Nicolas's Brobee Pinata

My kids love, I mean LOVE, Yo Gabba Gabba. It's like a religion in my house. My 1 year, laughs and dances to the music. Just the sound of the intro brings my kids running (or crawling) to the TV. It's sort of funny and scary that one show could be so powerful to someone so young.

So it was a no brainer when we decided to have a Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday party for my 1 year, Nicolas. However, we found ourselves at a lost for party supplies. So we had to get creative and make our own. We used all of the characters for our inspiration for colors; Red for Muno, Green for Brobee, Pink for Foofa, Blue for Toodee and Yellow for Plex. We purchased gift bags, balloons, paper streamers and plates in those colors. My husband took on the task of making a pinata.

Initially he intended on making a Plex pinata because we both thought that the shape would be easier to replicate with boxes and the use of one main color of yellow. As my husband began shaping the pinata, we both discovered that Plex was more complex than we had anticipated and realized that Brobe's shape lent itself better for a pinata.

What we used to make the Brobee Pinata:

One small rectangular boxes - the main body (ex, staple 10 reams of paper box for appx size)
2 to 3 poster boards - any heavy stock paper) for arms and head.

Construction paper in orange, white and black.

Tissue paper in two tones of green

Staples

Box sealing tape

White glue (such as Elmer's glue)

Newspaper

Wire coat hanger

We began with rectangular box for the body. Laying the box on one side (standing in it's tallest form) we sealed up with the box sealing tape. We cut an opening on the top - this is for the head.

We cut the poster board in 3 inch wide strips. We stapled the poster board to the box or body of the pinata, then making a curve over the box (like a rainbow) we attached the other end of the strip to the opposite side of the box. We did about 3 or 4 stripes one way then 2 to 3 the other way, crisscrossing the strips.

We cut 2 poster board pieces in 15 - 18 inch wide strip for the arms. Rolled them together to make a cylinder, stapled and/or used the tape to keep it's shape. At one end of the cylinder we made about 8 - two inch cuts all around, a straight cut to create "tabs". Then we folded the "tabs" in a 90 degree angle. The tabs are used to attach the arms to the body, we found tape to be the best adhesive.

Once the basic shape of Brobee was done then we began to glue newspaper that would serve as our base for the color tissue paper. We cut the newspaper in pieces that best fit our shape. Since the newspaper would not be visible no special cut was required.

Once the entire pinata was covered with at least 1 1/2 to 2 layers of newspaper we began to add the colored tissue. We first started by cutting stripes 6 inches wide. We then folded the stripe to 3 inches wide, with the fold away from us. We began making 1 inch cuts 1 inch apart all along the length of the strip. We did this alternating the colors, light green to dark green.

Beginning at the bottom we began to glue each strip at the fold all around the body first. We glue about 4 strips for one color before changing to the next until we reached the head. We did the same thing for the arms until the entire shape is covered in tissue paper.

Using orange construction paper we shaped cones and stapled them to keep their shape. We glued them to the top of Brobee's head.

Using the black and orange and white construction paper we cut out the shape for the eyes, mouth and eyebrow.

For the legs we crumpled newspaper in an oval shape and used the box sealing tape loosely around it to keep it's shape and then attach it to the body. We then covered it with the dark green tissue to match the body with glue.

We cut a wire coat hanger in a long piece. We inserted one end of the coat hanger into the body (Not the head) and made a loop on the outside to be used for the rope to hang from.

This process took several days because we work full time, but it could be done in a day or two with enough time.