DIY Zig Zag Number Piñata

diytutorials
Written By Jordan Harmon

So you wanna make a zig zag number piñata ay? You’ve come to the right place. I’ve made my fair share of number piñatas and the zig zag ones are one of my favorites. These babies are super fun and easy to make. You just need a little elbow grease, a little patience, some time, and a few supplies that are easily accessible.

 

Materials:

  • Cardboard boxes (1 or 2 depending on the size)

  • Sharpie or pencil (Or both)

  • Long ruler

  • Boxcutter

  • Mat for cutting

  • Heavy duty shipping tape

  • Mod podge glue

  • Large paintbrush

  • Crepe paper in 2 colors of your choice

 

If you wanna skip these written instructions, feel free to check out the time lapse video of me making a piñata for my son at the end of this post.

 
 
pinatadraw.png

Step 1

Flatten out your boxes and get them ready for cutting. Draw your number in the size you want using either a pencil or a sharpie. You will need two of these.

pinata2.png

Step 2

Measure the width of the number you cut out and use this measurement to create rectangular strips of cardboard for the edges. These will be in separate pieces and each rectangle will need to be connected one at a time.

pinatatape.png

Step 3

Begin taping the pieces together starting by connecting the rectangular strips to one of the numbers first. Connect that second number to the rectangles to finish the 3D form of the number with the shipping tape. Be sure to tape up everything really well. The more tape there is, the stronger it will be and the more hits the piñata will take.

pinatataped.png

Step 4

Connect that second number to the rectangles to finish the 3D form of the number with the shipping tape. Be sure to tape up everything really well. The more tape there is, the stronger it will be and the more hits the piñata will take.

cutting.png

Step 5

Once your 3D box is complete, you can start cutting your crepe paper. All you do is unravel some of it and cut about half inch slits into the paper halfway up, sort of like teeth. You’ll do A LOT of this.

starting.png

Step 6

After you have a good amount of crepe paper cut, you can start gluing it onto your box — starting at the bottom, apply the mod podge glue with a brush to the section you will attach the crepe paper to first. You can draw lines on the box to mark out your zig zag shapes to be helpful. The little teeth you cut on the crepe paper should be at the bottom of the box, and each time you glue more one, you should partly cover the previous section of crepe paper. Continue doing this until the whole box is covered. (The front and the back of the number will be zig zags while the edges will be just one color.)

holes.png

Step 7

Once the piñata is covered, you can cut out two holes at the very top of the number piñata to insert the rope for swinging. You can also cut a section on the piñata with an x-acto knife to insert the candy and toys. The cardboard is sturdy enough that you can just cut out a half moon shape and fold it up — once filled, you can push it back in.

 
 

Finally, you can hang your piñata and watch as all the time and effort you put into creating the piñata gets blasted with baseball bats until it is destroyed.

Here’s the 2 time lapse videos I told you about at the beginning of this post ;)
↓

 
 

Thanks so much for reading!

Jordan Harmon
Previous

How to Bring Consistency to Your Artworks
Next

Ferris Wheel Tutorial | Part - 2