Valentines Heart (mini) Piñata

 

I really wanted to make a mini pinata for Valentines- I've worked the last few days trying to figure out how to streamline it but it's still a little much to make for a whole classroom of kids.

Still, making a bunch over a few days might work or maybe just for a few special people?

Materials:
Crepe paper streamer roll
Brown paper bag cut out hearts
Glue stick
Perle cotton (light string)
Clear tape
Flat candy, tiny toys and confetti

One trick is to roll the crepe paper around a can 6 or 7 times, slip the paper off and then make the tiny slits through all the layers (yes, I tried to cut it on the actual roll but it was a disaster as it's wound so tightly).


Cut two 5.5" tall by 5.5" wide hearts from a brown paper bag (you can make your own template by folding a piece of card stock in half and cutting one heart out); it's fine to have fold lines or printing on the bag- no one will see them.

I like using the brown bag paper because it has suppleness to it, it's strong and has a nice weight. If there's writing on the bag, place it face down and cover the plain side.

Cut a few lengths of the fringed crepe paper.
Start at the bottom of the heart and add glue stick about 2" at time- then add a layer of crepe paper and move up to the top of the heart shape until the whole shape is covered- I left about .25" fringe between layers.

Go right across the top humps.

Trim the crepe paper from the edges.

Use clear tape to add an 8" string looped in half to the middle of one inside heart shape.

You could alternate colors of crepe paper too.

Run glue stick around the inside edge of one heart- leave a section/side unglued to poke things into later.

LET THE GLUE DRY!!

Walk away and do something else - trim the other hearts, check the weather, make some hot chocolate or... make some confetti!

We used a heart punch from Micheal's (use your coupon!) to make little hearts for the inside of the Piñata heart.
You could just use regular round hole punch.

I plan to get some flat chocolate hearts when we make these for school but for now, I had some smarties on hand and a little bouncy ball (a pack from Target).

Print and cut out a strip of paper for the heart string- though you could use it to address the Valentine as well.

When the glue is completely dry - pop the goodies into the pocket.

Just to note here- I tried making this several ways- stapling and/or taping the heart together THEN covering it but it got really cumbersome and messy so this is the order that seems to work the best. 

When we make them for school I'll see if there are any other tips and add them.

Add glue stick to the last edge.
Pinch the glued edge shut- this is why you waited for the glue to dry earlier! so the pressure of the stuff inside doesn't cause the whole thing to come undone while the glue stick sets up.

There might be a little unevenness on an edge-- this is real life and I'm not going to pretend it's all perfect so just trim around the heart until it's good enough but DON'T cut that little string hanging out of the middle V.

Add the little paper loop to the string loop and use the glue stick to close the strip to itself.
Do you have a good (clean) pun for this project? We want to print something clever on the paper loop. 
We have: Piñhearta, 
You pull my hearts strings, You tear me up, but we haven't come up with a great one yet.

Let us know if you have one!