DIY Purple Cat Piñata {a minimalist tutorial}

Vera's birthday was this weekend and I made her a little cat piñata.  I'm not sure I realized my art school was going to serve me so well as a mother, but hey, cross curriculum is a thing right?  So now my art skills apply more to my mom life as opposed to my artist life and that's okay I enjoy making fun things for the kids.

I tied to not get to perfect with this because I knew the point of it was to beat it with a bat, also I didn't want to construct it too well for fear it wouldn't actually break.  So I just taped everything together and hoped for the best!  Here's the step by step {I know, I have a whole studio and yet I still find myself working on my ugly kitchen floor, oh well}...

First I grabbed the biggest 2 boxes I could find, one for the front and back and then one for the sides. 

I just sketched the basic shape with sharpie and then grabbed an exacto blade and got to work, remember to always cut away from yourself and never leave your fingers in the cutting path! 

First shape done! 

Use the first shape to trace the outline of the second side.

Then cut a straight line out of the sides of the second box to get a few inch thick strip of cardboard for the sides of the shape.

Try to over estimate how much you'll need for the length of the side, I ended up guessing exactly!

Then grab some thicker {width wise, doesn't need to be too strong or sticky} tape and start assembling. 

I started at the top so there was a nice ending point for the top and I could leave a flap to insert candy.

Keep taping.

and here you can see my top flap so I can add candy don't tape this all the way to the start.

Side one done, repeat for side two.

Then cut some holes for where your rope or string will go.  I'd suggest a different spot or more spaced apart, because this was my weakest point on the pinata and ultimately what caused it to rip open when they started hitting it.

Reinforce the sides just a bit if you'd like, I wasn't sure how durable this would be, I didn't want to make it too hard or too easy to spit open for the kids, probably could have reinforced it just a bit left but that also depends on how much candy you're planning on putting in.

Next roll up some tissue paper and start cutting some fringe.  

This is the perfect step in the game for the kids to help but don't cut all the way to the top!

then go back on the non cut side and slice it all the way to the end so you have several strips of fringe tissue paper. 

Then from THE BOTTOM start gluing and adding layer on layer. 

Simple white glue is strong enough. 

 keep going and going!

Done.  I think the whole process lasted maybe an hour or two? I would have been able to do it in one sitting but I ran out of glue and finished it over two nights, but it was easy. And you can check out my daughter's party here and see how much the kids enjoyed it!