Turning Packaging into a Party

With COVID dragging on, birthdays are a bit different, without restaurant gatherings or other public activities, so I was seeking a way to make make my mom's celebration a little more festive. Fortunately, I've been doing enough online thrifting through COVID that I have tons of cardboard and pretty tissue lying around from my deliveries. (Thanks, thredUP!)

With the cardboard and tissue, I decided my mom's gifts should all be "wrapped" in a piñata, shaped like a decadent birthday cake, of course. 

What you will need: 

• cardboard
• tissue paper
• box cutter and/or good scissors
• strong tape - I like gaffer's, but shipping tape would also work
• hot glue gun (optional)
• Elmer's/craft glue
• embellishments
• a ribbon or strong string
  

Here's how I did it:

1) Lay out the cardboard flat, and cut out the bottom of the cake. I used a round platter to trace around.

2) My circle had some of the box folds in it, so I hot glued on some strips of cardboard to add stability.

3) Attach the sides of the cake to the bottom, using a sturdy tape. It's just one long strip of cardboard, as wide as how tall you want the first layer of cake to be, and as long as the circumference of your base. Then add a top to your first layer. You will use the same platter to trace the outside as you used for the base, and cut a second circle in the middle to resemble a donut. This will allow your gift and candy chamber to connect between bottom and top layers of the cake.

4) Get a helper for the second layer of the cake. I highly recommend a tabby cat. He will inspect your measurements for cutting out the top for the top layer of cake.

5) Attach the sides of the top layer of cake to the bottom layer, using a sturdy tape. Same as with step 3, it's just a long strip of cardboard, as wide as how tall you want the layer of cake to be, and as long as the circumference of the opening on the first layer. Next, secure the top. When you are cutting to hole out of the middle, leave a few inches uncut. The inner circle of cardboard becomes the "lid" of the piñata, allowing you to open to fill the piñata and then close.

Note how the hole in the top of the first layer creates an open chamber between the two layers.

6) Now we are ready to decorate the cardboard structure. thredUP uses this festive teal polka dot tissue in each of their packages - fun! I'm cutting it into log strips, about 2-3" wide, which I'll wrap in layers around the cardboard. I'm cutting fringe about halfway up for that piñata fringed/textured look.

7) Glue with your craft glue, starting at the bottom, and working your way up. No hot glue for this step! The tissue is too thin, and you'll burn yourself.

8) Embellish: you'll see some details in the final picture: I added strips of ribbon on each layer of cake, cut from a foil liner from a floral arrangement. And I cut "candles" out of some multicolored striped paper wrappers.

9) Add a loop of ribbon to the inside of the top layer of the cake. This step I didn't do perfectly. I secured it with hot glue, which didn't with standing the hitting of the piñata (see the video below!). Next time, I will be securing with a stapler. This ribbon is to hang your piñata from.

10) Fill your piñata with small gifts and candies.

11) Secure the lid with a few strips of tape. The hanging ribbon should be coming out from either side of the lid.

12) Your birthday cake piñata is now finished and ready for the party!

Here are the final results. As noted above, the hot glued ribbon was not enough to withstand mom beating the piñata. However, fun was had by all, and the weak ribbon made mom look like she has quite the baseball arm!

Upcycled packaging? Free. Having to beat up a birthday cake to get to your presents? Priceless.

Happy Birthday, Mom!