggs so we came up with the idea that he would make miniature pinatas and make them look like dinosaur eggs. So, like a big sister, I told him how to do it...and then made him do it by himself! And he did amazing at it and the kids LOVED it so much. Here is a photo of them with their smashed pinatas enjoying a bunch of candy!

So of course, my kids wanted pinatas as the "grab bags" at their birthday! This projects was super time consuming but SO fun! Like my brothers, I have a husband that although wonderful, does not like to do art projects with me (shocker). However, this was a project that he could get into. I'm not sure if it is because he was more confident or if it was because the finished product was for our children, but my husband was completely excited willing to help out! I loved being able to do a project with him! So here are Nikles's Pokemon "grab bags".....

And here are Owen's Angry Bird's "grab bags".....

So now birthdays are approaching and they want (guess...) more pinata grab bags! I think that this year I am going to do them all at once...yup - I think I will make 45 mini pinatas over the Christmas break (I need some extras just in case). I wonder what is in store this year. Considering one set will be for my little girl I think maybe some Hello Kitty ones...maybe Dora ones? 

The project, though time consuming, is so fun. It inspires me to see where else I can use Paper Mache in the classroom with my students. Paper mache solar systems? Paper mache...self portraits?