Piñatas are a fantastic way to cultivate community and imagination, not to mention a great excuse to indulge your sweet tooth! For your next celebration, try making your own piñata at home. Watch the video or read below for a step-by-step guide on how to create a piñata:
Step One: Gather Materials
You’ll need to gather the following materials before you start making your piñata.
- A balloon
- Scrap paper for paper mâché
- 250g flour (one coffee mug full)
- 1 litre hot water (four coffee mugs full)
- String, twine, or old cables to hang the piñata
- Paint, markers, streamers, or anything else colourful to decorate
- Candy to stuff your piñata with
Step Two: Make The Glue
Pour your flour into a large bowl and gradually add the hot water, stirring constantly until all the lumps are gone. Let it cool.
Step Three: Prepare The Balloon
Blow up your balloon to the size you want your pinata to be. Tie it and draw a small circle around the tied end of the balloon.
Then place the balloon on top of a large pot or bowl — this will make it easier to reach when you start the paper mâché.
Step Four: Start Paper Mâché
Cut or rip your paper into pieces about half a page in size. Coat both sides of each piece of paper with the glue mixture and stick them onto the balloon.
Don’t forget to make sure the corners of each piece are covered with glue! Cover the entire balloon (except for the circle you drew earlier) with overlapping pieces of glued paper.
Step Five: Add Layers
Once the balloon is covered with one layer of paper, let it dry. Then wrap four pieces of string or twine around the balloon from the bottom to the top and make a knot — this will allow you to hang your piñata later.
Then follow the instructions in Step 4 to cover your piñata with a second layer of paper mâché. Let it dry again before adding the third and final layer.
Step Six: Decorate
To create added details like eyes, ears, and noses, you can scrunch or fold pieces of scrap paper or pieces of cardboard into the right shape and tape them together.
Attach these details to your pinata using paper mâché. Once you let the paper mâché dry, you can use markers or paint to add some colour!
Step Seven: Fill It Up
Carefully pop the balloon, remove it from the piñata, and put your sweets inside! If you want to, you can also add some coloured paper or confetti for fun. Then it’s time to hang your piñata and start the celebration!
Your DIY Piñata is now complete. Don’t forget to take a picture and share it on social media with #DAREtogether and tag DAREarts so we can see what you’ve created!
Looking for more creative activities? Visit our Learn From Home Centre.