A few months back my hubby asked if I would mind making a Pinata for the youth group which he helps with each week. I had plenty of notice so put it on my calendar to start 3 weeks beforehand. This turned out to be a good thing because in-between getting it dry during winter and having a lot of other things to do (including that week of sickness) it took me exactly 2 weeks from start to finish. Before you look at the photos below let me explain. The pinata is meant to be a calf and the reason its yellow is because it coincides with the story of the golden calf found in Exodus 32:1-35. I’ll admit, mine turned out to be more hippo-like than calf-like but somehow I don’t think the youth group kids are going to care. So here goes, the series of steps on how I made a pinata (including the things I’d do differently next time):

Gather newspaper and a balloon

Put flour (3 cups to 2 cups water) into a bowl (a nice wide one is easier to use)


Get your helper to stir the mixture till all the lumps are gone


After tearing newspaper into 1 inch thick strips, dip into the flour mixture and stick onto the blown up balloon

Layer one complete (make sure you cover every tiny bit of the balloon)

Layer 2 complete. I only did two layers due to time but I would recommend doing at least three layers. Make sure you allow the pinata to dry completely in-between layers, otherwise it will become moldy.

Add legs using cardboard tubes. I cheated a bit here and used wide packing tape (clear) to hold them on under the newspaper.

Add a head. I used half an egg carton

Cut a hole at the tail end of your creation (yes K is looking inside). Keep the piece you cut out.

Once the head and legs are dry, put lollies inside the pinata. Make sure they are sealed lollies. Put a hook of some sort at the top of your pinata before sealing the hole. (see how I did it two pictures down).

Seal up the hole using the piece you cut out. As you can see we had no newspaper left!

Create some way to hang the pinata. As you can see I used string but this is not the standard way to do it. Most pinata’s have a hook at the top but mine was not thick enough to hold the weight, this is why its a good thing to do more than two layers if you have time.

Add ears

Add Tail



And now the fun part…paint! I mixed a couple of colours to get mine more golden-ish.


Once dry do the very last step…..let your helper add eyes using a black marker

And here you go, one painted golden calf/hippo-looking pinata.
Most pinatas are brightly coloured and often have layers of crepe paper so you could add that too. I’m hoping someone takes some photos of the kids destroying this little guy and enjoying his contents. Hope you’ve enjoyed our pinata progression.