Im making a large taco pinata for a cinco de mayo first birthday party so I need it to be big and sturdy. Will cardboard alone be ok or should i add paper mache to it and how should i put in the hook ?
Answer from Piñata Boy
I would make the taco shell out of thin cardboard and stiffen it with papier mâché.
I would make the taco shell first. When that’s done, I would blow up some balloons and put them inside the taco shell, then cover them with papier mâché. The hanging hook would be attached to the taco filling, not to the taco shell itself, so the taco filling will have to be firmly cemented using papier mâché to the shell.
Since this is a long, horizontal piñata, you might want to have two hanging hooks, each about 1/3 of the way in from the two ends of the piñata. When you have a horizontal piñata with only one central hanging hook, it’s easy for the weight of the filled piñata to fall to one end and make the whole thing hang awkwardly. I used multiple hanging hooks in horizontal piñatas like the dolphin, jaguar, and shark. You can install the hanging hooks by placing them on top of the balloons before applying the papier mâché, or by doing the papier mâché work first and then cutting it open to install the hanging hooks from the inside. The page on Adding the Hanging Hook shows both methods.
Good luck!