I made a unicorn piñata! You thought I was kidding with my unicorn farm, didn’t you? But no, for a couple of days I was the proud owner of a unicorn. Until my boyfriend killed it (sad face). In his defense, it was my idea.
Besides our edible nacho hat, photo booth, vodka gummy bears and garden twister, a unicorn piñata just seemed like the perfect addition to all the madness at our birthday party. I even have a video of it, so for all of you curious readers who want to get a glimpse of our party atmosphere and see a unicorn die (does that make me a bad unicorn famer?), here is a short fragment (I cut out a few beatings because it took a while and I know your attention span).
And here comes the fun part: you can make one too!
Here is how I made my unicorn piñata
I used an old shoebox as the body of my unicorn. This choice ended up mading the little guy quite sturdy and hard to break, but I would probably do it again as it is somewhat faster (fast is relative because this project does take quite some time to make). I found a rectangular cardboard tunnel that I used as a neck. Make cuts in the lid of your shoebox and in your neck tunnel so they fit together.
Make cuts at the top of the corners of your box and fold the cardboard to the inside, so the box gets a somewhat rounded shape. Fasten the corners with duct tape.
Cut the corners of the lid. Fold the edges until they get rounded as well and tape everything together. You will notice I use mainly duct tape in this tutorial, because I find it a fast and easy way to make things stick together. It is probably best if you don’t cover your whole unicorn in duct tape though, because then it will never break. I did consider using paper mache, but that just seemed to be a lot extra work for little effect.
Your piñata will need to hang on a rope, so it will need some holes in its body for this purpose. It would be wise to do that at this point and put a cord through the holes, as it will become hard to do this later on. My idea was to apply a thin cord and replace it later by a thicker one (by tying them together and pulling the thicker one through the hole). However, my rope ended up breaking off so this part kind of failed for me and I ended up tying the piñata on the outside instead. Learn from my mistake ;)
For the legs, simply cut out 4 pieces of cardboard. Roll them up and secure each roll with duct tape.
If you make cuts at the top of the legs that fold out as ‘side flaps’, you can use them to tape the legs to the body of the unicorn.
Make a head from a piece of cardboard. Just cut and fold until you get a general shape that you are content with. As you can see my process is kind of messy. You need to remember that the basic form will be covered later on, so it isn’t a big deal if it looks bad at this point.
Although my first idea was to put the candy inside using the neck tunnel, I thought it would be easier to make a little door in the belly of the unicorn after all.
You can use a similar paper for the hooves as for the horn, preferably something shiny. I would recommend gold, silver or glitter. Just use your paper to close the openings of the legs and then glue a strip around the bottom part.
Use crêpe paper to make the fur of your unicorn. Use whatever colour you like. I had a limited choice in colour and went with a combination of blue and pink. If you bought a role of crêpe paper like I did, simply cut off a strip and cut the paper in on one side while it is still rolled up.
Apply glue on the leg and start circling your crêpe paper around the legs, starting at the bottom and ending at the top.
Continue this process for its entire body, working layer over layer and starting at the lower layers. This is a time consuming process so be patient while you see your unicorn slowly evolve and grown into a real unicorn :)
Use a paper towel cardboard roll as base for your horn. Simply make a cut from the top to the bottom, roll it together again in a cone shape and secure it with tape. Cover the horn in gold coloured paper. Then make cuts at the bottom to be able to glue/tape your horn to the head of the unicorn.
For the tail you cut the crepe paper in a similar way but simply use a longer strip so the ‘hairs’ will be longer. At one side, roll and tape the ‘hair’ together. Make a hole in the cardboard through which you stick the taped part and secure the tail from the inside. Although I applied the manes of the unicorn after the blue fur, it would have probably been easier the other way around. If you want you can add some fun details like a golden bow in the tail.
Draw two eyes on a piece of paper with a black marker and cut them out. Simply glue them on your unicorn’s head over its blue fur.
Make ears by cutting out a piece of cardboard in a somewhat triangular shape. Cover the outside with crêpe paper and the inside with golden paper. Make cuts at the bottom and use a glue gun to glue the ears to your unicorn’s head. Again, it would be better to do this before its entire head is covered in fur, so the ears stick to the hard cardboard in stead of the loose crêpe paper fur.
