Set Up

1. Clear your work area. Spread out 3 or 4 layers of newspapers to protect your table.
2. Gather all your materials: balloon, 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 balloon.

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.

The Process for Making an Ice Cream Pinata

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 ice cream 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 making a hole in the side. If there are too many layers the kids will never be able to break it open.

Clean Up

1. Lay the pinata on clean newspaper to dry.
2. Throw away the old newspaper.
3. Rinse hands, arms and any other messy appendages with warm water and soap. Throw dirty clothes in the washer.
   

Tips

• If you had a lot of fun and have an excessive amount of paste on your clothes, let it dry and rub as much of the paste off as you can before washing.
• Cover extra paste and put in fridge to save for the next layer. If it dries out, just add a bit of water and mix.

How to Decorate the Ice Cream Pinata

1. Use a posterboard to make a cone. You may use a brown posterboard, or cover another posterboard with brown craft paper.
2. Make the cone by trimming a posterboard into ¼ of a circle. Basically, draw a curve from one corner of the posterboard to the perpendicular side—both 22” away from the middle corner. Then overlap the sides and staple or tape to form a cone.
3. Cut a piece of brown craft paper the same size as, or a little larger than, the posterboard and draw a crisscross waffle cone design on it.
   

• Tape the cone in shape before covering with craft paper. 
•  Purchase the brown craft paper from a craft store or the shipping section of an office supply store.
• Trim the top edge of the cone because it’s difficult to trim it perfectly before forming it into a cone.