Paper Maché

This project is something I haven't done in a very long time.

It was inspired by a costume request for a three-year-old's birthday party we attended last weekend. The invitation instructed the invitees to come dressed as a favorite superhero. Because Rebecca has very little knowledge of superheroes, we decided to dress her as someone she could relate to: Skippyjon Jones. If you're unfamiliar with Skippyjon, he is a character from a line of children's books that are wonderfully illustrated and quite hilarious. Skippyjon is a siamese cat who thinks he is a chihuahua and who often finds himself daydreaming himself into all sorts of adventures. During these adventures he wears a mask and cape and plays the role of the superhero. Perfect! A mask and cape are easy enough to pull together, but what about a giant pair of ears? That's where the paper maché comes in.

I mixed up a batch of paper maché from flour, water, and a pinch of salt, laid out a sheet to protect my recently cleaned tile floors, cut a bunch of strips of newspaper, and gathered a few recyclables (plus a couple of balloons) for the girls to paper maché. For the two kitty ears I cut the corners of a toothpaste box and plastered them with the machéd newspaper strips. Elliot mostly just played in the goo, while Rebecca set to covering her balloon with machéd strips. She didn't quite grasp the concept of wringing the newpaper strips out before applying them to her balloon, so she ended up with a thick coat of the paper maché that oozed and dripped all over the sheet. Both girls were barefoot (they probably should've been naked, or at least in bathing suits) and whenever they would step in globs of the flour-water mixture they would cry out. I suppose I should be thankful that they disliked the feeling of the paper-maché on their feet because the cleanup really wasn't too bad! Thankfully my husband was home and was able to get the bathwater started just before Rebecca broke down about all the drips she was covered in (she dislikes dripping water on herself, let alone a white, runny mess)!

After the paper maché dried we painted the ears to look like Skippyjon's ears and glued them to a headband. The top picture is the result. Rebecca was pretty proud of her costume and begged to keep her face paint on for the rest of the day.