Piñata’s are a fun craft to undertake and can save you a tremendous amount of money!
We started a couple of years ago making piñata’s for our kids birthday parties and now have a bit of reputation with our group of friends for making great piñatas.
In this post I will discuss how to make a skull piñata which would be perfect for a pirate birthday party or a Halloween party.
What you will need:
- Large Paint Brush or Foam Brush
- Masking Tape
- Punch Balloon
- Newspaper (Cut into 1” strips)
- 1-2 cups flour
- 5-10 cups water
- Medium Pain
- Scissors
- Black Paper
- Large Cardboard box
- 10 yards of yarn (any color)
- White crepe paper
- Plastic Container with lid ( large enough to hold 6 cups of water )
- White printer paper (cut into 1” strips)
Steps:
1. Blow up large balloon to skull size desired. Set aside.
2. Place 4 cups of water to boil at medium heat
3. Once water is at a rolling boil pour cold flour into boiling water, boil about 1 minute stirring constantly and then remove from heat. Let cool about 5 minutes.
4. Begin brushing a thin layer of paste about 3” wide and about 10” long
5. Apply newspaper strips over the layer of paste. The newspaper should stick to the layer. Brush on another thin layer on top of the newspaper.
6. Continue until the entire balloon is covered with newspaper. Let dry for at least 6 hours.
7. While balloon is drying cut a jawbone shape from the cardboard. Make sure the jawbone is long enough to wrap around the bottom of the balloon to form a skull jaw and nose piece.
8. Once balloon is dry. Take yarn and wrap around the balloon creating a reinforced layer of yard. The yarn should create a loop at the top of the balloon “skull” for tying the rope to the piñata.
9. Repeat step 5 and 6 until entire balloon skull is covered in a second layer. Let dry at least 6 hours.
10. Once the balloon is dry, use the masking tape to attach the jawbone to the bottom of the skull.
11. Repeat step 5 and 6, covering the entire piñata including the jawbone in another layer of paste and white printer paper. This helps cover the newspaper print for the next layer. Dry at least 6 hours.
12. Using white crepe paper cover the entire piñata in overlapping layers of paper to create the fancy outer layer.
13. Cut out eyes, nose and mouth from the black paper and use left over past to attach to the piñata.
14. Use left over paste and crepe paper to wrap around a broom stick for the party goers to beat the skull senseless!
15. Cut a small hole in the top back of the skull to put candy in. The balloon will pop but the skull should maintain it’s shape.
Tips:
Be sure to allow plenty of time for drying between steps. Humid climates require more time. If you do not allow proper dry times then the piñata will be weak and break very easy.
You can also read this article at eHow.com using the following link.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5830808_make-skull-pi_ata.html
- Spark Dad
