How To Make A Pull-String Pinata From A Regular Pinata - Ninja Turtle Style

My kids love having pinatas at their parties. I however, am not very fond of the idea of a bunch of preschoolers swinging a stick around inside my house. This is why I like to turn regular pinatas into pull-string pinatas. It is actually very easy, and can be done to any pinata.

Supplies

Pinata
Ribbon
Scissors
Tape 
Exacto Knife or Box Cutter
Stick Glue
Matching Tissue Paper (optional)

Method

1. Carefully remove anything that can be used to cover the ribbon locations. (If you don't have anything to remove move on to Step 2.)

2. Using a box cutter, carefully cut 3 sides of a rectangle in the bottom of the pinata, to create a little "door". You want to make the opening big enough for what you are filling your pinata with to come out, but you do not want it to be so large that the pressure of the filling pushes the door open.

3. Cut your ribbon in to pieces that are 2-3 feet in length. You want them long enough so that the kids will be able to reach them when the pinata is hung. Try to make the pieces similar length. You can make as many or as few ribbons as you'd like, I did 2 for each child attending the party.

4. Make a small slit in the center of the "door", and place one piece of the ribbon through the hole. Tie a knot in the ribbon, on the inside of the "door", and tape the ribbon down. (If you are filling your pinata through the "door", fill it now. If you are filling it through a premade hole in the top you can fill it whenever you like.)

5. Close the "door", and randomly tape the rest of the ribbons on and around the door. Use tiny pieces of tape; so that the ribbons will rip off easily, and so you can easily disguise which ribbon is the one that will open the pinata.

6. Cover the "door" opening and ribbon ends with pieces of matching tissue paper.
OR
If you removed anything in step 1 you can replace it now. I cut tiny slits in the brown piece I replaced, so that the ribbons would drop through. Then I glued the brown piece down around the edges.

Your pinata is now ready to P-A-R-T-Y!


To turn the turtle pinata into a Ninja Turtle, I first carefully removed the eyes. Then I glued a piece of crape paper around the turtles head and knotted it in the back. Next I glued the eyes back on over the crape paper, and attached a piece of black electrical tape for a mouth. 

This was a cheap and super simple solution to my problem of not finding a Ninja Turtle pinata on the market.

If you would like to see more from my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, check out these posts.
The Decorations {Part 1}
The Food {Part 2}
The Favors {Part 3}



 I'll Be Linking Up At Some Of These Parties!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party {Part 3 The Favors}

Last week I shared the decorations and food for my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party. Today I am going to show you what I did for the favors.

To make the bags for the favors I made freehand patterns of the head and eye wrap. Then I traced them on card stock, cut them out and glued them to the bags. I used the same eyes that I used on the balloons and lanterns seen here.  I drew on the mouths and wrote on the names of all the kids attending the party with a Sharpie.

 Each favor bag contained a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coloring book, a 24pk of crayons, some candy, a toy skateboard, an eye wrap, and some toxic ooze.

To make the Toxic Ooze I purchased tiny tubs of glitter putty from Party City. Then I printed out "Toxic Ooze" on Avery 8160 labels.

I wrapped one label around the side of the tub, and cut another label for the lid of the tub.

I made the eye wraps from T shirts, size XL. I purchased the T shirts at ACMoore. 

 I cut 3" strips off the T shirts, so you end up with a big band of fabric. Then I cut the band so you just have one really long piece of material.

Next I folded the piece of material in half longways, and then in half again. Now you should have 4 layers of fabric overlapping.  I cut a half circle from arrow to arrow on the picture above. That will give you 2 eye holes. Then all you have to do is tie it on.

Update If you would like to see more from my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, check out these posts.
The Decorations {Part 1}
The Food {Part 2}
How to Make a Pull-String Pinata
 I'll Be Linking Up At Some Of These Parties!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party {Part 2 The Food}

On Monday, I shared the decorations to my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party with you. Today I am going to talk about the food we had.

For lunch we had pizza, a Ninja Turtles favorite! Our sides were pasta salad, potato salad, veggies & dip, and chips & dip.

That is the boring stuff. Let's move on to what is really important....DESSERTS!!!

THE CAKE

For the cake I stacked three 10" round yellow cakes, and decorated them with the same butter cream icing I used on my Cookie Dough Cupcakes. You can find the recipe here. I used Wilton tip 2A to decorate the sides of the cake, and tip #5 for the top of the cake. The turtles are made from fondant, but I piped on their eyes on with the same icing I used for the cake.

THE CUPCAKES

The cupcakes were a chocolate cake with the same butter cream icing as the cake. I used an Ateco tip 869  to decorate them. The cupcake wrappers were colors of the Ninja Turtles' eye wraps.

THE BROWNIES

The "Sewer Lids" were brownies that I cut out with a circle cookie cutter, and drizzled with melted Wilton Light Candy Cocoa Melts*.

 THE DIRT 

The "Sewer Dirt" was a pudding dessert that my kids love, and it was also the first thing to get eaten.

THE JELLO

The "Toxic Ooze" was melon Jell-O.

THE COOKIES

For the cookie bar we had sugar cookies, butter cream icing, mini gummie bears, M&Ms, and a selection of sprinkles.

As usual there were plenty of leftovers, and everyone got to take home some goodies to enjoy the next day!


Update If you would like to see more from my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, check out these posts.
The Decorations {Part 1}
The Favors {Part 3} 
How to Make a Pull-String Pinata

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 I'll Be Linking Up At Some Of These Parties!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party {Part 1 The Decorations}

My kids tend to pick out difficult birthday themes. By difficult I mean every time they choose a birthday theme there are no "products" to be found. My daughter has picked Little Miss Sunshine (part 1 & part 2) and Lalaloopsy for her past two birthdays. My son picked Phineas and Ferb, and Dr. Seuss for his past two birthdays. For my son's parties was lucky enough to find some clearance Phineas and Ferb products, and some Dr. Seuss back-to-school products that help me. The worst part is that within a year the major party stores picked up the themes, and started making tons of party products for them. So watch out next year Ninja Turtles birthday products will be everywhere!!!

To make the balloons I tied crepe paper around the inflated balloons. Then I used stick glue to attach the eyes, and drew on mouths with a Sharpie. The eyes are made of white and black card stock.

I used "Ninja Turtle" Lanterns for table decorations and set them randomly around the house.

I made these the same way I made the balloons. I tied crepe paper around the lanterns. Then I used stick glue to attach the eyes.

I found the green lanterns in 3 packs at Party City. They are each 9.5" in diameter.

For the pinata I bought a turtle pinata from Party City. I removed the eyes, glued on a piece of crepe paper, and replaced the eyes. I also added a mouth made of black electrical tape.

In a future post I will give you detailed instructions on how I turned it into a pull-string pinata.

Update If you would like to see more from my son's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, check out these posts.
The Food {Part 2}
The Favors {Part 3} 
How to Make a Pull-String Pinata

 I'll Be Linking Up At Some Of These Parties!

These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.