I can’t say that the piñata is already a huge success in our country, but it is taking confident steps towards popularity :-). I think the most difficult question for our holiday lovers is where to hang it. Of course, this fun from Mexico is more suitable for outdoor events, and a tree branch is used as a support, but it can also be hung indoors with a high ceiling.
What can you make a piñata from?
Before choosing the material for making a piñata, you need to decide on the shape and design. If you want to make a ball-shaped pinata (for example, sun, smiley face, orange, octopus), then you will need to use the papier-mâché technique, and the base will be a large balloon.
A DIY piñata at home can also be made from cardboard or old boxes. This material is perfect if you want to make a pinata of a more complex shape - an animal or a cartoon character.
General technology for creating crafts
When planning a themed holiday, you can choose a Mexican style and make wide-brimmed sombreros from paper.
Cacti, photographs of llamas and alpacas are used to decorate the festive location; delicious and simple treats from traditional cuisine can be served as treats.
But the greatest sensation at such a celebration will be made by a thematic and voluminous piñata made using the papier-mâché technique.
To do this, use a base of suitable shape, which is smeared with rich cream and gradually pasted over with small pieces of newspaper or loose paper.
After drying the next layer, the next one is applied and this process is repeated until the layers become strong enough.
After preparing the base, it is carefully cut into two identical halves and the frame product is removed, and a sweet treat is placed inside.
The seams should be carefully aligned; they can be sealed with pieces of paper or masking tape, maintaining the shape of the craft.
The final stage is decorating the craft; for this you can use all kinds of decorations that help give the product an original and most unique appearance.
Design selection
A beautiful craft will turn out if you choose the right project, manufacturing materials and thematic, accent decor.
A piñata for children's parties is distinguished by a bright and original design that repeats the shape of familiar objects and objects that can be of different sizes.
You can truly transform a children's party with products in the shape of a large candy, a huge heart or a certain number.
Most often, themed crafts are made that suit the taste of the birthday person or hero of the occasion and are decorated in the appropriate style.
Suitable shape
A piñata is a good surprise and great entertainment for everyone present, but such a product is not cheap to order.
That is why parents strive to make crafts on their own, and for this they will need not only paper and glue, but also choose an interesting and unusual shape.
Considering that to implement the papier-mâché technique you will need a base for pasting, it is best to use an oval or round shape.
In this case, an inflated balloon is used as the finished base, and after cutting the top layer it is easy to remove it from the product.
What to fill with
To fill the interior of the craft, you can choose various small elements that will please the guests and the hero of the occasion. These can be small sweet treats, wrapped candies or small toys and pleasant surprises, confetti and notes with wishes.
It is better not to use heavy sweets and multi-colored dragees; if the former can injure those present, then the latter is very unhygienic to collect from the floor and then eat.
How to make a balloon piñata base
You can make an excellent DIY piñata from a balloon. In your home walls you will definitely find other necessary materials for manufacturing:
- old newspapers
- PVA paper glue
- scotch
- wire
First of all, you need to choose a balloon; it must be large enough. Then inflate it to its maximum size.
Old newspapers need to be cut into strips approximately 5 centimeters thick. These strips need to be thoroughly soaked in glue and glued over the entire surface of the ball in several layers.
During the process, be sure to leave room for the hole. The area where the tail of the ball is located is perfect.
After all the strips are pasted, you need to leave the ball to dry until the newspapers harden. This may take time; you can leave the ball to dry overnight.
After the base of the piñata hardens, you will need to burst the ball and pull it out of the structure. Then you should fill the base with some content - candies, streamers, confetti, and so on.
The hole through which the piñata was filled must be tightly sealed with tape, leaving a small hole in order to make a wire hook from which you can hang the toy on a rope.
How and where is the best way to hang it?
Of course, outside is ideal. It would be good to choose a spreading tree under which grass grows. Sweets and toys will fall down, it’s a shame if all this joy ends up on a dusty road. However, you can lay out a beautiful blanket or bright film.
Rooms with high ceilings often have convenient hooks. We hung it in the music room of the kindergarten on a hook intended for insuring the Christmas tree :-). The toy itself should be at such a height that children can take turns reaching it with a stick.
