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Boo Your Neighbors Halloween Piñata from Recyclables

Boo Your Neighbors Halloween Piñata from Recyclables

fiI do love a fun bucket full of candy to “boo your neighbors.” But it’s even more fun to boo your neighbors with something creatively different like a mini Halloween Piñata. Creatively different does not equal hard to do or crazy expensive. In fact, these mini piñatas were made from recycled cracker boxes, tape and tissue paper–all extremely cheap. All in all, they are also probably only about a 10-15 minute project to make and you only need scissors for construction.

There’s a Boo Your Neighbors free printable circle later in the post to download and add to your piñata. All your neighbor will have to do is pull the circle and all the candy will come out the bottom.

You can add a little note to the inside of the box if you like to let them know what this “Booing” thing is if they don’t already know. For those of you that haven’t seen the idea of Boo your Neighbors, treats are dropped off at your neighbor or friend’s house and left on their doorstep anonymously, with encouragement to keep the “booing” going. It’s a great way to make someone’s day!

Boo Your Neighbors Mini Halloween Piñata Materials

As I said, really simple materials. I saved up cracker and granola bar boxes for a bit to make all my piñatas, and bought a multi-color pack of tissue paper and roll of black ribbon at the dollar store to prep for making six mini Halloween piñatas.

There’s a few different designs I’m including for these mini piñata–Frankenstein, Dracula, monsters, pumpkins and ghosts. Choose whichever makes you happiest!

Things you’ll need:

  • Cracker or granola box (small size is best)
  • Two sheets of tissue paper in desired color for desired design
  • 12 inches black 5/8-inch ribbon
  • Cardstock:
    • White and/or black cardstock
    • Purple cardstock for Dracula and Frankenstien
    • Green cardstock for pumpkin
    • Red cardstock for Dracula
    • Gold glitter cardstock for Dracula
  • Boo Your Neighbors free printable circle file (download it here)
  • Free files for pinata faces:
    • FREE boo your neighbor SVG file for cutting machines (download here)
    • FREE boo your neighbor pdf file to print and cut out (download here)
  • Curling ribbon
  • Candy
  • Clear tape

How to Make Boo Your Neighbors mini Halloween Piñatas

This looks like a lot of steps, but it’s all really really easy. My 12 year old made a mini Halloween piñata one on her own.

Step 1. Cut tissue paper. Lay two sheets tissue paper out on top of each other, then cut two inch strips out of the layered paper. Whether you use the short side of the paper or the long side depends on how big your cracker box is. After you finish with the strips, cut a fringe in to the still-layered strips at inch-wide intervals.

Step 2. Cover the top of the box. The part of the box that wasn’t opened during cracker eating is the part you need to cover up. Take a small piece of tissue paper in the same color as your fringe and tape it to the top to cover.

Step 3. Wrap the fringe around the box. Pick which side is going to be the back. Starting at the bottom (where the flaps are open), tape the fringe to the back then wrap the fringe around the box and tape back down again.

Wrap the box in layers of fringe until the whole box is covered.  How many strips of fringe you use will depend on how tightly you’re layering them and the size of your box.

Step 4. Add a handle. Tape the ribbon to either the top or the sides of the box. I tucked the ribbon under the fringe on this particular box.

Step 5. Add the face. Choose from one of the critters in the mini Halloween piñata file. You can either print it out onto white cardstock or use your Cricut machine to cut out the pieces for you. If you use your Cricut, you’ll do a little layering of the black pupils onto the white eyeball.

A glue stick is all it takes to get all the pieces to fit!

Step 6. Add the bottom flap and tag. To add the tag, punch a hole in one of the flaps at the open end. Thread through a piece of curling ribbon. After you print and punch out the free printable boo your neighbors circles, punch a hole in the circles and tie them to the end of the curling ribbon.

You can make the ribbon as long or short as you want, but we kept ours pretty close to the box.

Fill your box with candy!

To get the candy to stay in, merely closing the flaps is not going to do much good. Put a single lightly placed piece of tape on the bottom of the box. When some force is used to pull on the circle, the box should pop right open and the candy spill out.

Everyone has LOVED these boxes that got them. And they’re easy enough that the kids can help make them

Take your pick, then go boo your neighbors!

Paula Biggs

Owner at Frog Prince Paperie
Paula Biggs is a party planner, DIY crafter, and owner of Frog Prince Paperie, where you can find hundreds of party, craft and lifestyle ideas.

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[…] mas para os visitantes você pode deixar disponível essas mini pinhatas aqui que vimos no site frogprincepaperie. Super criativas, feitas com materiais recicláveis e de papelaria, elas ficam […]