Custom made pinatas by the piñata lady: January 2012

Red rose valentines day pinata

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Thepinatalady - available on etsy with a full description.

Gung hay fat choy!

It just happens to be Chinese new year today - which is actually where Pinata's are thought to originate from.

I figure its a great excuse to smash one up at our house tonight.

At the end of February it will have been one year and over 130 piñatas since selling that first penisata. Time for some publicity and nagging over the website. At the moment I'm up to my neck in hearts and flowers.

Wally's Fundraising shindig for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre

The raffle prize- I thought I'd donate a custom made piñata to Wally's fundraising shindig held at the Audio nightclub in Batley. However, they decided they'd rather have a giant wanger for comedy value. So here's an interesting package of adult piñatas instead. There's a giant penisata, a whip, handcuffs and a butt plug. They're all crammed as full as I could manage with a selection of the sweets and other treats shown in this picture.

Pokemon hanging storage space

It was my friends sons birthday party today. He's very into his pokemon. The present hadn't arrived in time for his party so I thought I'd knock up a quick pokemon piñata. Feeling quite pleased with myself I showed it to the lad in question who cheerfully let me know that they already had a piñata for the party.

After a nice cup of tea I had the bright idea of turning it into hanging storage instead. It was very popular with the kids there and I ended up explaining to several of them how to make their own. Which lead me to writing this post.

I made this using a punch ball instead of a balloon as a base. Nowadays you can even buy punch balls at the local supermarket. http://thepinatalady.blogspot.com/p/making-pinata.html you can use these instructions on how to make a piñata, although you need at least six layers of papier mache to make the base, depending on how strong you want it. Then its simply a case of adding a final layer of colour. You can even make yours open like a pokeball is meant to and find inventive ways of making them close. If I'd known this was going to be hanging storage rather than a piñata I would have used old pictures of pokemon to 'wallpaper' the inside of the sphere, or at least plain white paper! Although, I'm sure the lucky boy who's got this will enjoy decorating his own.

Lotus flower in the moonlight.

This is my most recent painting. When I showed it to my children the eldest insisted it looked more like an autumn leaf. We decided to ask the youngest what her opinion was - does it look more like a leaf or a flower? Her answer was that it looked like 'a piece of poo on fire'. She's two and so very literal. I just hope the owner likes it! My spec was the grey background to match the contrasting walls in the room with bright colours, mainly orange. Hopefully they'll think its a lovely image of a lotus flower in the moonlight and not that the painting looks like poo.

Valentines day pinatas

For many years I've thrown a valentines day party for single friends and any couples without any better plans. These piñata hearts are a perfect addition. Although my favourite red one will be hanging up in my room. Even I think its too pretty to smash and I'm normally the one saying 'just take the bat and hit it as hard as you can, trust me you'll enjoy it'.

Each heart is handmade and therefore unique so sizes and shapes are approximate.

The white rose heart piñata has a contrasting black background. It measures around 50cm at its widest point and would cost £40 including postage. Discounts are available for multiple orders.

The black heart is a very simple design and would therefore cost around £20-30 (including postage) depending on the complexity of the order. They're also available in different materials as well as styles. I'm hoping to add a furry leopard print prototype very soon! As well as a sample with a ribbon tail.

I generally have a few spares and cancelled orders that I'm happy to sell off at a reduced rate. As each one is listed on sites such as etsy, folksy and ebay I'll keep you updated on the blog, twitter, myspace and facebook accounts.

Furniture repairs and other papier mache projects

You can buy these storage boxes from ikea that look like crates. They're easily broken which is not ideal when you've children around!

I've got fed up of having to repair mine so this time I've tried using papier mache pulp to hold it together. It took several days to dry and I'm used to using strips of paper rather than pulp so it now looks like the bench is held together with spit wads.

I've only just put it together and its a little creaky to sit on. Only time will tell if the papier mache filling works.

This is my other current papier mache project. Its a marble box. Or rather the base of one. It will probably take weeks to dry. Its possibly 5/6th attempt as I kept getting impatient and trying to have a better look. If this one falls apart its going to be a long time before I can bring myself to start again!