If you really have nowhere to hang it, you can assign two adults to hold the toy on a string. Here's how it is in the video (lasts 6 minutes, all the children try to break one by one, you can immediately scroll closer to the end :-)):
How to make a piñata base from cardboard
You can make a piñata of absolutely any shape from cardboard or old boxes. To do this you will need:
- paper
- pen
- cardboard or boxes
- stationery knife
- scotch
- wire
You can make such a piñata with your own hands at home. The instructions are simple:
- select the shape you want to base the toy on and draw the outline on paper
- choose two equal-sized sheets of cardboard
- attach the paper shape to the cardboard and trace it with a pen
- cut two equal parts for the base
- make sides from cardboard that will hold the two parts of the base together
- secure all parts with tape
- cut a small hole
- fill the base with contents and seal the hole with tape
DIY festive piñata
I decided to share with you the technology for making a piñata with your own hands. A piñata will decorate any holiday and delight your children, and it can also become an original gift for someone.
For a simple piñata we will need:
- an inflated balloon;
- water;
- flour;
- paper or newspaper;
- decorations for piñata;
- filling (sweets, tinsel, confetti, small gifts, etc.).
It is best to use the paper for the piñata that is sold with the shoes. It is thin and without a pattern. But you can use any one you find. We cut the paper into strips of any length and a width of about 3 cm. The inflated ball must be tied with a long thread, so that later it will be convenient to dry the piñata by hanging it not with this thread.
Place the inflated ball on some base (jar or saucepan). Glue the first layer of paper onto the ball. We apply the strips crosswise, it’s more convenient. We do not seal the part with the tied end. Attention! We glue the first layer using plain water - we dip strips of paper in water and place them on the ball. If you make this layer with paste, it will stick to the ball.
Leave the layer to dry completely. Don't be alarmed if the dry paper is uneven.
We will glue all other layers of the piñata using paste. There are many recipes for the latter, I used my grandmother’s recipe: mix 1/4 cup of wheat flour with 1 water. Meanwhile, pour 5 glasses of water into a saucepan and put it on the fire to boil. When the flour is well mixed with water, pour this flour mixture into a saucepan with water and cook over low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. The finished paste should be cooled completely.
We dip the strips of paper into the paste and glue them in the same way as the layer with water. We also do not seal the part with the tip of the ball. A total of 4-5 layers with paste are needed. Each layer must dry well. If the paper is thin, you can apply 2 layers at once. Over time, the paste loses its adhesive properties; it lasts for a maximum of 2 days. So it’s better to prepare a new batch of paste after 2 days.
When our piñata is dry, cut off the tip of the ball, letting out the air, and take out the ball.
You can leave the piñata as is, or you can decorate its bottom. For this, I bought ribbons that are used to tie bouquets in flower shops. Several ribbons need to be folded together and their ends secured with tape, forming a tube. Make a hole in the bottom of the piñata with an awl or thin scissors and insert ribbons into it. We secure the hole with small squares of paper. The paper can be smeared with the remaining paste or just PVA glue.
Through the top hole, where the tip of the ball used to stick out, we pour the filling into the piñata.
For us these are gold chocolate coins. The piñata was made for my daughter Ulyana’s birthday, so the treats were the same, so that there would be no offense among the invited children. And also there is no tinsel and confetti, because... the children's center asked not to litter too much. You can also put small gifts inside the piñata - hairpins, bracelets, stickers, cars, notes with wishes, etc. After the filling is filled in, we make holes in the walls of the piñata and thread the ribbon through them several times for strength . The piñata will hang on this ribbon. Next, we seal the tapes and holes with squares of paper coated with PVA glue.
Then comes the most creative part of the job - decorating the piñata. For example, you can simply paint it with the main color and then glue images of the characters or paint it or write something. Because My daughter is a devoted fan of the movie “Frozen,” so the piñata had to be with the characters of this cartoon. We painted the piñata with acrylic paints (white mixed with blue).
After the paint had dried, images of Anna and Elsa cut out of paper napkins (using the “decoupage” method) were pasted onto the piñata on both sides.
The piñata is ready!
Usually a hanging piñata is broken with a stick. If you don’t have a suitable stick or bat at home, you can take a small, medium-thick stick from the forest or park. At home, you need to wash it, peel it from the bark and paint it or wrap it with leftover tape or colored paper using double-sided tape.
Children at the holiday usually very joyfully rush to collect the treats spilled out of the piñata.
