There is an odd tradition in my husband’s family. (Or at least I think it is odd because I did not grow up doing it.) Anytime there is a special occasion where the entire family gets together, they bring out a pinata! Birthday parties, Christmas, Fourth of July…you name it, we have celebrated it with a pinata. Of course, the kids LOVE pinatas, so it is a fun tradition.
Pinatas are not hard to make. However, they are a craft that will take a couple of days from start to finish just because the glue has to have time to dry. I have made a few pinatas and want to share my “go-to” version of a basic pinata to make at home. You can tailor the concept and make any type of pinata you want. We used red, white and blue crepe paper to make our Patriotic Pinata.
Are you ready to get started on your Patriotic Pinata craft? The kids will love to help you. Please feel free to leave questions below in the comments section. Or, if you have an idea or suggestion, share it with us!
Materials Needed:
- Newspaper
- Scissors
- Pinata paste (use my homemade pinata paste recipe)
- Large (10 to 12 inch) Balloon
- Crepe paper streamers
- Craft Glue
- Lightweight candy, trinkets and toys to fill the finished pinata
How To Make a Pinata:
1. Cut newspaper into 1 to 2 inch wide strips.
2. Blow up a balloon and set it inside a large bowl. The bowl helps keep it in place while you work. It also helps minimize mess.
3. Dip newspaper strip into the pinata paste and use your fingers to “squegee” the excess glue off of the strip. Apply the glue-coated newspaper strip to the pinata. Repeat this process until the entire balloon is covered in a single layer of newspaper. *Leave a small area around the part of the balloon where you have tied it closed free from the newspaper/glue strips. Allow this to dry completely for at least 10 hours or overnight.
4. Once the first layer of newspaper is dry, you can repeat step 3 and add a second layer to your pinata. Allow the second layer to dry completely (10 hours to overnight).
5. Use a pin to pop the balloon and carefully remove it from the pinata. Don’t worry if your balloon has already deflated on its own. We don’t need its help anymore. Now it is time to cover the balloon in crepe paper! Grab a bottle of craft glue and your crepe paper. You can quickly cover the pinata by unrolling the crepe paper and gluing it around and around and around until it is covered. OR try the way I do it. It takes longer, but I like the way it looks when it is finished.
6. To cover the pinata, I take the roll of crepe paper and unroll it at least a foot long so I can work with it. I add a dot of glue on the pinata and stick the end of the crepe paper on there, then fold it a couple of inches, then add another dot of glue and stick the crepe paper on the pinata next to where I folded it, then let out a little crepe paper slack so I can fold it and glue it again to inch my way around the pinata. I continue this process going around and around the pinata until it is covered. To change colors, I simply tear off the crepe paper and glue the end of it to the pinata and start the fold and glue process with a new color.
Tip: I do not cover the bottom of the pinata using the fold and glue method. I simply cut strips of crepe paper about 2 feet long and glue them to the bottom so they can hang down.
THE FINAL STEPS: Once the glue is dry, you can finish the pinata by carefully using a knife to punch a hole on each side near the top of the pinata and threading a ribbon through the hole. Tie the ribbon at the top so you can hang the pinata. Fill the pinata with fun candy, trinkets and toys. Be careful not to overfill or the pinata will be too heavy.
Tip: Don’t put chocolate or candy that may melt inside the pinata. We have done that before and it can be messy.
Let me know if I need to clarify anything in the instructions or if you have any questions about how to make a pinata. Leave your questions in the comment section. I am happy to help you!
Tammy S says
This is beyond cool. My daughter would love to make this. Plus it perfect for a project to get her from getting bored this summer. Thanks for sharing.
courtney b says
I love it for 4th of july!
Jo-Ann Brightman says
This is a lovely tradition. Do you know how/why your husband’s family started it? It also is something wher you can get older kids to help.
