Butterfly Pinata Tutorial

Lu really wanted a butterfly piñata for her birthday, and she wanted to make it together.  She wanted a pull version, rather than one which you destroy with a bat.

We put this piñata together with a few simple things from around the house.

Keep reading for the complete tutorial.

Here's what you'll need: glue, a cylinder container, construction paper, bendable wire, cardboard for the wings, crepe paper streamers, and some string or ribbon.  You can also embellish your butterfly with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and glitter.

We used a Quaker Oats oatmeal container for the body.  I always save these containers, since they always seem to come in handy for craft projects.  They make great towers, etc. I held it up to a card board and drew a wing.  I cut it out and used it as a template to make the other wing.  (You could of course make this all out of one piece of cardboard, but the box I had wasn't large enough to make one continuous piece. If you use two pieces like I did, make sure that you have an overlapping section for the body.)

We wadded up little pieces of crepe paper (you could also use tissue paper) and glued it to the cardboard wings

Both kids really enjoyed this, although my littlest one needed a bit of help.

Here are our two overlapping finished wings.

Now I cut a circle in the lid of the oatmeal container.  I also attached a piece of ribbon to the center of the circle.  When the kids pull this, all of the contents of the piñata will fall out.

I covered the cylinder with construction paper.

Then I made two holes that went through both pieces of the cardboard.

I made holes in the same place on the cylinder, and rand some thin pieces of wire through the canister and then back through the holes on the wing body.

 Wrap the wire around itself to secure the wings to the canister.

I also added antennae to bottom of the canister (top of the butterfly) using a pipe cleaner.

And added a hole that went through both the cardboard back and the rim of the canister.  This ribbon is what will attach the cardboard to the tree.

I glued on some googly eyes, and then added crepe paper all around the bottom of the butterfly.  The crepe paper won't open up the butterfly and release the goodies.  Only the string attached to the "trap door" will. 

I added crepe paper streamers all around the rim with tape, until the butterfly tail was finished, and added a few more pieces of ribbon which wouldn't open the pinata when it was pulled. 

Tada!  Doesn't it look great!  The girls were so proud of their piñata, and the kids seemed to enjoy pulling the streamers at the party (and of course collecting all the goodies that fell out!)