How to make a papier mâché piggy bank
Save your 'Mummy, I'm bored' bacon with this piggy-bank craft activity. All you need is a balloon, card, paint, newspaper and glue...
This homemade piggy bank is simple to make with a balloon, newspaper and lashings of glue. It’s a lovely project for a school-age child – or a preschooler, with plenty of adult help.
And we’ve got a free downloadable template for all the fiddly little shapes, so all you need to do is print them out.
Best of all, this is a craft project that makes something your child will use time and time again, as they pop their pocket money into their pig and rattle it around to guess how much they’ve saved.
Here’s how to make our papier mâché piggy bank
You Will Need
- Balloon
- Downloadable template (see link in Step 1)
- Scissors
- PVA glue
- Card
- Sticky tape
- Old newspaper sheets
- Pink or red paint
- paintbrush
- Wiggly eyes (2), optional
- Black paint
Total time:
Plus drying and painting time
Step 1
Inflate your balloon and tie a knot in the end. This will be your pig’s body. Now download and print the template for the pig’s ears, snout, legs and tail. Cut out all the pieces and glue them onto your piece of card.
Step 2
Cut out the card-backed shapes for the legs, ears, snout and tail.
Step 3
Bend the leg and snout pieces into a tube shape and use sticky tape to hold the tubes in place. Unfurl the tail piece into a spiral. Then fix the legs, snout, tail and ears onto the balloon with sticky tape.
Step 4
Tear up your newspaper pages into 2cm to 3cm-wide strips. Dilute your glue: 1 part PVA to 2 parts water. Dip a strip of newspaper completely into your glue and smooth it onto the balloon. Repeat with another strip of newspaper until all of the surface of the pig shape is covered. Leave your piggy to dry overnight.
Step 5
When your pig is dry, paint it Then either glue on 2 wiggly eyes or paint the eyes on with black paint. Paint 2 black nostrils on the snout. Wait for the paint to dry.
Step 6
Brush your pig with more of PVA glue-and-water mix for a shiny finish. When that’s dry, use a pin to pop the balloon inside and then use your scissors to make a piggy-bank hole the size of a 5op piece in the top of your pig.
- Published with thanks to Galt Toys