Of course a piñata wouldn’t be a piñata if there wasn’t a fun surprise inside. You can fill your unicorn piñata with whatever you wish. If you do fill your piñata with candy, I would recommend candy that is covered in plastic, so when it falls out it is still edible. Using skittles (rainbows!) just seemed appropriate for a unicorn. I also added some confetti.
Put everything inside and glue a thin piece of cardboard or thick piece of paper over the door. Add some extra tape if needed, but don’t make it too strong or otherwise the piñata will never break. (I cut out a little hole to make an emergency opening just in case, which I didn’t need).
When the glue to close the lid has dried properly, apply the last layers of crêpe paper fur over its belly.
Happy unicorn making!
39 Comments
uncustomary
August 30, 2013 at 17:02
This is incredible. Thanks for the tutorial! You did a great job.
Jennifer - The Deliberate Mom
August 30, 2013 at 21:33
WOW! This is simply amazing! Fantastic work! It’s almost sad it had to get destroyed.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xoxo
Isabelle Krake
August 31, 2013 at 03:12
That’s fantastic!
Love the gold accents :)
It was kind of sad to see it die :*( with just the few days that it lived ;) and basically that it was just so cute!
~ i s a b e l l e
Crissy Candypow
September 1, 2013 at 01:41
This is SO cool. I am definitely bookmarking this… now I just need a birthday to come up to make it! >:)
floating thru fields
September 1, 2013 at 23:12
this is so awesome you are so creative and resourceful looks adorable and ready to party :)
Sunny
September 3, 2013 at 16:05
Too Creative!!! AMAZING
Nerd Burger
September 4, 2013 at 12:31
How in gods name did you come up with that? You are one of the most crafty ladies I’ve ever known. PS: Unicorns are rad
Rachel Weaver
September 4, 2013 at 15:17
i am trying to plan a just for fun sleep over for my kids and i plan on stealing like all your ideas. so wonderful.
Floweb
November 10, 2013 at 08:28
Hello, I found your post by chance, looking for a tutorial to make a small unicorn (my daughter wants a “little pony unicorn” and I think they are ugly). Your pinata is wonderful and the pictures are very useful! Thanks for sharing. Floweb (Lausanne, Switzerland)
admin
November 14, 2013 at 13:30
Thank you! I hope she has a wonderful birthday and I hope my tutorial will be of use ;)
Leah Cooper
December 16, 2013 at 10:17
Hi, thanks for posting this step by step guide to making a unicorn pinata. I’ve just used your instructions to make one for my daughters 5th birthday party. I’ve made it a month in advance so I can enjoy looking at it before it gets bashed to bits by little people!
Can’t wait!
Leah
magicaldaydream
December 16, 2013 at 16:38
That’s so good to hear! I hope she loves it and has the birthday she dreams of. But I bet it will be awesome, considering there will be a unicorn ;)
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December 21, 2013 at 00:01
How to Make a Unicorn Pinata | Culture - Popular Question & Answer
http://www.struckbylightning.org
May 20, 2014 at 15:17
Hey are using WordPress for your blog platform?
I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my
own. Do you require any coding knowledge to make your own blog?
Any help would be really appreciated!
magicaldaydream
May 21, 2014 at 12:56
Yes I am. just used a regular template. I did a little extra coding but that isn’t necessary if you find a good template that appeals to you and needs to change.
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abby
June 19, 2014 at 07:31
i would really like to make this for my friends birthday so i canput her gifts inside but i caqnt figured out how to do the head
magicaldaydream
June 19, 2014 at 07:46
Yes, the head was a bit tricky. You make kind of a cone shape, except the pointy part is cut off/in to become the flat part of his mouth. I made some cuts in the cardboard over the length/side of his head (not all the way through, but just to bend it over the fold) to guide the shape into main areas. That way the head gets divided into multiple flat areas, in stead of being a real cone. For the back of his head, I fumbled some newspaper balls together to get a rounded look and taped them together. Hope this helps!
abby
June 20, 2014 at 10:15
That helped alot thanks for the replied. I also wanted to ask about step one and step two part of the picture. I realized that in the first picture the top of the cap is off and then in the second picture you some how managed to put it back on except it has a cardboard on it. I just thought that was a bit confusing. Although I am already done with the body of the unicorn pinata. :) I was just a bit curious.
magicaldaydream
June 24, 2014 at 15:39
The brown cardboard is just an extra rectangle to make sure the rope wouldn’t cut through the single layer of cardboard. As for the rest, it is in the description under the picture
Wow101
July 1, 2014 at 15:41
Hi This a really good way x
Shani
December 5, 2014 at 02:11
Soooo coool!
