DIY Mini Fruit Faux Piñata Garland

Thanks to FloraCraft® for sponsoring this post! It’s warming up out here in the desert, which means it’s time for me to start getting excited about cute, fruity crafts. In face, I started a new pinterest board just for collecting my favorite fruit-inspired projects – there’s some good stuff on there folks!

So, it’s probably no surprise that when I got this month’s FloraCraft® Make It Fun Crafts challenge – a box of foam balls in all kinds of sizes – I decided turn them into a cute fruit garland. And I’m so happy with the way it turned out!

I used crepe paper fringe to color and cover my little fruits, which gave them a fun piñata look – perfect for a Cinco de Mayo celebration or really any barbecue or Summer get together.

Want to make your own? Here’s how:

Supplies (The following links are affiliate links):

• FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Balls (I used 4″, 3″, 2″, and 1″ balls)
• FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® StyroGlue®
• FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Tools
• FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Connectors
• Crepe Paper Streamers (I used light pink, dark pink, yellow, light green, and dark green)
• Cardstock (black and white)
• String

Each little fruit is covered in crepe paper fringe. I found it was really easy to cut strips of fringe if I folded up a piece first, cut it in half lengthwise, and then snipped the fringe.

I used the same process to make the fringe for each fruit, but I shaped the foam differently for each one.

To make watermelon pieces, I started by cutting a 4″ ball into four wedges:

The foam tools kit includes a shaper that I used to gently file off any uneven pieces. When each wedge was all nice and smooth, I added a piece of pink crepe paper across the top of each wedge and then layered the fringe up each side. Then I flipped the wedge over and trimmed off the excess.

On the back of the wedge, I used strips of dark green and light green fringe to give it a striped look. Finally, I glued on a few black seeds I had cut from cardstock.

For the pineapple, I started with a 3″ ball and used the shaping tool to file down the sides to create a more cylindrical shape.

Next, I glued a few pieces of yellow crepe paper on each end of the pineapple shape to cover the ends.

After I wrapped yellow fringe all around the pineapple shape, it was time to add the green leafy top! I did this by cutting the bottom off a 1″ ball and used one of the cool foam connectors to join it with the yellow pineapple shape.

I cut leaves out of the light and dark green crepe paper and glued them around the small ball attached to the top.

To create the cute little strawberries, I started by giving a 2″ ball a bit of a point on one side.

Since the strawberries are smaller, I wanted smaller fringe, so I cut the crepe paper into thirds instead of halves. Then I got wrapping! Wrap up that sweet little berry!

Again, I cut leaves from green crepe paper and glued them to the top. I screwed a little foam eyelet into the top to make a stem and a place to connect it to the garland. I also added tiny white seeds cut from cardstock (I used my Silhouette to cut the machines, which make it super easy, but you could totally do them by hand or with a punch).

And that’s it! These little fruits are a lot of fun to make and pretty much the cutest things ever.

If you make your own little pinatas, I would love to see them! Tag me on instagram (@persialou and use the hashtag #persialou) or share to my facebook page. 🙂

Happy Making!

Looking for more fruity creative inspiration? Check out these projects:

Mini Crochet Pineapple Accessories

Watermelon Washi Notecards

DIY Multi-Colored Pineapple Tee