I am making 2 different piñatas a party hat and a frozen one (probably Olaf the snow man) I was wondering how you would make these 2 piñatas. I thought about using card board for the party hat (just haven’t had the best of luck with card board, as I think I need a lot of holes and last time didn’t put any, and how many layers of paper mache do you do on card board?) As with the frozen one, the snow man has a funny pose all the time and I thought about using balloons, but have no idea how to really do it. All your piñatas I have seen pictures of look amazing and would love your opinion how to do these two. Thank you!
Answer from Piñata Boy
The easiest way to make a party hat piñata is with thin cardboard. You can curl a big sheet into a cone shape, then tape it in place and cover it with papier mâché. You’ll probably want two layers of papier mâché in order to get the sides stiff enough that they break instead of bend when they’re hit with the stick. One thing to be careful of is that when you apply wet papier mâché to the cardboard cone, moisture will seep into the cardboard and it will begin to warp and get wavy. It helps if you can support the cone from the inside in some way to prevent this from happening. One way to do this is to make two nested cones, one inside the other, so the inner cone helps the outer one hold its shape as the papier mâché is applied.
Once you have a stiff-walled papier mâché cone, you will definitely want to punch holes in it because two layers of papier mâché on top of thin cardboard will be tough for kids to break. When I punch holes in a thick-walled piñata I usually choose one or two spots to make weaker than the rest, in hopes that one of those spots will crack open first, and the kids will then attack the opening.
I would make an Olaf piñata out of three balloons (or four — his head could be made from two balloons). The trick here is how to attach the balloons to one another, since they have convex sides that only touch at one point. What I would do is cut away a circular section from one balloon so that the next balloon sits in it like a bowl. You can see a picture of what I’m talking about on the Pirates of the Caribbean page. Start by cutting a small hole and seeing how the pieces fit together, then make the hole larger if you need to. Then tape them in place and cement them together with a couple more layers of papier mâché.
Good luck, and let me know if you have questions along the way!