Making a Christmas Pinata

This year the little man and me set about making a fun gift for nursery that was something a bit different and that all the children could get involved in.

Pinatas have gone down really well at the last few parties we have had, so we set about making our own version or a Christmas pinata.

As this was our first attempt at paper mache we decided that we would stick to a simple design were we could use a balloon as our base.

So to start we blew up a large balloon and made a quantity of paper mache using flour and water, we simply used a cup of plain flour and roughly the same amount of water (but added gradually to ensure the paste is fairly thick.) I had also cut a newspaper into small square pieces. I tried to minimise the amount of mess we made, so instead of soaking the paper in the mix we covered the balloon with the mix and stuck the paper over the mix. To start we did two coats, so after the first lot of paper had been stuck we then added more paste and then paper. As we were making a sweet shaped mould we left a 2 inch are at the top of the balloon that was not covered, this would form the opening for filling the pinata and form the wrapper ends.

The paper mache paste

Applying the paste

Starting the first layer

The first two layers

Each two layers that we did took around 24 hours to set. Once the layers were dry we then added another 4 over the follow three nights.

After the first two layers had dried the structure became quite heavy and it became harder to add the layers.

Once the six layers had dried the paper mache had set to form a strong structure, at this stage we popped the balloon so that we were left with an oval shape mould. We also did a little touch up at this stage to create an even surface.

Ready for filling

Once the balloon had been popped

The following night we then covered the pinata in tissue paper to create a sweet wrapper, and we filled the pinata with lots of chocolates, sweets, sparkles and other goodies. We then sealed the hole by using a roll from the Christmas wrapping paper.

Finally we covered the pinata in a cellophane wrap to complete the look of a sweet.

Our Pinata

Not bad for a fisrt attempt!