Creative bursts of cakes and paper mache for birthdays, parties & other fun stuff over the wintery school holidays...Part Two, the pinatas...

About 10 or 12 years ago, I made some pinatas. A 'Pikachu' Pokemon for one of my nephews, a big round pair of boobs for my husband and a fairy for a student who my good friend Fairy Emma of Stardust Fairies was doing a party for. Pikachu hung in my nephews' rooms for years after the birthday, we smashed the boobs to bits and the fairy was a hit so Fairy Emma commissioned me to make more for other parties. From memory I did a pirate, a Santa and something else. It was great fun getting paid for being creative and although Fairy Emma encouraged me to continue with the pinatas, my teaching career took over and time became limited. Plus, while I was teaching kids to paper mache for themselves, I was making props, puppets, sets and costumes for school musicals and was maintaining my creative outlet and the pinata idea fizzled.

After making the Octonauts Gups earlier this year and getting a taste for paper mache again, (not literally of course,  I don't recommend ingesting or even tasting the glue), I was inspired to pick up the pinata idea again.

Inspired to honour Amelia, the daughter of on old high school friend who was turning 8 in June. In December last year, Amelia was diagnosed with Ataxia Telgiectasia, an extremely rare degenerative disorder that deteriorates the immune system and brain. There is no treatment or cure available and the progressive nature of the condition means that children diagnosed with  A-T rarely live to their twenties. It's heartbreaking.

Since the diagnosis, the whole family's lives have been turned upside down... shaken about... kicked repeatedly... and recently, unfortunately not even metaphorically, hit by a bus! (They're all ok though the car was a write-off.) 

Through the wonders of Social Networking,  friends of Amanda (Amelia's mum) have rallied their support. A facebook page was set up to help, which grew to an official charity being set up in Amelia's name and 'Amelia's Project' was born. Sooo much has been done by friends, family and complete strangers, to support the family as the word has spread. Amanda's main goal is to make life amazing for Amelia. To let her experience all the magic and joy life can offer, to fill her world with love and laughter, to make every single moment count. We have all been touched by the Love that is guiding Amanda through this journey with her beautiful, happy daughter and can't help but be inspired to let the love grow and spread. While we are all doing what we can to support the research for  treatment and maybe one day, a cure for this horrible disease, there are no guarantees, so it seems best we focus on the good times and making  sure there's lots of them for Amelia! Check out Amanda's blog "Amelia's Project", watch the video montage of Amelia, go back to early posts and follow their journey, you will be inspired too...

Aaannyway, I decided to make a pinata for Amelia for her birthday and gave Amanda 2 vouchers for custom pinatas which were auctioned at a fundraising night they had last month. I figured I'd better get a new email address for the pinatas, a business name registered, and a domain name sorted if I was putting myself out there. Oh yeah, and business cards printed too! (Though unfortunately they didn't arrive in time to give out at the fundraiser night!)

So, inspired by Amelia, and the 80's classic "The Three Amigos", "A Plethora of Pinatas" was born!

I will sort out a website & get it hosted soon but you will be able to find me at www.aplethoraofpinatas.com

A 'Plethora' of course means excessive amounts, an abundance, many many many pinatas...

I will start with just one.

A mermaid.

Like the pinatas I'd made in the past, I couldn't bare the thought of her being beaten with a stick. Plus I find it tricky to get the shape and smoothness I want without making it too thick to be broken with anything less than a samurai sword ;)

So, I make a little hatch which you attach ribbons to & party guests all pull on, to open it and spill out the goodies. This makes the pinata reusable for another party or as a decorative keepsake.

I also added a shell bracelet and necklace and made a tiara. Every strand of hair was individually hot glue gunned on.

On a roll with the paper mache, I decided to make some wings for a broken Buzz Lightyear we got at the market for 50c!

Posting pictures of the mermaid on facebook led to an order for this TGV train  for a friend's son

It's like a Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) but French. Ooh la la!

