Making a piñata is a combination of art and engineering, with a whole lot of improvisation along the way. Part of the fun of piñata-making is using your imagination to find new ways to decorate the piñata or finding creative solutions to the unexpected problems that arise.

This is the general approach I take to making piñatas.  All of my piñatas are made using balloons. For more details about any step, click here. 

1)  Decide what I want to make.

2)  Blow up the balloons to the sizes I need and wrap them in newspaper.

3)  Mix up a batch of papier mâché paste.  Dip strips of newspaper into the paste and lay them on the newspaper-wrapped ballons, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next one.

4)  Keep repeating step 4 until I've got 3 to 5 layers of strips covering the balloon.

5)  Poke a hole in each piece and remove the popped balloon.

6)  Assemble different pieces of the piñata using masking tape to hold them together, then apply strips of papier mâché newspaper to cement them together.

7)  Decorate the piñata.

Constructing the piñata isn't hard, but it's messy and can take a lot of time.  It sometimes requires a lot of creativity and improvisation.  Decorating a piñata can also stretch your creative muscles.

Here are a few examples of my piñata-making process in action, listed from simplest to most complicated.

Heart piñata

Pig piñata

Tropical Fish piñata

Rainbow Zebra piñata