Custom made pinatas by the piñata lady: 2011

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

My computer is pretty broken and when it does work its generally for less than 5 minutes so this may be my last post for a while. I've just about finished my Christmas orders and prototypes. Only two to go (a Christmas pudding and a Santa that looks like Nicholas Sarkozy). I've already started on a batch for valentines day which is my next project - along with a couple of orders due before then. I'll add pictures when I can. In the mean time merry Christmas and a happy new year to anyone that actually reads this!

More christmas pinatas

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119164214862021 - more details of the event. There are still stalls available. I took this pictures with a hang over so they're not the best! I'll add more information soon. The piñatas start from £8.

Lets build a snowman!

This snow lady is about a meter high and her nose is about 6" long - just to give you an idea of the dimensions. She's got a happy face, a happy smile and a happy point of view. I'm in the process of building her a little friend.

Christmas arts and crafts market

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119164214862021 - my first stall at this Leeds based Christmas arts and crafts market. Please drop by to say hello and see what's available. There will be more amazing, locally made, hand crafted items than you can shake a wet stick at!

Its from the 1 till the 24 December 7 days a week 8am till 8pm

FullCircle Bespoke Design Emporium

143 KIRKSTALL ROAD (OPPOSITE ITV)

LEEDS

There will also be live music, fabulous festive food (with great vedgie options) and mulled wine.

Moshi monsters party

We specialise in custom made piñatas so when our eldest daughters birthday party came up we let her choose whatever piñata she wanted. She's very into moshi monsters so there was an Iggy piñata, pin the eyeball on the zombie made from a picture of Zommers and much more moshi monsters themed fun.

Christmas pinatas

I've made a start on a few Christmas piñatas. I'm not sure how many I'll actually get done by new years but I'd like to get another 30 done between now and then in the hopes of meeting my goal of making at least 100 piñatas and other papier mache projects this year. For some reason I think that once I've reached 100 I'll feel more like a pro rather than like I'm still learning on my feet sometimes! I'll take a few better pictures of these soon and add them to the album on facebook.

The hat and scarf on this snowman I've just stuck on to see what they looked like. I'll try making one a papier mache hat and scarf and make each one in a different style. I'm hoping to make a few with cartoon style features as well as themed snowmen. They could probably also do with some arms! I'd like to make a couple of full size ones of a more realistic shape but I'm not sure they'll be usable as piñatas!

They're a fantastic decoration that can be smashed up at the office Christmas party!

Shameless theme party pinata

Chavsworth special brew!

Bootleg beer at its best

More frightening than white lightening!

* Warning side effects may include, hallucinations, loss of vision, pregnancy and hysteria. It may also go to show that sometimes there is no will in willy.

Very simple piñata shapes are sometimes harder to achieve than the more complex ones because there is more pressure to get them perfectly moulded. Not only was it a pain to make the basic can shape. I ran out of silver paper and had to make this with tin foil which is never ideal. Plus I had some serious printer issues. My two year old is very upset that she's managed to loose at least one magnetic letter inside the printer.

Thankfully I have some very helpful friends who saved the day and printed out the label for me. I don't think any breweries will be approaching me to design their labels any time soon but I'm quite impressed with the finished product. I only hope the buyer is too!

Custom made pinatas, decorations, wedding card boxes and more! in Leeds, York | Other Collectibles & Crafts for Sale | Gumtree.com

October projects - Hello Halloween!

The blob monster and the pumpkin piñata are finally complete. Not many more to finish this month although there is lots of none piñata related work to focus on.

Its tempting to put eyelids on the blob monster if there is time. As the piñatas are completed more photos will be posted.

A mad hat and a giant pocket watch.

These piñatas were originally made for a mad hatters tea party. They both have a cardboard base and the hat already has a whole post dedicated to it. A lot more newspaper and glue went into the clock

Hopefully I'll be doing a giant tea pot or something along a similar theme for one of the mad hatters tea party club nights!

Am I a working girl?

This weekend I had my first night out in about six weeks. I've been working really hard recently. I went to see a friend of mine beat-boxing with a choir on Friday night. It was a joint birthday party for a couple of other friends so I took a piñata and malteser buns with toblerone topping. Everyone admired my buns. The piñata was lots of fun but as most people were in couples the condoms and lube didn't go down as well as I hoped. I shoved the leftovers into my handbag for reusing in the next piñata I make for a friend.

The following night was another friends birthday party. We went to a lovely outdoor bbq in an alley and the sunshine. I was tempted into going on the promise of food porn. This disappointed me on the grounds that it wasn't at all what I expected - but that's another story.

I was so hung over from the night before I never got around to emptying the piñata swag from the night before into the giant penisata I'd made for the event. It went down really well. Cherie, who was at first a reluctant volunteer, smashed the thing in two on the first swipe [I'll add photos later]. Needless to say there were a lot more leftover condoms and lube and sweets that went into my handbag.

