We are taking a slight break from the typical Valnetine’s DIYs and Super Bowl goodies that should be going up right about now to share with you a fun DIY I made for my birthday that was on Sunday. It’s still pink though so it might be able to pass for Valentine’s Day.
Actually, this DIY flamingo piñata might do pretty well at a Galentine’s party if I do say so myself. It’s pink, it’s full of candy, it’s a flamingo – perfect for any party really.
You might be wondering why I chose a flamingo piñata of all things. Well, to be perfectly honest, I’ve seemed to have collected or made a lot of flamingo themed things this past year. I guess when you’ve got a whole flock of flamignos around you you sort of become associated as the flamingo lady, a title I will gladly hold.
You also might be wondering why flamingos of all creatures. I’m not too sure tbh. Maybe it’s because they are pink or that they stand on one leg or that they have funny necks, who really knows – just call me crazy flamingo lady and leave it at that.
I knew I wanted to make a piñata for my birthday since I made one for Rose’s and made a cactus one, it was just a matter of what to make a piñata of. Looking back on the year flamingos seemed to come up more than once so it was a pretty easy decision from there. Now we’ve got a nice little flamingo added to our ever growing piñata collection.
Materials:
- Cardboard boxes – cereal boxes worked really well
- Cardboard paper towel rolls and/or toilet paper rolls
- Exacto knife
- Hot glue gun
- Streamers in pink, orange, and white
- Mod Podge
- Paint brush
- Scissors
- A helping hand
How to make the flamingo piñata:
- I apologize in advance for the pictures of this DIY – I needed both my hands to do most of the steps so it was a bit tricky photographing it as well, but I will do my best to describe the process. Start with drawing a flamingo body shape onto cardboard and cut out using an exacto knife. Trace this body onto another piece of cardboard and cut that out as well.
- Cut out a lot a lot of strips of cardboard about 2 inches across – these will be what connects the two layers of the flamingo body (and the rest of the flamingo later). I found the sides of cereal boxes were the perfect size.
- Cut out a head shape and then trace it onto another piece of cardboard and cut that out as well.
- Cut out two feet shapes
- Now it’s time to glue the two layers together. This is when a helping hand is needed. Take the two layers of the flamingo body and put hot glue on the sides of each of them then quickly place down one of the 2 inch across strips as far as it will go along the body. Do this across the top of the body and most of the bottom – but make sure to leave room for the legs.
- To make the legs I used 1 paper towel roll and 3 toilet paper rolls. Place the straight paper towel roll in between the two layers of the body and glue it down with hot glue. To make the bent leg place 1 toilet paper roll in between the two layers of the body and glue it there. Slightly bend another toilet roll and glue it to the first toilet paper roll. Add a third toilet paper roll to the bottom.
- For the neck of the bird glue 1 paper towel roll to the body.
- For the head, glue each of the two layers to the top of the paper towel roll. Then take another cereal box strip and glue it between the two head layers.
- Glue the feet to the bottom of the two legs.
- Now you should have a full flamingo body and can start adding the streamers. To do this start at the bottom of the flamingo (so the legs) and wrap the streamer around the area you are going to put it then cut it to that size.
- Add small cuts to one side of the streamer to create the fringe.
- Add glue to the top part of the streamer where you didn’t add the fringe. Then carefully glue it onto the bird
- Continue doing this all the way to the top.
- To do the back and top of the head (the cereal boxes) just cut small strips and layer them like you did for the body. Before you do the top of the head make sure to hot glue on a string so it can hang.
Now your flamingo is ready to mingle! 
Peace out 24 and hellooo 25! Now I’m taking this flamingo and adding it to my piñata collection. If you have any suggestions as to another piñata I should attempt – leave them below! Also, if you have any good names to give this pretty lady comment them below! Happy crafting!
Click here for some more piñata ideas! May I suggest a cactus?
Oh Cinco de Mayo, what a fun holiday. I remember the first time we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. We were abroad in London, and it was towards the end of our time there. The sun was peaking out from the clouds, and we were in good spirits and decided we wanted tacos. We had no clue it was even Cinco de Mayo. Now, let me just preface this by saying we did not cook a single thing up until this point. It had been a solid 4 months without cooking as the kitchens were deemed scary, and we thus avoided them at all costs (fyi we both were abroad in London at different locations, each with equally scary kitchens). What suddenly possessed us with the desire to finally cook? Who knows, but I speculate it was the taco fairy knocking on our stomachs telling us to celebrate Cinco de Mayo the one way we know how: to eat!
That is just what we did. We threw on our running shoes (first time we used those too; the gym was deemed scary too) and jogged to the closest grocery store. Yes, we jogged, we were that excited for tacos. We jogged our way to Sainsbury’s and rushed through the store looking for all the supplies we needed. We were going to make tacos and margaritas and thus needed all the typical fixings. The store had almost everything we needed for the tacos expect the key ingredient the ground beef. We had to jog/walk our way to a different store to pick it up. We were determined.
Once back at my dorm, we faced our fears and made our way into the kitchen. We had to “borrow” someone’s pans to cook the beef but we managed to cook everything and had quite the feast ahead of us. We poured ourselves some celebratory margaritas and dug in. It was definitely worth the scary kitchen and all that jogging. We feasted like kings. It was only after the fact that we realized it was Cinco de Mayo so we poured ourselves a second drink and broke out the popcorn for dessert. If only we had this
Phew what a day that was! We joke about it now but we always make sure to have something to celebrate with on Cinco de Mayo, if not to remember just how crazy we are sometimes. This year we are planning on sipping on some 
p.s. here is my ever growing collection of homemade pinatas. We named the cactus Señor and the ram is Lucinda – they are bffffs now (we forced them to be). Go check out this ram I made on my 
