No doubt that a DIY disco ball pinata is an essential at any dance/popstar super cool type party, right?  I felt the same way when we went to the birthday party of our favorite preschool teacher’s little gal!  Dorothy had a dance party with two awesome disco balls, so after scouting out the uber cool aunt that made the pinatas, I slid into the seat next to her to get the full scoop.  She was so sweet to tell me how to make them and even sweeter to let me share her secrets with you!  So, here you are – the DIY Disco Ball Pinata instructions.

You start with a cheapy beach ball from the drugstore and blow it up nice and full.  Then, paper mache your heart out.  I used strips of newspaper dipped in a flour, water, Mod Podge mixture (just dump a little of each in a bowl and mix it up – I think the ratio’s pretty flexible, but maybe a cup of water, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup Mod Podge).  I did three layer of paper mache over the beach ball – letting each layer dry completely between.  It held quite a bit of weight in toys/candy and the kids got several turns each before it finally came open, so don’t go too crazy with a million paper mache layers.  Leave a hole for deflating and removing the beach ball and filling with goodies (if you dare let the kids break it open).  Once the ball has been removed and you’ve filled the pinata, insert a hanging device – I lucked out by having a child’s skirt hanger – one of the kind with the circular hook at the top that goes over another hanger – know what I’m talking about?  I gently bent the ends to get it in the hole and then that circular hook at the top was perfect for tying the rope to later to hang the whole thing.  So, once you have your hanging device, lay a little plastic wrap over the opening and then add a few more layers of paper mache around the opening to seal it up.

Now, it’s ready to be transformed into a disco ball.  The special trick is stainless steel-look contact paper – I used less than one roll and got the contact paper from Home Depot.  I’m not going to lie – this is a total pain and took a solid four hours of continuous work with the help of two kids (who actually were quite a big help on this one!!)  The back of the contact paper has gridlines which made it easy to cut 1″x 1″ squares – a zillion of them!  

Balance the ball on its end and draw a horizontal line all the way around the center of the pinata.  Begin in the center and peel and stick your contact paper squares all the way around.  The contact paper has little brush strokes on it, so I rotated these every other square.  With your first line in place, work up and down from the center until you cover the entire ball.  And that’s it!  When you finish, you’ll beg your child not to break the thing open, but seeing as how they helped you pick out and stuff all the toys and candy inside, they will say no, and you’ll cry a little.  But it WILL be super cool and all the kids will love it, so there’s that.  

It’s been over a week since the party and the shell is still sitting on my desk – can’t bring myself to toss all that flashy work!!  Think you’ll make one?

For more paper mache pinata ideas, you might enjoy this tutorial for Flower Pinatas.