Paper Mâché Cactus

I made these little potted cactus with over 20 4-6 yr. old children during our afternoon summer camp program.  I won't lie, the paper mâché part was mostly one on one.  Sometimes, I could do two kids at once.  But it really helped if you could hold the ballon while they apply the goopy newspaper. This made it time consuming.  

But worth it!  

I mean look how cute they are!!!

I use liquid starch for my adhesive.  I find it easiest and it dries hard.  

Water balloons are the perfect size for these.

After covering the balloon with newspaper, we covered it in green tissue paper.  Dark green covered the best, while the light green needed a lot more layers.

It also help if you could hold the balloon while the kids applied the tissue.  You didn't need to soak the tissue in starch.  If you just apply it to the balloon it will be fine.  Add starch on top, if needed, to smooth it down.

Let dry overnight, then poke toothpicks though.

We made a small tissue paper flower for the top.  

I also went and added a dab of glue around each toothpick to hold them in place.  They had a tendency to go right through and fall inside.

I took a lot of pictures, because they were just so adorable!