Either I'm getting too old now or I'm just not going out often enough and need more practice. Two nights out in a row were too much so I wondered around the corner by myself for a cigarette. Sometimes I just crave my own space. A group of men walked by and one of them stopped to ask me for a light. We got chatting whilst I rummaged around in my handbag to look for one. There were so many random things in there that I ended up on my knees just emptying out the whole of its contents onto the pavement. There was handful after handful of bag skum. Finally found my lighter after a epic search and a lot of polite small talk.

He lit his cigarette and thanked me. As he was walking off to catch up to join his friends he stopped to ask me a question 'Are you a working girl?'. At first I was a bit confused, I blurted out 'yes, I mean I work and I'm a girl, I'm not a prostitute!'. He apologised and wondered off a bit embarrassed.

I was really bemused for a moment - why on earth would he think I was a prostitute? I finally managed to put two and two together in my drunken state. Stood alone on a street corner, wearing a red polka dot dress, handbag full of condoms and lube, looking rough and hung over from the night before...

Maybe I should use less piñata stuffing in the future. I guess there are worse assumptions people could make.

Dragon pinata

This Dragon piñata is for sale from Full Circle gallery in Leeds for around £35. Their website is being refurbished at the moment so I'll add a link later. Its made entirely of paper and is at least 90% recycled materials.

I have this friend (Paul) who's really into WOW who showed me lots of pictures of Deathwing dragon so they've had a bit of an influence on the design. I've another one half made lurking around in the living room but I think I'll choose a different colour next time!

Giant hat piñata

This would work well for an Alice in wonderland themed party, burlesque nights, weddings, stag parties, rocky horror theme nights or any other event that would suit a top hat!

This piñata measures around 60x90cm. At the moment its free standing so that it can support more weight. It could be decorated to suit a particular event, although, personally I like it as it is.

At the moment its just sat around my house gathering dust so any suggestions of where I might stick it would be most welcome!

A mad hat and a pocket watch

I've just been looking up Alice's adventures in wonderland for my current two giant piñatas and found this; The contents of this link are of an adult nature and are in no way related to Alice in wonderland or any of her adventures therein.

I'll add more photos when they're finally finished. I'll enjoy being able to take my time over them. click on this text to see the full set of photos.

Max - giant piñata head

Max is the first piñata I've ever made for a TV programme.

This piñata is over a meter tall. Its built on a box base. I've also used stuffing to help strengthen it and as a dry layer to ensure it was finished within the original 4 day deadline.

It was designed to withstand a few direct hits from professional cricketers armed with bats. click here for the full set of pictures

I always thought my first piñata person/head would be me, or maybe an ex (i figured it might stop him asking me to make him an ed209) or maybe even Ben Chaplain (I've had a thing for him since 'game on'), considering most of my studies have been psychology based I might even have been tempted to crack open Freud (one of my least favourites).

I never banked on someone picking me up on gumtree, telling me to do this guy and adding a very firm 'we only want the head'. I don't know how much more I'm allowed to say on the topic. Probably not much if I keep making head jokes ;>

Giant newspaper wangers.

If a friend of mine was asleep on my sofa... would it be very wrong of me to wake them up using the giant newspaper wanger that's still wet from a good pasting? I can think of several good potential kodac moments and I know from past experience they're a heavy sleeper. It was a bit silly of them to pass out like that, especially when they know my sense of humour. If only I had someone to hold my camera. If only I had never watched clockwork orange. If only I could make a decision about which awakening style to use... Mwahahahahaha

Too late now, I've woken them up chuckling to myself. Damn.

Tommy gun piñata

This is a 1920's/30's Tommy gun piñata. Made from newspaper for a reunion/birthday party.

It’s fairly indestructible. I'm just waiting for the birthday boy to decide whether to have it stuffed and beat it to pieces or keep it as a decoration before I touch up the paintwork a little.

A very special 30th birthday present.

This is the finished number piñata for a very special 30th.

Thank you very much to Malc, Sas and Jess for the picture and finishing touches! X

Several months on this piñata is still on top of the birthday girls wardrobe. She says she liked it too much to smash it up.

Mz Piggy and Hermit the frog

These are hanging up to dry for a few days before I add some finishing touches.

It looked a bit like hello kitty so I couldn't resist this pic... My kids have made me watch it once too often.

Camper van wedding card box

This isn't technically a piñata as it has a slot for envelopes at the top. Its made from a cardboard box and rather a lot of newspaper to add shape and detail.

Its also my 50th papier mache project. I figure I should have a big party when i get to 100, or at least do something special.

From cardboard box to camper van - click on this text for pictures of how it was made!

Elephant pinata vs the robot

Our deadline for these two piñatas was today. The elephant is just over a meter long to give you an idea of size..To give you an idea of prices the elephant would cost around £60 and the robot £45 although it is possible to produce a cheaper less detailed version of either. For instance the robot didn't need to have moving arms and legs!