piñatas

A few weeks ago I made some piñatas for a party around Cinco de Mayo.  They were actually a lot of fun to make.  A little bit of a time investment compared to most DIY projects, but after a few days I had some gorgeous piñatas.  Cost: $3 Time: 3 days Needed: 17" balloons ($1) newspaper (owned) flour (owned) scissors (owned) yarn or twine (owned) streamers ($2) bowl (owned) glue (owned) 1.  Blow up balloons.   2.  Make mixture.  Mix flour with enough water to make almost a pancake batter consistency.  You're going to need a lot of papier-mâché to coat a balloon, but it does not take much time to harden so make small batches at a time. 3.  Tear strips.  I made a variety of newspaper strips ranging 1-2 inches in width.  You'll need a lot of these for the multiple layers needed to coat the balloon(s). 4.  Coat balloons.  Lay your balloon in a bowl or sink to hold it steady and one side is accessible.  Dip a strip into the mixture and evenly spread it so the entire strip will adhere to the balloon.  Be sure to press the strip firmly against the balloon so it will dry smoothly.  Repeat and rotate the balloon until the it is covered.   5.  Dry overnight.  I would definitely let each layer dry for at least 12 hours.   6.  Repeat.  Two layers will definitely hold candy, but not too much.  If you're wanting to hold a whole large bag of candy, I would do 3 layers of papier-mâché. 7.  Cut it up.  Take a pen and draw a hatch door with three sides wide enough to stuff candy through it.  Draw two dots two inches below the sides of the hatch door for the yarn.  Cut carefully along the markings and open the hatch door to string the yarn through the two holes.  I doubled the yarn to reinforce it, but twine should be fine.  8.  Decorate.  I folded up streamers and cut slits along one side before gluing it along the balloon in straight lines.  Take care around the hatch not to glue the streamers over the door. 9.  Fill it up.  I split a large bag of candy between two piñatas and also put pieces of streamer inside. Just a word of warning before hanging one up and letting someone destroy it: you're going to be a little upset after investing time and effort into these just to watch them be demolished.  Try to enjoy them while you can :)