Next came an order for Darth Vader

I wasn't totally happy with this, it wasn't quite what I had in my head, the eyes are a bit off and cheeks could've been better shapes but it's still a learning process. It was my first pinata designed to be smashed (with light sabers of course) so couldn't be as thick and strong as usual.

Next up is for my mum's quilting group who are having a retreat this week and very possibly doing the pinata as I type this! Their theme for the weekend is "The Great Escape". Their rooms have been given cell numbers,     there's balls and chains to be worn, dad compiled a cd of jail themed music for them and mum sewed herself a stripey convict outfit to wear with her Martha Stewart wig & apron!  Based on a comic they're using for something there,  mum asked me to make them a zebra... (the picture was of zebras playing charades and the guesses were things like 'prisoner' and 'jailbreak'  -because of the stripes, get it?!! Hilarious, I know) 

So here he is, hand cuffs and all, the guilty zebra...

The shaggy mane was the first time I'd done like the traditional Mexican pinatas you see of donkeys and stars where they're covered in rainbows of feathery looking crepe paper. I was stoked with how fluffy it turned out,  I will definitely use the technique again.

I used paper towel instead of the usual tissue paper for most of the white, it worked well covering the newspaper layer layers but absorbed a lot of glue & colours would bleed into it from the black tissue and pens used to draw the eyes. I will probably paint over it next time to create a better base for decorating.

Sitting on the potty for his final blow dry over the heater vent in the bathroom! 

Not a pinata but a 'Toodles' maraca for Aedan. He's been taking it to bed with him! :)

I used a box from laughing cow cheese and an empty sticky tape roll cut in half.

And while I was finishing off the zebra, Caelan made me an Evil Dr.Porkchop (from Toy Story). He insists it's not, but deep down, I know it's his first pinata :) 

"It's NOT a pinata mum, it's just a present I made for you!"

I've been working on a Buzz Lightyear for Caelan which I unfortunately didn't manage to get finished in time for his birthday, but am back on with it now and will hopefully get him finished soon.

I've got Aedan's 3rd birthday next month to start thinking about now as well, so will continue to add to my collection of creations. 

I need to keep going, this is clearly not a plethora.....

yet

:)

Creative bursts of cakes and paper mache for birthdays, parties & other fun stuff over the wintery school holidays...Part One, the cakes...

We have so many birthdays between family and friends throughout both June and July, it's a bit like Christmas here during these months. Though the usual callouses on my thumbs from the tape dispenser have been eased by the kneading of icing for cakes, and soaking my fingers in paper mache glue for pinatas! (Not at the same time of course)

I'll start with the cakes as a follow up to my last post:

Octonauts Cupcakes for Caelan's 5th birthday celebrations at kinder. I did ten of each with just a dab of butter cream icing under the fondant toppers, I didn't want to be the one responsible for administering quite so much sugar to all those kids right before dinner!

Kwazii Cat, Captain Barnacles and Peso Penguin

The next day was my birthday which I spent creating this Octopod cake for Caelan's party. 

(Mum did treat me to a delicious chocolate cake as well, it was a very cakey week )

Caelan LOVED it! Thanks to Scott's cousin in the UK, we also had some Octonauts figurines to adorn the cake as there is still NOTHING available in Australia.

I really enjoy doing the cakes but it can be quite time-consuming.  My hands were stiff and sore after kneading the fondant icing to mix the colours,  unfortunately my Kitchen Aid mixer is too big for the job, but  if I ever have to do excessive quantities in one colour, it would be perfect.

Now onto planning Aedan's cake for next month!

Next up... Part 2 the Pinatas...

The blogging continues...

