How to Make a Ghost Pinata

Pinatas are easy and fun to make. For your Halloween party, why not make a ghost pinata? Here's how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 12-inch balloon
• 2 7-inch balloons
• masking tape
• newspaper
• water
• flour
• wire coat hanger
• pliers
• Small Margarine tub lid or similar sized plastic lid
• wrapped candy and small toys
• white acrylic or poster paint
• black paint or construction paper (0r print out the picture for the features)
• white tissue paper
• sharp scissors or Exact-o knife
• white craft Glue
• medium sized paint brush

1. Blow up the 12-inch balloon and tie off. Blow up the two 7-inch balloons about half full, or as large as you want the head and lower body to be.

2. 
   Ghost Pinata Set-up

   Twist up a sheet of newspaper for arms. You can put a wire inside the newspaper twist to enable you to pose the arms (optional). Secure with masking tape as needed and attach to top of large balloon with tape. Using masking tape, tape the two smaller balloons (pink and green in the picture) to the 12-inch balloon (orange in the picture) as shown.

3. Scrunch up newspaper and tape as needed for the curled point on the bottom of the ghost, and for a top curl, if desired. Tape into place.

4. Tear newspapers into strips about 1 x 12 inches. You will need lots of these.

5. Pour some water in a small bowl and add flour until you make a paste. Dip newspaper strips, one at a time, into paste and squeegee off the excess between thumb and index finger. Place on your structure, smoothing into place. Continue adding strips to the balloon structure in this manner, until the entire structure is covered with a layer of newspaper strips.

6. Place structure on a bowl and allow to dry completely. This will take at least overnight.

7. Repeat step 5, adding another layer of newspaper strips to your ghost. Allow this layer to dry completely as well. Add a third layer in the same manner and allow to dry completely.

8. 
   cutting the flap, inserting the wire loop

   Cut a flap in the back of the big center section of the pinata as shown in diagram. Remove balloon pieces. Cut the hook off of a wire coat hanger and form into a loop. You can make the loop as big or small as you want it. Poke the two ends of the loop through the hardened papier mache and through a margarine tub or similar plastic lid and bend the ends to the sides.

9. With the flap still open, fill the pinata with wrapped candies and small toys. Tape the flap closed with masking tape.

10. With acrylic or poster paint, paint your entire ghost white. You may have to add a second coat to cover all the newsprint. You can stop here, and glue or paint on the features, or you can add tissue paper first.

11. 
    Tissue paper strips

    To add tissue paper to your creation, cut strips of tissue paper about 2 1/2 inches wide, the length of the tissue paper. Cut slits into the tissue paper strips, going about half-way into the strip, and about 1/2 to 1 inch apart. Mix craft glue with a little water in a small bowl and paint the glue onto the pinata, then attach the strips of tissue paper in rows, all the way around the pinata. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Each row of tissue paper should be about 1 inch above the last.

12. 
    Finished Pinata

    To make the arms of the ghost look drapey, make long strips of tissue paper, about 1 inch wide, and attach to arms as shown in picture. you can add strips in the same manner to the top twist as well.

13. 
    Ghost facial features

    Glue on the features. Allow the pinata to dry, and you're done! Party time!

Tips & Warnings

• You can save your paste between layers if you store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
• Be sure to allow several days for this project.
• Kids love to help with the newspaper strip part.
• Be careful when using the sharp scissors, wire and pliers.

[apalmer]

on 10/25/2009 Very nice article on how to make a ghost pinata!