And now some nuances! If you are making a piñata for a small child, then this piñata will not be very suitable for him. It is quite difficult to break; it sways in the air. In addition, wielding a stick can be dangerous for the child himself and for the children around him. This type of piñata is suitable for older children who have the strength to break the piñata on the fly. But for younger children it is better to make a piñata according to the second option:
So, after all the layers of the piñata have completely dried, we cut out a pocket in its bottom, as in the photo, and pour the filling inside through it.
Next, we make a hole in the wall of this pocket and insert ribbons into it, as in the first option.
Next, at the end of the ribbons (at the end that will be inside the piñata), using tape and paper, we form a ball like this, “bombOhu,” as my Ulyana says. Then we seal the cut lines of the pocket with pieces of paper and then proceed in the same way as in the first option. (color the piñata). The point of all this is that the child will pull the ribbons at the bottom of the piñata and rip out that cut-out flap thanks to the “bombOha”.
That's all! By the way, it’s nice to jump on an empty piñata and crush it later
The most popular shape of piñata
The most common shape of a piñata in Mexico is a kind of sun or star. This piñata has a round base made of a balloon.
To this base, in a chaotic manner, a kind of rays are attached, folded into cone-shaped sheets of cardboard. A piñata of this shape is not so easy to break, but it only adds interest to the competition.
How to fill a piñata
You can come up with a variety of fillings if you make your own piñata. Videos and photos will turn out to be very impressive if, at the moment when the piñata breaks, many bright objects fly out of it.
The most important thing is that the main content should be valuable for children or other party participants. These could be sweets, toys, small gifts. In order to add brightness to the moment, you can add confetti, sparkles, and streamers to the main content.
How to decorate a piñata
Most often, the piñata is decorated with corrugated paper in bright colors. It is cut into strips, circles or flowers and glued to the base with PVA glue or double-sided tape. Small parts are used because at the moment when the piñata breaks, nothing should prevent the contents from spilling out easily. Pieces of crumpled paper, thin strips of paper and confetti are also used as decoration.
Where to buy a ready-made piñata in Moscow?
A huge selection of piñatas in Moscow is presented in various online stores of goods for organizing holidays. The prices are quite reasonable - from 350 to 5,000 rubles, depending on the size and decor of the toy.
There are shapes that don't need to be broken. Here, for example, is this one. Diameter - 45 cm, thickness - 10 cm. Piñatas are sold in many stores, here are the best prices.
Toys are sold empty! In the description of each product you will find how many candies and confetti are recommended to be placed in each piñata. Fillers are usually sold in the same online stores. However, gifts can be selected individually for each holiday, this is even more interesting, you must agree!
If you can't make a piñata
If you can’t quickly make a piñata and time is very limited, try organizing an alternative game for the holiday. You will need a lot of balloons and darts. Fill some balloons with confetti and glitter and the other half with candy.
Attach the balls to a wall or other surface in a chaotic manner and invite your guests to hit the balls with darts. You can also hide notes with the names of gifts in the balloons, which will become prizes for the participants.
Making your own piñata is quite easy. The most important resource you will need is time. If you have more than one day to prepare a piñata, you can make a beautiful toy with a classic spherical shape.
If you only have a few hours, you can make a piñata in the shape of some cartoon character or animal. If you don’t have any time to make and guests are already on the doorstep, the idea of a game with balloons will come in handy. This game has a similar principle and meaning and is sure to please your guests.
Piñata: great party fun
Traditionally, the piñata is a large themed toy; it is made of fragile materials.
Such crafts with a specific theme are used to ensure that the holiday is enjoyed by all guests present and is remembered for a long time by the hero of the occasion.
Most often, a piñata is made for children's birthdays, and such a product has certain characteristics that distinguish it from the rest of the decor:
- the figure, voluminous and empty inside, has the shape of a favorite animal, fruit or object that the birthday boy likes most;
- A variety of fillings are placed inside the product; it is used as a prize for the birthday boy or guests present;
- the outer walls of the craft are decorated with a malleable and not particularly durable material with additional decor in a certain style;
- According to an ancient tradition, the birthday boy is trusted to be the first to hit the piñata, after which all the guests are involved in an interesting process.
The craft can be used in the house or in open areas; it is hung from a tree branch or on a special mount.
The birthday boy and then the guests are blindfolded in turn and in this position they must hit the suspended toy with a bat or a plastic stick.
Everyone can take part in the fun, and the spoils that fall out (treats and piñata toys) can be given to the winner or divided among all participants in the interesting entertainment.
