How to make a pumpkin pie piñata for Thanksgiving!

Every year for Thanksgiving we celebrate the holiday with my college roommate and her family; 4 adults lounging and chatting while 5 kiddos running around causing shenanigans…..and we wouldn’t have it any other way! 🙂 BUUUUT the only way to make it a *FULL blown* celebration is to add a piñata, amiright?????
Soooooo today I am giving you the FULL tutorial + DIY how-to on how to make this Pumpkin Pie pinata forThanksgiving!

ANNNND the best part of this piñata is that you can REUSE that Halloween candy that is in the cupboard from a few weeks ago (and the kids will neverrrrrrr know…..ok, maybe the Halloween wrappers will give it away, but it’s an easy use for the leftovers so that you don’t have to buy loads more)! 🙂 

There is also an optional pie tin that you can make quickly (and easily) to display the pie piñata in if you wanted to use it as a centerpiece for dinnertime. It’s an *AWESOME* conversation pie, right??? Then, throw it up on the string and whack away at it after the turkey has settled! 🙂

Supplies:

Cardboard
Tape for taping structure together
Elmers glue
Hot glue + glue gun
Tissue paper (in kraft brown and optional orange)
Orange paper (if not using tissue paper)
Kraft brown paper (I used wrapping paper for this)
1 can of spray foam
Wax or parchment paper
Orange paint

Optional pie pan supplies:
Cardboard
Paper
paint to match paper color

PROJECT LENGTH : 3 hours of making (with additional time to let spray foam dry)

Directions:

1. Cut Cardboard
Use a large bowl to trace around the pie circle shape. Cut from cardboard: 2 large circles, 3.5” wide strips (enough to go around pie and pie piece). Then cut a pie triangle shape into ONE of the pie circles. Trace the pie slice to another pice of cardboard to match; this will become the pie slice pinata.

2. Tape shapes together:
With masking tape (or packing tape if you want it stronger) start to assemble the pie and pie piece. Start by taping the sides around the edges of the large pie with front (side with slice cut out) + sides, then tape on the back. Make sure to leave an opening for candy, toys or confetti! Do the same for the pie slice. 

Make sure to cut a small “door” in the side of the pie and slice to fill it with candy (perhaps the leftover Halloween candy that is still in the cupboard)?!??! 🙂 AND at this time I usually make 2 small holes with scissors or a whole punch so that I can get the string through to hang after decorating.

*note, on the front of the pie, I brought the sides of the pinata higher than the top, so that could help support the crust part when decorating. I also didn’t put the sides across the “cut out” piece in the pie whole. 

3. Start decorating:
Cut up your orange pie color paper into little 1×1 inch squares (approximately). Then start to mosaic them in a circular pattern across the front of the pie adhering with glue. Work the orange pieces down into the cut out inside where the pie filling would be. Also cover the pie piece top and sides as well. 

Cut your tan or brown tissue into 4” strips. Fold the strips in 1/2 (making long 2” strips) and then fringe cut the tissue, leaving about 1/4 inch at the top uncut for glueing. Glue the fringe onto the sides as the crust. Do the same with the sides of the pie piece. 
Set aside and dry completely!

4. Make whipped topping:
Lay down a piece of parchment or wax paper in a well ventilated area (following instructions on back of spray foam can). Spray a few different sizes of whipped toppings (a smaller one for the pie piece and a larger one for the entire pie). Make the shapes but going in a circle and gradually bringing the foam higher on top to form a dollop or peak.

Set aside and let dry for at least 6 hours or until the foam is cured and not sticky anymore (more instructions on exact drying time may be on the back of the spray foam can)!
When the topping is dry, peel it off the paper and cut the bottom of the dollops flat with a knife so that they can sit easily on top of the pinatas. 

5. Make crust:
With the kraft paper, cut out long, 2 3/4” strips of paper. Lengthwise, fold down 1/4” along one side and then 1/2” down along teh other side; this gives the paper stability for folding, glueing and “pinching” the crust. With a hot glue gun, start pinching the crust as if you were really making a pie crust: place the paper between your thumb and pointer  finger and start to make ridges as if you were folding the crust (but not folding it completely). And then start glueing it to the top outside ridge to cover the taller, exposed, cardboard piece. Do this along the outside of the pie until it is covered. Now grab the top of the pie crust that you just formed and fold it over top towards the top orange pumpkin filling side of the pie. Hot glue down as many or as little places as it is needed to stay in tact while maintaining the 3-D effect! 🙂 Do the same with the pie slice. 

6. Finishing:
Hot glue the dried whipped topping to the pie piece and pie itself. Fill with candy and cut a long string to thread through hang from a stick! 🙂

7. Optional pie pan:
If you want to make the optional pie pan, cut out a circle with cardboard that is 2” bigger in circumference than the pie itself. Then cut out strips of paper that are taller (in width) than the pie sides. Our pie was about 3.5” tall, so the pan sides were 3.75” (or slighter larger) in width. Then zig zag fold the paper pieces back and forth make the ridges of a pan. Paint the bottom to match the sides and when that is dry, hot glue the zig zagged sides to the bottom of the pan! 🙂 
VOILA! 🙂 You have yourself a pie pan to remove the pie from and wack at during Thanksgiving hoopla!