Things You'll Need:
- Newspaper
- Flour
- Water
- Forms (balloons, cardboard tubes, boxes, plastic bottles)
- Masking tape
- Paint and paintbrushes
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Step 1
Begin by making your form. You can use a balloon for spherical parts and cut milk jugs, soda bottles and cardboard boxes and tubes to make the form. Tape them together with masking tape. For a pinata, you will want the main body of the form to be an easy-to-break-through material, such as a balloon or thin cardboard like that from a cereal box. You may want to score the cardboard to make it easier to break through.
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Step 2
Begin by tearing your newspaper into 2-inch-wide strips. Once you have a large pile of newspaper strips, you can mix your paste. Add one part flour to one part water, and mix well until there are no lumps.
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Step 3
Dip a strip of newspaper in the flour mixture and smooth it over your form. Repeat this until the form is covered with newspaper, then allow it to dry completely. Once it is dry, repeat the process until you have several layers of newspaper, allowing it to dry between each layer.
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Step 4
Once the paper mache is completely dry you can paint or decorate it. If using a poster paint, you may want to first paint it completely white. This will cover the darker areas of newsprint and give you an even surface for painting. If you made your form with a balloon, you can poke a needle through the paper mache and pop the balloon.
