Tool Box Pinata

For one of Oscar's tool party activities, I wanted to do a pinata of some sort. I thought it would be cool to make it where they had to disassemble something using tools to get to the prizes, and Jeremy suggested unscrewing a toolbox.  With a few suggestions from my Dad, this is what I came up with. So I started with a cardboard box and hot glued an extra hinged panel onto the bottom. I added a cardboard handle through the top slit in the box and fastened it securely on the inside. The whole thing got mod podged (or more likely watered down elmer's glued because it's cheaper...) with red crepe streamers. The cardboard handle was wrapped in black ribbon and some hot glue was used around the base of the handles and painted silver. 

Something I learned from watching my parents make things is that hot glue is not only for gluing things to other things. You can also build things with it (like miniature trees). So I used hot glue on cardboard scraps to add dimension to latches, hinges, and a lock (I took these pictures 1/2 a year later, so the lock got ripped off and I just painted a new one on). They all got painted silver with black details and glued on.

Here is a picture of the bottom of the pinata. The space on the right side is where the cardboard flap was hot glued to the bottom of the box.

And on the bottom the flap had screws around the door, two of which held it closed.

These two screws were the ones that held it closed.

 Once all the screws were out, the door opened like so. 

And this is a closer look at how it worked. The screws that didn't hold the door closed went right through the flap and fit where the notches are. The Screws the held the door closed fastened into nuts that were hot glued to the box. I started out with just one nut, but the prizes weighed enough that I had to add that second one on top. I think in the long run it added to the suspense and I wasn't as worried about the winning screw being found right away because there was still another one to draw out the fun.

Here is how the nut is hot glued on the inside of the box.

And how the winning screws meet up with their nuts.

And here we have some action shots. Since the boys got screwdrivers and tape measures in their tool belts, they had fun using their tape measures to measure the box and having their own screw drivers to use on the screws. 

Oscar's turn.

Aaron's turn.  I held the pinata still for them while they took a screw out and then after each screw I gave the box a good shake up and down so they could see if they got the right one.

When they got the last screw out I gave it a shake and everything poured out. (And kudos to Jeremy for getting this action shot - what are the chances?)

The blur of action as the boys dive for candy and toys.  Some of the things in the pinata (mostly from the dollar tree): mini composition notebooks, keychain lights, bunch balls, peanuts, cookies, pixie stix and other candy.