Geometric piñata DIY

Break from traditional animal piñata shapes with a modern, geometric design.

While simple cardboard triangles come together in a flash to form a gem-like piñata, be prepared to spend a little more time decking it out in bright tissue paper.

Instructions:

Before we can build the piñata, we need to create an equilateral triangle template.

Along the bottom left edge of a sheet of poster board, measure in 13 inches, and make a small tick mark with pencil.

With a protractor, center the circle opening over the tick mark you just made. Make another tick at 60 degrees. Draw a 13-inch line, connecting your two tick marks together. Finish the triangle by drawing a line from the bottom left corner to the top of the 13-inch line. All sides should be 13 inches. Cut out the triangle, using your metal ruler as a guide to slide X-ACTO knife against, resulting in straight, clean lines.

Using your triangle template, trace triangles onto cardboard.

Cut out triangles with X-ACTO knife, again using your metal ruler to guide your blade to achieve straight cuts. Because corrugated cardboard is layered, you will have to make a few cuts to completely slice through (make sure you have a mat or extra piece of cardboard to protect your work surface). You will need a total of eight cardboard triangles.

Connect two triangles together with masking tape, keeping a roughly quarter-inch gap between the two.

Connect a third and then fourth triangle with masking tape.

Fold the panels together, forming a pyramid, and tape closed with masking tape.

Reinforce the edges inside with more tape. Form the bottom half of pinata by repeating step five with remaining cardboard triangles.

Cut out a small opening at the top of one the pyramids for inserting candy. This will be the top half.

Connect top and bottom pyramids together with tape along an inside edge.

Close up the two halves, and tape all edges together. Reinforce outside corners with more masking tape.

Braid together three strips of twisted tissue paper to form a hook for the piñata.

Tape securely to the inside top of piñata. Tug on it to test for strength, using more tape (duct tape is a little stronger), if necessary.

Cut out 3-inch-wide strips of tissue paper. Fold in half lengthwise.

Then fold onto itself a few times to shorten the strip, and snip the edges to create a fringe. Unfold.

Glue down a thin strip of tissue paper (not fringed) along the center/edge of piñata.

Then apply a line of glue directly above that, and gently press down a strip of fringed tissue paper.

After gluing down a few rows of fringe, trim off the excess with a pair of scissors.

Repeat until an entire side is covered, then move on to cover the remaining sides with tissue paper. When you’re working on the other sides, it helps to cut the end of a tissue paper strip at an angle so you can fit it in flush against the edge of the piñata.

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