It seems pretty clear to me that what the world needs right now is a giant roller skate piñata. I know you were all thinking the same thing. I mean, how else are we gonna channel our secret inner Roller Disco divas? If a giant fringed roller skate with rainbow accents doesn’t bring about world peace, then I don’t know what will. Guys, don’t hate. Roller skate.
Materials: Cardboard, masking tape, x-acto knife or box cutter, newspaper, paper mache glue ( 1 cup of flour + 2 cups of water, heat up a little bit until it’s all mixed up), white spray paint, tissue paper in white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and pink, silver mylar folds, ruler, pencil, hot glue gun, twisted paper cord
Step 1: Build the shoe base with cardboard and masking tape. With an x-acto knife or box cutter, you will need to cut out the sides of the rollerskate together so they are the exact same shape. From heel to toe, ours was 35″. From the bottom to the top, it was 27″. Then, make a long strip of cardboard that that you will attach between the 2 sides (this will become the front, bottom, and back of the shoe.) Ours was 17″ wide. Attach this strip of cardboard to the sides of the shoe with masking tape. When you get to a hard edge (like between the heel and the shoe back) crease the cardboard so it bends easily. Reinforce with masking tape.
Step 2: Build the wheels and attach them to the bottom of the shoe. Cut out 4 circles (with the top 1/8 cut off.) They should be about 10″ tall. Make 2 long strips of cardboard that you will attach between the 2 sides of each wheel. Ours were 12″ wide. Attach these strips to the sides of the wheels with masking tape. Use tape to attach both wheels to the roller skate base.
Step 3: Attach a flap to the top of the pinata so you can insert candy.
Step 4: Add one thin layer of paper mache to rollerskate base. Let it dry. Spray paint the whole pinata white. Let it dry.
Step 5: In the mean time, cut the fringe out of tissue paper and mylar with an x-acto knife and ruler. You can cut a bunch at once but cutting tissue paper folds at the same time. Ours were roughly 2″ tall. And the strips of fringe were roughly 1 cm wide.
Step 6: Trace out your design on the pinata with a pencil. We drew out the rainbow, heel, and laces so we knew where to glue the different colors.
Step 7: Starting at the bottom of the pinata and moving up, start hot gluing the fringe. For the wheels, we started glued the fringe around in a circle.
Step 8: Cut out holes for the laces in the front of the skates with an x-acto knife.
Step 9: Separate the twisted paper cord so it’s thicker and tie it in a bow. Cut smaller strips of the twisted paper cord and separate. Stuff these into the holes on the front of the pinata so they resemble laces.
Step 10: Fill with candy and hang!
Photography by Paul Ferney for Oh Happy Day
Pinata Base Construction by Colleen Casper
Crafting by Naomi Satake