I haven't been able to blog since this school term started and now we're on the countdown with only two and a half weeks left! Eek!! And these are crazy holidays coming up as usual, with my birthday on the first day of 'the break', which will be spent like the past five years, decorating a birthday cake for Caelan's birthday the day after!
I'm not complaining, I enjoy the chance to be creative on my birthday and of course I love cake :)
This year, he has asked for an Octopod cake which is being designed in the back of my mind at the moment. I'll do some sketches and start making up fondant icing by the end of next week (I hope!)
Mum always did great cakes for us growing up. There were a few favourites from the Woman's Weekly cook book- The train, the ghost with the light, fluffy marshmallowy icing and half empty egg shells as eyes, the swimming pool or lake with jelly water,  and the chocolate upright piano come to mind. My all time favourite though was a big Snoopy cake mum made when I was maybe 7 or 8- I'll have to check the photos & count the candles!
This is one of the ways my mum really inspires me. She is amazing in the kitchen and truly puts her heart and soul into nurturing those she cares about through delicious meals and treats. You cannot leave mum and dad's house after a meal and not feel completely satisfied!
I'm not that kind of whiz in the kitchen yet but definitely hope to get there one day, and not surprising to anyone who knows me, I have found the best place to start following in mum's little footsteps is through baking!
Since having the boys I have really got into making fun cakes for their birthdays.

Caelan's First Birthday July 06

it was massive... 3  big cakes at least, from memory... Just a simple butter cake with butter cream icing covered in crushed up peppermint crisps

The following year, I gave myself a bit of a break and did a very chocolatey cake, simply decorated with dump trucks, violet crumble and maltesers....

Then I got creative again for Caelan's 3rd birthday and his Mickey Mouse party... 

I bought a Mickey Mouse silicon cake 'tin' for the main cake and did a few dozen cupcakes with ears. I also bought a mini bread loaf in the shape of a Mickey head for the fairy bread on the right, it's only about 15cm long so I had to make about 10 of these mini loaves!! It would've been more logical to use the cookie cutters   I had  also purchased (left of pic) to just cut regular bread to fairy-fy  but the bread I made WAS yummy and I might use the tin again one day!

Then of course came Aedan's first birthday in August '09...

A simplified version of Caelan's name cake done with butter cream and smarties! We didn't need as big a cake this time round so it was nice to keep the tradition but without the enormousness of before!

Then came Caelan's 4th birthday in July 2010...

As Toy Story 3 was released only a few days before his big day, that was the theme for the year. (And it's still going!!)

First came cupcakes to take to kinder to share with his friends....

Then, the Big Kahuna! We took a bunch of friends and family to see the movie on Caelan's birthday then celebrated in a party room at the cinema with this:

This was the most work I'd put into a cake yet! Also the first time using fondant & it was awesome!! It was like working with perfectly soft fimo!  (You know, that modelling clay that you bake in the oven?) I bought the toys on ebay & some cool space-themed candles from the cake shop and everything else I made by hand. The bed heads were cookies and the bed and floor were a very rich chocolate mud cake. It was probably the sweetest cake I ever ate! The hardest bit about this cake was Caelan crying when we cut it, but he did enjoy eating it for weeks as we froze left overs while we went on holiday 2 days after his birthday!

Next was Aedan's 2nd birthday in August.

Wags and Dorothy for my little Wigglet.

Again, I chose to simplify my efforts from the previous month's effort and did a simple fondant design for him. It was still a bit fiddly, especially trying to do the colour swirls for the base, but again, it was so much fun to do and I just loved seeing the excitement in his face each time Aedan saw his cake!

And this one, I did for Brodie,  my friend's son who was put onto Lazy Town and Sportacus by Caelan! (Caelan lived in his Sportacus costume for over a year!!)

So there we have it, my creative cakes to date. It's another fun little hobby of mine and after writing this blog I'm all inspired for the upcoming Octonauts cake challenges over the next couple of weeks :)

The paper macheing has grown here too, I've actually started a little business. I've got business cards on the way, email address, web domain and business registration all sorted for " A Plethora of Pinatas" .... I'm very excited! I will blog more about it next, but now I must sleep :)

Caelan's Kinder Homework...

