Piranha Plant Centerpiece - Gamer Theme Party

Happy New Year everyone.  It's been a while since I posted any new projects, but I've have been busy for sure!  A friend asked if I could help create a centerpiece for her 6 year old son's gamer party.  She showed me a picture of a Piranha Plant from the Mario Bros. video games.  The project looked easy enough and after a few failed attempts this was my final product.  Cute; right?  Super easy to make, a little messy, but well worth the time/effort.  Her son loved them!  Even my 6 year old daughter (who is more princess) loved them!

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Inflate a balloon.
2. Create a flour & water paste (I used 1 cup flour to 1 1/2 cups of water -- you want it runny)
3. Cut strips of newspaper (5" x 3" strips work best -- too big and the strips do not round the edges of the balloon and too small and it will take forever to finish a balloon).
4. Proceed to cover the entire balloon with 3 layers of newspaper.   Make sure the layers are even and think so that the ball is sturdy.
5. Place the balloon on a red solo cup to dry (takes about 2 days to dry).  I made these 1 week in advance and there were no issues with mold.
6. Once the balls are dried you want to mark them with a sharpie and cut them open.
7. Pull out the balloon inside.
8. Paint the inside & out of the ball red.  I used red acrylic craft paint.  Let the red paint dry thoroughly before you proceed.
9. Paint the edges (lips) white. Again, I used white acrylic craft paint.
10.  I used a 1" circle cutter and white scrapbook grade paper to make the circles.  I tried to paint the circles, but they did not look very neat.  Just glue the circles on with a hot glue gun.
11. You need to cut out some teeth .. using the same white paper cut out some triangles for the teeth - just hot glued them to the inside of the mouth.
12. Now to make the stem -- I used a gift wrap roll tube for the stem.  Paint it with green acrylic paint.
13. Leaves ... I used a dark green scrapbook quality paper for the leaves.  I first made a template with cardboard, traced it with a pencil and cut out.  I also used a lighter green shade of acrylic craft paint to make the leaves look more real.
14. For the container - I used the ones from the garden center.  I painted them with a green spray paint before I used them.
15.  Assembly was easy: Hot glue the ball onto the stem; Hot glue on the leaves; Place the stem into the container and hot glue; Place something (like a rock or a balloon party weight) inside of the container so it does not tip over; fill with toilette paper; Cut green tissue paper into even squares and glue.

Done!

Hope you like this project!

Sandra