Crepe Paper Streamers - Pinata

Marco Polo introduced China into the West. But, interestingly enough, Mexico has attached significant meaning to the pinata. The typical shape of the pinata is a round ball with seven spikes on it. The seven spikes represent the seven deadly sins. When children break through these spikes with a bat it brings to mind the symbolism of breaking the bad habits of these deadly sins and their triumph over them, resulting in a delightful reward. Regardless of the history, pinatas have provided many hours of happy celebrating for thousands of children. Now, you can make your own. Here are the steps:

1. Gather your materials. You will need: a balloon, some cardboard if you want something other than round, scissors, tape, flour, water, a whisk, and some string. Then, inflate the balloon.

2. Protect the work area. Place newspapers around the area you will be working, it does get messy.

3. Make a flour paste. Dump a quart or two of water into a pot, and then whisk in some flour. Usually two parts water to one part flour, and then heat it for three to five minutes. You do not want it to cook longer than this, or the paste will be too thick.

4. Tear the newspaper into strips. Make the strips 1 to 1 1/2 inches in width. Then, smear the strips with your flour paste, and place them all over your balloon, covering all of its surface. Go ahead and do two or three layers. Let the paste dry until it is stiff and no longer wet or sticky. Then, you can continue to add new layers to make it thicker.

5. Decide on what shape you want your pinata to be. Add on legs or noses, to create animals or other shapes using the cardboard. Tape them on and then continue to add more layers of the newspaper and glue covering all the surfaces, making sure to let each layer dry in between adding more layers. Glue the string into place with some of your last layers.

6. Paint your pinata using tempura paints. Or, you can use cut up crepe paper squares glued to the surface to create a 3-D effect.

Be sure to leave yourself plenty of time in order for all of these layers to dry. Usually it requires several days in the making, so don't wait until you only have a couple of days left, or you will be disappointed.

If you are interested in browsing through a selection of crepe paper streamers or pinatas visit our online party store.