I have never made a piñata before, but when I saw the football piñata on Here comes the girls, I knew that I had to make one for Mini’s birthday party. However when a dear friend thought that I planned letting my boys lose on a piñata with a stick she panicked! However, it was never my intention to let them beat it with a stick, but to kick it like a real football.
How to make a football piñata
Materials:
- Beach ball or blow up ball (it needs to be as circular as possible if you plan on kicking it)
- Newspaper
- Glue (I used PVA mixed with water and flour)
- White paint
- Black paper or vinyl
- Treats for the inside (we added whistles, stickers, chocolates, pens, pads and erasers)
How to make a football piñata or a soccer ball piñata
It is advisable to allow yourself a week or so (depending on how many layers you want) to make the piñata, this allows it to dry in between layers so that you will not have to dry it in the oven like I did!
Blow up your beach ball and tear newspaper into strips. I used a beach ball as it will give it a rounder shape, but you can use a balloon.
Mix your PVA with flour and water and immerse a number of strips into the bowl.
Cover your ball in a layer of newspaper and allow to dry.
Repeat until you feel you have sufficient layers on your ball. I did four and it lasted over two minutes.
Once it is dry slice it where the inflater is and just pull out the beachball, then add the goodies and reinforce again with some additional paper mache!
Cover with paper mache.
Once dry paint with white paint. I used tempera paint thickened with powder paint, but acrylic would cover better.
Once dry you can either glue on hexagons cut from black paper. I used my Cricut Explore to cut them out of black vinyl which stuck straight on.
The boys had the best time kicking the piñata and it lasted for at least two minutes before it gave way. It was much safer kicking it that hitting it with a large stick.
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Let’s all share that being frugal can be fabulous.

Oh what a fab idea, never thought to make my own piñata before 🙂
This is such a great idea! Kicking it too is fab rather than using the stick. I like the goodies you filled it with 🙂 xx
wow such a great idea wish i seen this in march x
Now that is one funky pinata what a great way to celebrate with someone who loves football.
Ooh now this is a good idea, not just for a pinata but for hiding a present in for my nephew who is football mad x
I love love love this. Such a brilliant alternative to the hanging pinata
A great idea to make one around an inflatable beach ball.
What a brilliant idea! Think I may have to try this for the boys in the Summer, will keep them out of trouble for 10 minutes or so 😉
Stevie x
Oh this is brilliant Jen! I’ve made a couple of pinatas before but this one would be great for a football party.
We normally buy pinata’s but this looks fab – will have to give this a go too
This is brilliant and much safer to kick it than ht it with a stick!
This is an awesome take on the piñata! Looks great too!
What a fabulously frugal idea I love this
That looks like great fun – had never thought about making our own – and kicking sounds much safer – we only had a pinata once, at my daughters 6th birthday, and a bunch of blindfolded kids with a big stick was frankly terrifying!
really cute idea Jen, I love a bit of paper mache! x
What a unique idea perfect for a football fan.
What a unique idea perfect for a football fan.
I love this idea and it looks like your boys had some great fun too!