With the great summer weather it is the perfect time to have a great party outside, whether it be for a birthday or just fun. To make any party more fun, for both kids and adults, is by having a pinata. This summer, make your own pinata and get the kids involved for more fun. By making your own pinata, you will save money and have a great family activity.

Materials Needed:

• 14-inch balloon
• Cloth tape
• Scissors
• Newspaper, cut into 1-by-6-inch strips
• Wheat-paste powder
• Strong white paper (20-pound copy paper works well)
• Spray mount
• Compass
• Craft glue
• Tissue paper in several colors
• Utility knife
• Large needle or piece of wire
• Tissue-paper streamers
• Strong cord
• Candy, treats, and small prizes, for stuffing

Instructions:

1. Inflate the balloon, and coax it into a round shape by wrapping it with cloth tape. Set it aside.
2. Make paste: In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup wheat-paste powder with 4 1/2 cups water. Dip newspaper strips one at a time into the paste, and place them on the balloon, overlapping the strips slightly, until the balloon is completely covered. Let dry overnight. Repeat this process twice more for a total of three layers.
3. Our pinata design calls for six cones; to make them, cut six sheets of strong white paper into 7-inch squares. In a well-ventilated area, spray-mount different colors of tissue paper onto the squares. Place the point of a compass at the corner of one of the squares, and mark a 6 1/2-inch arc. Trim the paper around the edge of the arc. At 1/2-inch intervals, cut 1/2-inch-deep notches into the rounded edge. Roll the paper into a cone, and glue or tape the straight edges together where they meet. Cut 1/2 inch off the tip of the cone to create an opening for streamers. Fold the notches outward, and using craft glue, adhere the cone to the pinata. Repeat with the remaining cones, gluing the first two cones at opposite ends and spacing the remaining cones evenly around the sphere’s center perimeter.
4. Begin by cutting tissue paper into narrow strips about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. A rotary cutter and a self-healing mat will enable you to cut through several layers of tissue at one time. Fold each strip lengthwise, creating a 1 1/2-inch strip, and cut the strip down the center from the open side, up to within 1/2 inch of the folded edge. Each strip should yield four “fringes.” Starting at the bottom of the pinata, glue the strips, fringed edge up, in a tight circle. Glue a second row above the first one (the circle will be slightly larger), tucking the glued portions of the second row behind the fringe of the first. Work your way up the pinata, gluing rows of fringe in circles of increasing size. Glue a couple of rounds of tissue paper over the fringe at the top and bottom of the pinata.
5. Use a utility knife to cut a small trap door near the top. Make two vertical cuts 3 inches apart, and connect them with one horizontal cut at the top to create a flap; fold the flap back. Using a piece of wire or large needle with a length of strong cord attached, punch two holes at the top of the pinata, and pull the cord through the holes. Knot the cord above the pinata, leaving enough to use for hanging.
6. Twist 10 streamers together for each cone; apply a dab of craft glue to the twisted end, and tuck it into the small hole at the end of the cone. Repeat this for each of the cones. Fill the pinata with a selection of candy, treats, or prizes; push the flap back into place, and hang your pinata.

Easter is less than 2 weeks away. So I thought it was finally time to start thinking about decorating for Easter. I loved the simplicity of making this great hanging decoration. The best thing about it is that they can be hung anywhere both inside and outside.

Materials Needed:

• Pastel yellow, pastel pink and pastel lavender textured card stock
• Paper punch with round circle
• Jumbo hand punch with large bloom
• Decorative edged scissors
• String for hanging
• Craft glue

Instructions:

1. Decide how long your garland will be and punch out flowers and cut out eggs. Make sure you create each piece double so that both sides look decorative.
2. Apply glue on the backside of the first flower and sandwich the string with second flower.
3. Now repeat step 2 using 2 eggs instead.
4. Continue in this manner by alternating between flowers and eggs until you reach the length you want.
5. Punch out circles and adhere these to the flowers.
6. Cut out stripes using the decorative edged scissors and adhere these to the eggs. Punch out more circles and adhere these as decorative elements.

Valentine’s Day is less than a month away. I love Valentine’s Day and I think it is a lot because I am a hopeless romantic. So everything about this holiday is great. This year, I wanted to try something new and I love origami and wanted to see if there was a way to combine Valentine’s Day and origami. I was lucky to stumble upon a great tutorial that shows you how to make the origami hearts, like pictured. The tutorial makes it easy to understand what you have to do in each folding step. I went through just the step tutorial and was able to make these easily. The great thing about this tutorial is that there is a video that will walk you through the steps. These make both great decorations for Valentine’s Day and make unique cards.

Many people have old newspapers or clipping that they have wanted to keep as memories of things that have gone in the past. This was true for us just last month when my younger brother got married. We wanted to find a way to keep that clipping from the paper so that they would have it to add to their wedding album. We found this recipe for preserving old newspaper and paper clipping that works great.

Materials Needed:

• Old Newspaper or paper clipping
• Milk of Magnesia tablet
• 1 quart of Club Soda

Instructions:

1) Dissolve 1 milk of magnesia tablet in 1 quart of club soda.

2) Let stand overnight

3) Stir well and pour into a shallow pan

4) Lay newspaper clipping flat in pan and soak for 1 to 2 hours

5)Carefully remove and place on soft towel to dry

The clipping will remain preserved for several decades.
*Note: always test procedure on a test page first.

Every year, we have trash bags full of wrapping paper that normally would end up going into the trash can. That was the case up until last year when I got into trying to recycle as much stuff as I could. Wrapping paper is one of the easiest things to recycle because you can reuse it for so many things. Origami is something new and we tried it for a few birthdays this year with the used wrapping paper and it was fun. There are many different types of origami that you can sit and do with your family. It is a great way to reuse something.