Even as a teacher, I wasn't quite expecting to be dealing with 'homework' yet....from preschool!! Don't get me wrong, I totally support the kinder program and value that they are promoting family involvement, it just seems strange to say out loud that my 4 year old has homework to do! I am of course though, more than happy to help him get creative & do as he's been asked, so when instructed to make up a page about his family, here's what we did....

Here's what he wrote to go with his photos:

"Daddy likes to play Toy Story games with me."


"Mummy likes to make Octonauts things with me."


"I like playing with balls with Aedan. So does Dad."


"I like doing jump splits like Sportcacus."


"My family likes to play music together and play outside."





It was great to do something like this that we were all a part of and was so much fun for a sunny afternoon :)

Of track a little, I want to say thankyou to all the other facebook Octonauts fans who have taken the time to check out my blog and gup project. It's amazing all the creative things other parents and grandparents are doing for their own Octonauts fans, the website is full of home-made Octonauts creations, it's worth checking out! There's a real bonus to there being no merchandise available yet, it's been inspiring people worldwide to step out of the consumer-driven path we sometimes find ourselves on, and create a bit of magic for our kids. I hope it continues :)

The Gup Fleet is Complete!

We've had a productive last week of school holidays with the Gup-E being whipped up in just a couple of days.

Drying time was the biggest factor as it was made with just tissue paper on a plastic soap bottle. The tissue paper is nice to work with as it's so soft, but it's also of course very delicate so a bit fiddly. The Gup-E is Peso Penguin's Guppy-shaped rescue vehicle. It has a 'creature tank' in the back for injured sea dwellers and a device on top that can be a camera or a flashing orange light . For this, I noticed when I removed the pump nozzle thingy from the soap bottle I found that regular soft drink lids fitted the screw top perfectly. I checked bottle tops while shopping recently to find an orange lid but to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of fanta to use! Horrid stuff!! So, I covered one lid in orange tissue paper and the other, I nailed a hole in the middle which I poked a pipe cleaner through then covered it in green tissue for the camera piece. Now the boys can have the appropriate device attached for the story they're role-playing!

I put a big wad of blu-tak inside the bottle and attached Peso to a piece of icypole stick and stuck it in there, squishing the blu-tak to the stick with skewers. I wanted to put a wall in to separate the two 'rooms' of the interior but it was too hard to work out the size & shape, not to mention how to attach it securely.

So there we have it, the last of the Gups :) Pretty much as soon as it was completed, Caelan was hassling for me to get back to work on the Octopod !! He has been very appreciative of the work I've done though and so genuinely excited to welcome each vehicle to his collection as it's been finished. But, Easter things have had to take over this weekend and I've enjoyed a nice break from having gluey fingers!

Each year for Easter, I get the boys some new jammies for the days are getting shorter and the nights colder as winter creeps on in. So, this year I bought Caelan some plain stripey pjs & a plain blue long sleeved t-shirt which I made some iron-on octonauts transfers for. (Aedan got Thomas jammies as he's not quite as obsessive as his brother yet though I will be making him some transfer t's too now that I have the stuff...) 

He was of course quick to mention that 'Barnacles doesn't have the logos on his arms like that'... but he was 'just so happy mum to have octonauts jammies!' 

I also like to give the boys each a book for Easter and fortunately, one of my ebay orders arrived in time for Caelan

His very first Octonauts book :) We've read it several times each day so far, it's a lovely story and the artwork is just beautiful. So many colours & so much detail, the four of us snuggled on the couch tonight & enjoyed it together, it was lovely! I can't wait for the others I've ordered to arrive...

We've also made Caelan the Creature Chart and Cards from the octonauts website. As he plays different games, he earns different creatures which I've saved  and printed and laminated some for him. He get's one as a reward each day and it's working as a great incentive for him while being eductaional as well!! Did you know that belugas are the only whale that can swim backwards?!!

