DIY: Shamrock Piñata

Photos/Edit by Marilyn Nimz

I have been wanting to try my hand at making my own piñata for about a year. I already know what you're thinking...St. Patrick's Day might not strike you as the most obvious holiday to try making your first piñata. Oh well people! Sometimes you just have to live a little and defy the traditional rules of when or when not to make a piñata. Please know that I did not have a reference to look at when I was cutting the tissue for this. The tissue would probably look much better if it were placed in even rows like a normal piñata. But the point is that you can tell that this is one awesome and lucky St. Patty's Day Piñata filled with treasures! This makes a great activity to bring to any festivities you may be celebrating this weekend.

What You'll Need:
2 Pieces of Cardboard (I just used cereal boxes)
1 Newspaper
Green and Yellow Tissue Paper
1 Roll of Masking Tape
24" of Yellow or Green Yarn
Permanent Marker
Scissors
Elmers Glue
Gold Chocolate Coins and Gold Wrapped Candies

Steps 1-2: Gather all your materials. Take your tape roll and align it to the right side of your cardboard piece. I started at the top corner to leave room for the stem at the bottom and also to conserve cardboard in case I made a mistake and needed extra. Use your permanent marker to trace around the circle twice right next to each other and twice again directly underneath.

Steps 3-4: At the bottom and middle of your four circles, draw a rectangle for the stem. Mine was about 2"x 8." I added extra inches on the bottom so I could fold this under to close off the piñata when it was finished. Cut out your shamrock shape and use this shape as a stencil to draw the same shape on your remaining cardboard.

Steps 5-6: Cut the sides of the cereal box (aka the ingredients tab on the side of the box). You will use these to be the sides of your shamrock. Start at the bottom corner of the stem and wrap and tape the cardboard around your two shamrock shapes. You may have to fold the cardboard some to follow the shape of the shamrock. Stop when you are about 3/4th of the way done.

Steps 7-9: Use your scissors to put a small pin in the top middle of your shamrock. Take your yarn and tie about six or so knots in it and pull the loop through the inside hole of the piñata. Next, fill your shamrock with lucky chocolate gold coins and other sweets. And tape up the remaining cardboard to seal of the piñata.

Step 10: Fold your festive green and yellow tissue paper into accordions. It will save you time to fold multiple pieces at the same time. Once folded, cut these into strips on every other fold. 

Step 11: I personally feel that this step is optional. For some reason I thought it would make sense to paper-mâché the shamrock once it was sealed up. But in this case, the cereal box gives this enough structure (especially considering it will be destroyed anyway). So there is really no need to paper-mâché your piñata since it is messy and just takes extra time.

Step 12: Take your tissue paper that should be in folded strips and tape along the fold to the piñata starting from the bottom up. My recommendation with this is to wrap the tissue paper all the way around and much as possible. Once your tissue is where you like it, cut small vertical strips through the tissue paper, but not all the way through. And now hang your finished piñata!