DIY Piñata Party Favors

As I mentioned yesterday, we were in Vegas over the weekend for Berke's sister's wedding festivities. One of the events on our schedule was a Bridal Shower we hosted for the bride. The whole theme for the night was a farewell to the bride's maiden name. Fittingly, we had a Dias de los Muertos bridal shower at Tacos and Tequila at The Luxor. No fiesta is complete without a piñata and in this case, everyone got their own!

For this project, I originally saw these donkey piñatas from Oh Happy Day and thought that was what I was going to do. When I found out I was going to need at approximately 20 piñatas, I switched to a triangular pyramid design (3 sides and a bottom).

To make your own you'll need an equilateral triangle template, cereal boxes (I used four boxes for 80 3-inch triangles), scissors, 2 rolls of crepe paper, glue, and tape. Depending on the color of your paper, you may need paint the cardboard.

Step One: Trace and cut out your triangles. For this design, you need four triangles for each pyramid. As shown above, tape all the sides of the pyramid together cardboard side out, except one. This opening will be used to fill them with candy later. Due to the tape I used and the fact that I was using only white crepe paper, I painted my pyramids white. If you use different colored paper like a traditional piñata, you may not need to do this step.

Step Two: Once the paint has dried, turn the pyramid upside down and fill with candy. Use crepe paper and glue to papier-maiche the bottom to the sides. If you are using multiple colors, use the color that will be your bottom layer. I chose this method because it is easier to open the bottom than smash the taped sides. I also put a thin layer of paint over the papier-maiche to better blend in.

Step Three: Now that the structure is built and the piñata is filled, we can decorate. I specifically chose rolled crepe paper as it is easier to make into long strips of double layered fringe. My triangles were 3 inches wide on each side so I started with a 20-inch length of crepe paper. I folded that piece in half so I had a 10-inch length. I folded the width in half. Then I folded the length in half twice more so I ended up with a 2.5inx1in folded piece of crepe paper. On the non-folded edge, I cut the layers into fringe. I then unfolded the last two length folds so I was back with a 10inx1in strip of fringe.

Step Four: Starting at the base of the pyramid, add lines of glue and layer the fringe over top. Continue gluing and wrapping strips of crepe paper fringe around the pyramid moving from the bottom to the top alternating colors if you so choose. At this point you are more or less done. If you took the more traditional route with layering colors your pyramids look awesome at this point. I stuck with white and added sugar skull emblems and the initials of the bride and groom as shown in the first photo.

And that's it! Build your armature, make your fringe, and decorate! They are a little time consuming, but they definitely have the wow factor and will be a hit with guests, young and old!