Nicole says
I will have to ask my husband how they got started doing pinatas. I think I have asked before (a long time ago) and no one really knew when/why it started…it just did! My mother-in-law is the most amazing party planner though when it comes to family get togethers. So I am sure she is the driving factor behind it. She started the tradition with her own kids and it has continued on to the grandkids. If I find out something more, I will let you know.
Yes, the older kids can definitely help. Younger ones too. The only part kids would need the most help on (besides using the knife to make the incision for the ribbon) would be putting the crepe paper on. I was trying to think of a way that would be easy for them to do it by themselves. I haven’t tried it yet – but I thought having crepe paper pieces about an inch or 2 squares and letting kids glue them on one at a time to cover the pinata could work. I will have to try it that way and see how it looks.
Good luck if you decide to make a pinata! Let me know if I can give any more tips to help. 🙂
Robin O says
It didn’t occur to me to make a piñata for something other than Cinco de Mayo.
I love this idea. Maybe we could fill it with red, white, and blue candy too!
md kennedy says
So neat! Brings back great memories of elementary school when we did paper mache.
Betty Baez says
how neat i love it! perfect for next month!
EJ (Jane) says
Thanks for sharing. I had no idea making a piñata was so simple. I love the idea of making them with our own themes
Julie Wood says
That is absolutely a awesome 4th of July pinata! You did a great job in making this. It will look nice hanging and adds so much color to a 4th of July get together!
petra says
Looks like a fun summertime craft!
Robin Wilson says
I think this looks like a lot of fun ~ especially since the whole family can get involved. I would usually have everything on hand except the crepe paper. I wonder if you could use tissue paper in some way to cover it? I always seem to have that on-hand albeit wrinkled and torn. I will have to experiment with some ways to glue it down on some cardboard and see if I can make it work! Thanks for the diy
Denise Taylor-Dennis says
This looks like fun, I’ve never made my own pinata but I have purchased many for my daughter’s birthday parties.
Sarah L says
Yes, I think you can do it with the paper squares instead of wrapping so little ones can help make it.
Charlene S says
Thanks for sharing. These are so expensive in the store. I’m going to make this for my next party.
Michelle Svoboda says
Hello, I’m wondering if you have any suggestions. We are trying to make a pinata for the first time. Two days after the first layer went on it still seems a tiny bit damp (by the way we live in a tropical climate, but I didn’t think that would matter. they make these things all the time in Mexico), but maybe it’s just cold to the touch I’m not sure.
The bigger issue is that either the balloon is shrinking or we did something else wrong because the paper has bubbled up off the balloon about 2″ over a 1/4 – 1/3 of the balloon.
Do we need to start over? Can we just push it all back onto the balloon with the second layer? Remove the parts that aren’t sticking? Yikes, this seemed like it would be so easy! We squegeed it between our fingers so I thought we did it right, ugh!
Thanks for any input,
Michelle :0
Nicole says
Hi Michelle,
Sounds like you live in a humid climate and it’s taking your layers a long time to dry. I live in the desert, so stuff dries pretty fast here. If your newspaper layer is still holding the round shape (smooth and not dented or bumpy), it does not matter if the balloon has deflated or if the paper is not sticking to the balloon. BUT if the balloon has deflated and your newspaper layer is not holding the shape of the balloon, it will not look right even when it is dry. If that is the case, I would start over with a new balloon.
It does sound like you are doing this right – but the humidity is causing problems with the glue drying. I would suggest putting the pinata in front of a fan or something that can help the glue/newspaper strips to dry faster. That should probably help with any other problems you are having with the balloon deflating or coming apart from the newspaper.
The longer it takes to dry, the more chances it is not going to hold its shape because the balloons do tend to lose air after the first day, and that first layer of newspaper really needs to be dry to hold the shape of the balloon for the second layer of newspaper to go on.
I hope that helped – please let me know if I didn’t answer your question or if I need to explain something better. Good luck!
Jenette says
Birthday season is fast approaching in our house so this could save us some money. Thanks for the how-to I am pinning it!