| Working with Crepe Paper | |||||||||
Crepe paper is my material of choice for decorating piñatas for a lot of reasons: - it covers up flaws in the papier mâché I usually buy my crepe paper at Party City (79¢). They have a wide selection of bright colors and the paper has a reasonable thickness and texture. Hobby Lobby is the cheapest place that sells decent rolls (33¢ each), but they don't have much of a color selection. Wal-Mart is in between (59¢, I think), but around here they mostly only have white. You should only buy the small rolls (80 feet long) for piñata-making -- never ever buy the large rolls (500 feet), even if it's from the same manufacturer. You'll see why in a minute. |
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There's too much to say about crepe paper to fit it all on one page. Click any of these topics to jump to that section. (These will become links as the pages are finished.) How to tell good crepe paper from bad crepe paper |
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Not all crepe paper is created equal. Generally speaking, the more texture your crepe paper has, the better it will be for piñata-making. Smoother crepe paper does not hold its shape as well on the piñata, and tends to sag. The easiest way to gauge the texture of the crepe paper is to look at the side of the roll. You want to see a lot of gaps between the layers. More gaps means rougher texture, and that's better for piñatas. |
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Look at the two rolls of orange crepe paper on the right. Both of these are actually pretty good paper, but the roll on the left has better texture. The dark spots the arrow is pointing to are gaps in the paper caused by a rougher surface. Click here for a closer look at the roll on the left. Click here for a closer look at the roll on the right. If we open the rolls, you can see the difference in the paper surface. The roll on the left has a rougher and more uneven texture. This makes the paper stiffer when it is folded across the grain, so it will hold its shape better when it's used for decorating a piñata. If you fluff it up, it will stay up. The roll on the right is smoother. It still has some texture to it, but the creases aren't as deep. Click here for a closer view of the comparison. The brand on the left (Streamer by Cindrus) has the best texture of any crepe paper I've ever used, but Garden Ridge doesn't stock it any more. Its colors are also not as bright those available at Party City. In terms of texture, the Party City crepe paper looks a lot like the roll on the right. It's not the best I've ever seen, but it works well enough, and Party City has the best color selection. |
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Here's some really bad paper. This 500-foot roll of green paper is pulled so tightly onto the cardboard roll that there's no space at all between the layers. Compare the texture of this paper to the good orange paper from before (click here for a larger image that shows a little more of the roll). | ||||||||
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| The green paper doesn't have creases, it barely even has wrinkles. It has almost no texture at all. The difference is so great you can tell these two papers apart by feel. If you decorate a piñata with this green paper and then try to fluff the paper upward, it will start to sag back down immediately, and you won't be able to keep it fully fluffed. This orange paper is the best, and this green paper is the worst, and now here's the punch line -- they're both made by the same company. Both of these are Streamer by Cindrus. Every 500 foot roll I've ever seen, no matter who makes it, lacks the texture of the 80 foot rolls and is not good for decorating piñatas. You can use it if there's no other option, but your piñata will be visibly sadder. | |||||||||
| Wherever you buy your crepe paper, look at the side of the roll for gaps created by texture. The more gaps you see, the better the paper will be for decorating piñatas. | |||||||||
The Spectrum of White |
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| Also, make sure you buy all your crepe paper of any given color at the same place, and preferably at the same time. There are many shades of white out there, and they're all called white. (The differences are easier to see in the larger image.) There are also many shades of black, and most of them are more charcoal than black. If you mix the supposedly same color from two different brands, don't expect them to match. | |||||||||
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| (Click here for a larger view.) | |||||||||