Mickey and Minnie Party: Candle Holders

As you know, I am busting my booty on planning my kids a fantastic Mickey and Minnie party for their second and third birthdays in May. However, I have champagne taste on a beer budget.

Here are the cutest candle holders ever that I wanted to buy, but couldn't see paying nearly $30 for two with shipping. They are from Hands 2 Design.

So I tried to make my own from Playdough. The turned out super cute (I know the photo quality sucks...camera phone, ok?).

However, they dried like this even though I followed instructions on how to dry playdough out without it cracking (totally B.S.)...

So I bought some awesome Crayola Model Magic Deluxe Variety Pack and tried again.

 I used cut toothpicks to hold the balls together and hot glued a hand-tied bow to an additional toothpick for Minnie's bow.

Playdough is much easier to work with and looked much better before it dried. The Model Magic was much harder to roll into smooth perfect balls and it got a bit smooshed when drying from its own weight. I think I like them....if I decide I don't like the new ones, I'll make playdough ones last minute and just use them wet! God knows Bubbi has eaten her share of playdough and lived to tell the tale!

Mickey and Minnie Party: Pinata

Call me cheap, but it makes me cringe paying $20 for something a bunch of kids are literally just going to beat the crap out of. Then you pay close to another $20 for candy to put in it. Forty dollars for a pinata? Now that just doesn't fit well in my newly instated birthday budget (hubby finally found out how much I spent on the kids last party and that was the end of that).

Having a pinata is almost as important as having a cake for me. No, I'm not Hispanic. BUT I grew up in San Diego, just a few minutes from Tijuana...so let's just say I may be in many aspects.

Ok, so I'm not going to break the budget on buying a pinata, but I'm going to have one. Not really something you find at Goodwill...kinda like a tampon, once its used its used!

Insert hours of online obsessing over the kids upcoming Mickey and Minne party and HOLY QUAC look what I found! No, I'm not smart enough to just google "how to make a pinata". I just stumbled on it.

http://atsecondstreet.blogspot.com/2010/04/minnie-party-how-tos-part-1.html

Her blog has an amazing step-by-step breakdown of how to make a Minnie pinata from a diaper box and crate paper....all stuff I had at home!

First thought: It is probably hard to make a pinata? Wait, I'm a college graduate and I'm going to go ahead and assume the standard pinata maker is a child laborer in Mexico. Let's give it a whirl. 

I didn't take pictures of my every step, but here are a few:

And here is the finished product:

The only part that took a while was scrunching the crate paper. The cutting was super easy thanks to a Goodwill find, Black & Decker SZ360 3.6-Volt Ni-Cad Cordless Power Scissors. I used a wire dry cleaning hanger to hang it instead of craft wire or whatever you are supposed to (think cheap)

I know, my guest bedroom is trashed. We plan on taking that panel down...I think. Judge away.

So one side has a bow, Minnie Mouse, and the other side doesn't (use your imagination), Mickey Mouse. Free-fifty!