DIY Times Square Ball (pinata)

The kids and I paper mached two oversized punching balloons back in the summer for birthday piñatas.  We ended up not using them for the birthday party…so they have been hanging around in our basement for months (waiting for a coat of paint, glitter, attention…).  I happened to glance over at them yesterday and had a thought… New Year’s Eve Ball!!! Woo Hooo!

We went to town today. Here’s how we made it:

Step One

Paper Mache a punching balloon (ours is about the size of a beach ball…actually, if you have a beach ball laying around that will work too).  Tie string around balloon and hang to dry. You can speed up the drying process with a hair dryer.

Step Two

Cover dried paper mache ball with aluminum foil. We layered the foil to shape it and for sturdiness.  

Step Three

We decided to stick with a metallic look so we painted some cardboard (recycled cereal/cracker boxes) with a coat of white paint. Once the paint dried, we traced our star cookie cutter and cut stars out of the cardboard.  Next, we mod podged the stars and sprinkled some left over glitter snow on them to add some bling.  Gotta bling in the New Year, right?  ;)

Step Four

While the glitter snow dried on the stars, we reinforced the aluminum foil layers with some hot glue.  

Step Five

Add the stars using hot glue.

Taaa daaaaaahhh!

So it might look a little like a middle school space project (don't judge), but that is the fun of it...and it is the start of a new tradition in our house. I already sketched up some ideas for next year.  Go ahead, give it a try...you'll have a ball! :)

*BONUS:  You can turn this into an INCREDIBLY COOL pull string piñata by doing this:  

1. Cut a trap door flap on the bottom of ball.

2. Punch holes and attach pull strings (for # of people participating)

3. Fill ball with confetti (you can just cut tissue paper/paper)

4. Close flap and secure with a layer of foil.

5. TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, FOUR,THREE, TWO, ONE… (pull strings…confetti falls)  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  YAY!

*For a great step by step tutorial on a pull string piñata…check out this post over at YHL.

You can also find this post over at Whipperberry ,  I {heart} Nap Time and Tatertots & Jello !