DIY Pinata Tutorial

DIY Pinata Tutorial

For Connor’s Panda Party I wanted to include one of the traditions we have back home in Ecuador, a pinata.  Simply put, a pinata is a papier-mache hollowed container that is filled with candy and small surprises. The pinata is a fun activity for children’s parties, as they get to take turns trying to brake it with a stick to get to the goodies.  Of course, being a DIY person, I didn’t even bother trying to find one to buy, instead I just made one.

The process of making a basic pinata is a simple, messy and lengthy.  There a lots of techniques and recipes for making papier-mache paste, but here I will just go over the way I got mine done.

{TOOLS AND MATERIALS}

- lots of newspaper, balloon, 1/4 cup multipurpose white glue, 2 cups water, 1 cup of flour, scissors, rope, crepe paper streamers and construction paper.

{HOW-TO}

First, tear your newspaper in approximately 1.5 in strips.  Just eye-ball it, it doesn’t need to be perfect, so don’t waste your time being precise.  Then, in a large bowl mix the water, the flour and the glue.  Try to get most of the flour lumps out, but, not a big deal if you don’t.  Inflate the balloon as big as you want the pinata to be.  One by one, take the newspaper strips, dip them in the paste and start covering the inflated balloon [remember to leave a small opening where you tied the balloon knot, at the top of the pinata. This opening will be used, later on, to insert the candy and goodies, and also, you will use it to thread the rope so that you can hang the pinata].  Once you finish covering the balloon with papier-mache, just wait for that first layer to dry.  I left my alone for 24hours.

Once the first layer of papier-mache is dry, apply another layer, play the waiting game again, and apply another layer.  I think 2 to 3 layers is plenty, if you do more than that, the kids will have to eat lots of spinach a-la-Popeye to be able to break it.

Once all the layers have fully dried, take a pin, poke your balloon and just get rid of it. Now it is time to decorate.  Take the crepe paper streamers neatly fold and stack together a few layers, and then cut a fringe, leaving about an inch.

Glue the crepe paper fringes to the pinata.

Now, from black construction paper, cut out ears, eyes and a nose.  I don’t have a template for these since I just did it freehand and eyeballing it.  Basically, you will be cutting half circles for the ears (can use a plate to trace it), ovals for the nose, etc.  I used a glue gun to attach them to the pinata and kept adding details (cheeks, mouth, etc).

Now, all that is left to do is fill the Panda pinata with candy and goodies (stickers, small toys, etc).  Poke a couple of holes to the sides of the opening you left in the beginning, thread some rope/twine to hang, and you are ready to let the kids go at it with a stick, destroying in a few minutes all your hard work…still, all the fun they will have: priceless.

Check out my other Panda Party ideas:

• Panda applique 
• D.I.Y Panda Party Favour Bag
• Panda Party Hat Tutorial
• Panda Birthday Party

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