urgent help needed - papier mache disaster!!!!

[honeychild]

I need help!! Last minute school art thingy has gone disastrously wrong. Am about to pack kids off to bed and take over myself.
Has anyone done the thing with covering a blown-up balloon in papier mache, then bursting the balloon? If so, please could you tell me how to do it? My dss tried, but the whole lot has slid off, and we have soggy newspaper and wallpaper paste all over the floor. Of course it has to go into school tomorrow morning. Sigh.

Sounds too wet. Did you mush up paper with the wallpaper paste? I always use PVA, it dries stronger - blow up your balloon, rip newspaper into strips, and glue on individually, covering and overlapping the whole balloon. Time is obvioulsy of the essence so don't use too much glue. You may be able to do two or three layers if you stay up til midnight. Dry with a hairdryer but don't electrocute yourself!

You have to let everything dry before you pop the balloon. Let it dry overnight & then pop

Will check to see if we have any pva (suspect not, damn) - do you mix it with water or just smear it on? Sounds like I'm in for a late night one way or another...
At the moment have a bucket of wallpaper paste and a pile of newspapers ready for action (in addition to the soggy mess, which I'll chuck out). Glamorous, this mothering, innit?

I use it neat. If you haven't got any then you'll have to use the paste - but sort of squeeze the excess off the strips before you apply them to the balloon. I speak as someone who last year was up 'til about 2am finishing off a Cat in the Hat hat for World Book Day. Have fun!

Thank you - you may have saved a very fraught situation! You are clearly a superior artistic being and I am in awe. Just found tiny tube of PVA, so will start off with that. Will try downing large glass of red wine first - will at least make the whole thing more amusing.

I've always used flour and water glue and paint it on with paintbrush - but it does take ages to dry and generally needs extra layers after the first lot has dried to be at all strong.

Ha at superior artistic being. The hat was beautiful, I must admit, but when I placed it proudly on ds1's head the following morning, despite having measured carefully, it slipped down over his eyes Much frantic dashing round for bits of foam to pad it out ensued. Wine always a good idea, imho.

I make the paste using flour and water. It dries absolutely solid, much better.

Papier mache football pinata...I kneel at the altar of 006s clearly superior artistic talents.

hexagons and pentagons, eh? I think you may win the title of superior artistic being, after all (sorry, marthamoo! )

Better get on with it, then. Thank you all very very much - think of me when you're going to bed, staggering around drunk with paste in my hair, blowdrying the bloody balloon instead of my hair. Hurrah!!!!!!!!

if you've got an airing cupboard, put it in there it will be dry by morning...

cheat - newspaper stuck together with loads and loads of that paper tape you can get.

micropore tape?

Quick update. First layer now on, drying out. BTW, 006, where do you get children who are grateful and non-judgemental? Can you get them on-line? (tried the classifieds section but couldn't find any...)

Was the mission a success then, honeychild? Are children dispatched to school clutching beautifully crafted balloon shaped papier mache creations? Are they suitably grateful and appreciative? Did you ever get to bed?

I can proudly report success and can honestly say I couldn't have done it without you wonderful people. Two perfect balloon-shaped creations (a little flimsy, perhaps, but let's not be fussy).
I take back everything I said about ungrateful children, too - ds so grateful he brought me tea in bed - bless him (I needed it - finally to bed after midnight, not helped by incontinent puppy pooing everywhere and trying to eat soggy newspaper...)
Incidentally, creations to be stuffed and turned into the heads of George Bush and John Prescott for school fair - you have to guess what's inside. Any mumsnetters clever enough to guess the answer? (and no, it's not puppy poo inside GB, though it was tempting...)
Thanks again xxx