Truck Pinata Tutorial

For my son's birthday party coming up, we ventured to make a truck pinata, since he is SO in love with trucks!  I also didn't want to fork out $20+ to get one at the store.  I took the time to take pictures so I could post a tutorial, but I must warn you, only attempt this if you have at least 4-5 hours set aside for it.  It is very time consuming, but it was a fun project for my son to help me with.

1.  Gather up your materials.  

You will need:

Lots of cardboard (scraps, or shoe boxes work well)

Masking tape

Exacto knife

Ruler

Candy and toys to stuff it with

Elmer's glue

Tissue paper

colored paper

2. Start shaping the cab of the truck.  Make a rectangle with one side slanted.  Let your kids help you do some taping- they'll love it!

3.  Leave the bottom of the cab open so you can attach a wire for the hook to hang the pinata with.  I made the mistake of not thinking about the hook until I had the shape all taped up.  I had to take some of it apart to put the hook in and then tape it back together- not fun.

4. Tape the cab on top of a shoe box, or other box formed with scraps.  Make sure the cab and the box are the same width so that they fit together nicely.  Offset the cab to leave room for the hood of the truck.

5.  Tape another box to the back end for the bed of the truck.  Leave a space open somewhere in the body to stuff the candy in.

6.  This was the best part!  Stuff the candy and toys inside- and eat some of the candy while you're at it!  Then cover up the hole.

7. Cut 4 circles out of thick cardboard and stick them on for the wheels.  Make sure you use THICK cardboard.  I used thin cardboard and the wheels are now too flimsy to hold up the truck.

8.  Cut out shapes for the windows of the cab.  I used some silver wrapping paper, but you could use just about anything.  Tin foil might look nice.

9.  Tear the tissue paper into small pieces.  Crumple up the pieces and glue them everywhere, except the wheels and windows of the truck.

10.  Once you have the truck covered, cut out small paper circles for the headlights and glue them on.

11.  Cut out larger paper circles for the wheels and glue them on.

Now it is finally finished, so you and your kid go take a nap!