I've been having ideas of making an Octonauts board game but should shift my focus a bit now that kinder is starting back this week and do something creative that will appeal to Aedan while the game idea brews away in my brain for a while... mind you we have kinder 'homework' that we will do tomorrow for Caelan.... I can't forget!! eek! Four year-olds getting homework?!! What is the world coming to? Gasp!! The horror!!!

Don't worry, I've had it planned in my head since the end of last term and we should all have fun helping with that one tomorrow.... I will post details as we create them :)

We gave Aedan the new Wiggles DVD for Easter called 'Ukulele Baby' so I think I'll have to pull out my uke, tune it up and have a jam with the little fella, hopefully he won't realise that I'm not very good! ;)


Ok so it seems I'm not necessarily doing any of these projects for 'myself' as such, (as I'd originally hoped when venturing into this creativity spree) but I'm loving getting to share my boys' interests and have these special things between us, it's much more satisfying than being all artsy-fartsy in my book!

Gup C complete, only one more to go...

This has been the fiddliest creation in this project so far! The main hull was done on about 2/3 of a water bomb, topped with card board, newspaper, a plastic cup & a  cardboard tube for all the bits on the 'deck'. Cups broke, paint peeled and glue didn't stick but I got there in the end!! The hot glue gun was a big help for this one tho it's not as strong as the ones made purely with paper mache.
I was quite proud of managing the shapes & proportions well on this as I did it all just by eye & the feel of it.  I also remembered I could sand down the bumpy surfaces of dried layers which helped get a nice smooth finish for painting, I wish I'd done that with the others! I did the lines & name with a pen this time which was much easier than painting but I could've done with a thicker nib.... The things to remember for next time!
Next time?!! Once I've finished the Gup-E it will be time for a break from this and maybe start on some sewing, I'll have to see what inspires me next :)

Introducing Tweak Bunny and the Gup-D

Tweak Bunny in Caelan's favourite Gup

I finished this one last weekend but haven't had a chance to share it here since acquiring a tooth abscess and head cold to start this first week of school holidays- typical eh?!!  At least it gave me time to finish the gup-d and start on the 'c'!! We noticed watching the Octonauts show this week that each gup has it's name printed on the back near the tail so I amended the 1st two I'd made and included it on the 3rd one too.

Kwazii Cat in the orange one needed replacing after Aedan managed to pull off the dome & rip out the cat! I've had to tape down the dome so he doesn't do it again...

The Octofleet so far...

Caelan impersonating the Gup-C

I've ordered some Octonauts books for him that will hopefully arrive this week in time for Easter, he's just obsessed! Tho today he was dressed up and playing as Captain Barnacles one moment and then Sportacus, then Buzz Lightyear the next! I love listening in to the little stories he makes up, the role playing, the language and expression in his voice, he's growing up so fast!!

Both of my boys are now such 'little boys', past the baby stage and doing so much more together. Aedan just adores his big brother and everything that Caelan's into, he's taking a fancy to as well, including the Octonauts! They both made underwater collages this week with cutouts of the characters stuck around rocks and seaweed we made with some of those funky scissors kids like! I made them some basic fish and jellyfish too, (actually it was parrotfish Caelan requested !),  and they loved sticking their pictures together.Aedan named every character as he covered them in glue & sat there singing the theme song with his brother, it was lovely :)  They're now hanging proudly in the rooms, I'll try to remember to take some photos tomorrow...

I'm looking forward to my next project being something for Aedan, I haven't decided what yet, but I might be due for a change from the paper mache for a bit, I want my kitchen bench back!!

I'll get the Gup-C finished this week, it's been a fiddly one but I've loved the challenge of getting the shapes and proportions right. The colours aren't as accurate as I'd like but to be honest, I couldn't be bothered mixing colours perfectly, my head's just been too stuffy! After that, there's just 1 more Gup in the fleet which should be quick as it won't need as much painting/drying time as the others.
I might get it done before Easter, it's a busy week ahead but hopefully I'll get the time...