Set Up

1. Clear your work area. Spread out 3 or 4 layers of newspapers to protect your table.
2. Gather all your materials: punch ball balloon, masking tape, newspaper, scissors, flour, bowl, wire whisk, and water.
3. Cut newspaper into strips about 1 inch wide. Make them as long as the narrow width of the newspaper.
4. Mix up your paste. Use 1 part flour to 1 part water and mix with a whisk.
5. Inflate a punch ball balloon and tape the ends flat.

Tips

• You can use any kind of paper if you really want, but newspaper works best. Old phone book pages are too thin and fall apart easily in the paste, regular paper and glossy newspaper ads don’t absorb water as easily and take a bit more work. I’d stick with newspaper.
• White flour works better than whole wheat. Whole wheat globs up and you have to sand it down after it dries. No fun.

    1.  Dip strips in paste, run through fingers to get rid of excess paste and layer on the pinata form. Make two layers of newspaper strips then allow it to dry. It takes 1-2 days to dry, depending on your local climate (humidity level) and how thick the newspaper (and paste) is. Leave an opening at the top for filling with candy.
    2.  After the pinata is dry, trim the opening to make it smooth. If you forgot to leave an opening, cut an opening. Pop balloon and remove. Then, wrap string or ribbon around the pinata making a cross over the opening. Use one long string to make the cross, not two short strings. Trust me on this. Just keep wrapping the string around the pinata to make it work.
   3.  Put another two layers of newspaper strips over the pinata and string and allow it to dry. It’s okay if some spots are not as thick as other spots. Weak spots are where the pinata will break open.

Tips

• Place the balloon in a bowl to keep it from rolling around while you work.
• Two layers of newspaper are about right. The newspaper shrinks a little as it dries and if there are weak spots in the newspaper the balloon will break through them. If there are too many layers the guests will never be able to break it open.

How to Decorate the Spooky Eyeball Pinata

1. Collect the materials you will need: red tissue paper, white tissue paper, scissors, black marker, white glue, purple and black construction paper. 
2. Then, trim off any edges of dried newspaper that curled out.
3. Cut out the eyeballs from the construction paper. I used a saucer as a template for the purple part of the eye, and a cup as a template for the black iris. Place the purple part of the eye on the pinata, where it will go, and draw and line around it on the pinata.
   
4. Then draw lines from the center of the eye toward the back of the eye. This will be your guideline to follow when gluing the fringe on the pinata. 
   
5. Make the fringe trim for the pinata by folding and cutting the tissue paper in strips about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide, when folded. Then snip fringes about 1/4" to 1/2" wide from the open side, up toward the folded edge of the strip of tissue paper. Cut several sheets of white tissue paper as trim and only one or two of the red. 
6. Put a line of white glue on the pinata, from the eyeball toward the back and place the folded edge of the fringe on the glue. Repeat with another strip of glue and fringe about 1/4" above the one just glued. Because of the roundness of the ball you may need to occasionally add a short piece of fringe in the center of the line with the next piece of fringe going around it.
    

Pull and Yank Adjustments

1. Before decorating the pinata: about midway between the top and bottom of the Spooky Eyeball pinata, cut a circle that goes nearly all the way around the pinata. Securely attach a ribbon to the trap door that will be able to pull it open. You may be able to poke a hole in the trap door and tie the ribbon to it or tape the ribbon with duct tape to the inside of the trap door. 
2. Fill the pinata and seal the trap door with masking tape. Test it to be sure there’s enough tape to hold all the prizes in the pinata, but not so much tape that it won’t open.