How to Make Characters With a Pinata

Some of the materials needed to start making the pinata.

Breaking a pinata is a typical activity at many parties, and children often find it interesting when there are characters that they recognize on the pinata itself. This article will teach you how to make a SpongeBob SquarePants pinata--a recognizable and beloved character for many youths.

Things You'll Need

• Picture of SpongeBob (to use as a guide) Brown paper shopping bag with handles One bag of candy (any variety) Stapler Five sheets of yellow tissue paper Scissors Pack of construction paper with white, yellow, brown, black and red sheets Roll of scotch tape Box of crayons Soup can

Instructions

Bringing the SpongeBob SquarePants Pinata to Life

1. 

   Open the brown paper bag and turn it upright. Fill the brown paper bag with candy. Staple the bag closed at its top handles (which will be used to suspend the pinata itself). Cover each side of the bag with one sheet of yellow tissue cut to fit the bag's dimensions. Staple the yellow tissue to the bag, keeping the staples around the periphery near the bag's creases and the top of the bag. Take the last sheet and wrap it around what will be the front of the pinata to neatly cover any excess tissue. Trim any extra tissue from this top layer after it is fitted.

2. 

   Use a SpongeBob drawing as a guide to create his face and body. Start by placing the soup can on the white sheet of paper. Trace around the soup can. Slightly overlap the soup can to the right of the first tracing and then trace part of the soup can so there is one full circle and one slightly less-than-full circle. Draw eye pupils and eye lashes with three lashes at the top of each eye. Cut out the "eyes" as one piece, including the lashes. With crayon, color in the pupils as black and the irises in blue. Color the eyelashes with black crayon.

   Line up the eyes in the upper center of the bag, make tape loops and then put tape loops on back of the eyes to attach the eyes to the bag.

   Create SpongeBob's nose with yellow construction paper, cut it out and attach it to the face with tape loops in between his eyes, with part of nose crossing over the right eye.

   Create the mouth with black construction paper and the tongue with red construction paper and cut them both out. With tape loops attach the mouth to the red paper, then adhere the tongue to the lower left of the black paper mouth. Create two teeth with white construction paper, cut out and place in the upper right of SpongeBob's mouth, above his tongue. With tape loops attach the entire mouth assembly to the face.

   Finish off the face with crayon. Use red crayon for the upper left corner of SpongeBob's cheek and black crayon to extend his upper lip to his nose.

3. Design SpongeBob's "square pants" with a cut strip of brown construction paper. Draw black, dashed lines at the top of his pants in black crayon.

   Staple cut white strips of construction paper on top of the brown paper. Draw the shirt collar with black crayon.

   With red construction paper, draw SpongeBob's tie and cut it out. Tape onto his shirt in the middle of the shirt collar.

   Cut out and staple two brown squares to the bottom of the pants assembly to simulate SpongeBob's pant legs. Staple pants assembly to the lower half of the pinata.

4. 

   Cut out two thin yellow strips of paper. Then cut two shorter white strips and place them almost fully over the yellow strips so that only a small section of yellow is visible. Staple the yellow strips to the white strips. Draw a blue line and red line at the top of the white. These are SpongeBob's legs and socks.

   Draw black shoes on black construction paper and cut out. Staple them to the bottom of the leg/sock assembly. Staple one to the bottom of each of SpongeBob's pant legs.

   Draw two triangular shapes for SpongeBob's sleeves on white construction paper and cut out. Then draw arms on yellow construction paper and cut out. Staple the yellow construction paper arms to the bottom of the white construction paper sleeves. Staple arm/sleeve assemblies to either side of the bag.

   Take gray crayon and draw and color in gray circles on SpongeBob's body to simulate the pores on the drawing you're using as a model.

5. Suspend the pinata.