Could you tell me how long it took you to make this?
I’m planning to make one for my cousins birthday :O
magicaldaydream
December 5, 2014 at 09:21
Ehh, I honestly cannot remember very well. But a couple hours for sure. Probably somewhere between half a day and a day. So exciting that you’re doing to make it though, will you send me a picture if you do? I would love to see it!
Julien
March 13, 2015 at 16:18
Good work and thank you to share it, so I made my own for my girl friend <3
magicaldaydream
March 23, 2015 at 08:17
Awesome! Do you have a picture? Would love to see!
claire
May 9, 2015 at 13:33
heyy, i came across this post a year ago and i made the unicorn pinata then for a friend of mine, but this year another friend wants a ‘horsey’ for her birthday, so i’m making her a horsey pinata for her birthday, like the unicorn but then in brown and without the horn:)
~ c l a i r e
magicaldaydream
May 12, 2015 at 04:06
Ohhh that’s amazing! Do you have a picture? I would love to see it! Good luck with the horse. I’m sure your friend will love it!
Fu Xin
October 26, 2015 at 15:06
Hey,
This is literary amazing!
I’am going to make this for my friend.
Beceause 5 December is Santa-Claus. (It’s a feast day in The Netherlands, we are almost the only people who got this feast day so probaly you don’t know what it is, but this is really amazing so I think I’am going to make this, it seems really difficult probaly because I’am Dutch and I don’t understand everything but I’am going to do my best).
Thanks for this idea it’s amazing!
magicaldaydream
October 26, 2015 at 16:00
Haha ik ben ook Nederlands hoor ;) Ik blog alleen in het Engels omdat dat me in staat stelt om met meer dan enkel Nederlanders (en Belgen) te communiceren ;)
Fu Xin
November 12, 2015 at 19:26
Ohw haha! Erg leuk idee dat wel.
Maar weet je ook ongeveer hoeveel blauwe crêpepapier je nodig hebt?
Dat is namelijk wel handig om te weten omdat het volgens mij nog best duur is crêpepapier.
Alvast bedankt voor het reageren!
magicaldaydream
November 13, 2015 at 10:41
Ik dacht dat ik 2 of 3 van die blauwe rollen gekocht had, maar uiteindelijk niet alles nodig had. Ik heb ze bij de Action gehaald, en daar was het misschien 1 euro nog wat per rol/pakketje. Weet niet of ze dat nog steeds verkopen daar, maar zo wel ben je dus voor 2 a 3 euro wel klaar. Helpt dat? Succes in ieder geval!
Fu Xin
November 12, 2015 at 20:26
Ohw haha.
Maar weet je ook hoeveel crêpepapier je nodig hebt voor de eenhoorn.
Alleen het blauwe dus voor het lichaam niet de staart en de manen.
Alvast bedankt voor het reageren!
Bress
November 23, 2015 at 18:56
Super leuk was het dit jaar ze vond het geweldig en ik ook om te maken ik heb 3 rollen cretpapaier gekocht voor 2 euro precies genoeg maar ik had soms fouten gemaakt dus als je het goed doet hou je nog wat over.
magicaldaydream
November 24, 2015 at 13:37
Ah super! Goed om te horen :)
Bress
November 23, 2015 at 18:56
Super leuk
Lucy Spink
October 17, 2016 at 07:25
Thank you so much for this tutorial. Your instructions are perfect.
I made this for my daughters birthday party this weekend
Lucy Spink
October 17, 2016 at 07:36
would love to post my pic for you to see but can’t seem to attach it?
magicaldaydream
October 17, 2016 at 08:50
So happy to hear that the tutorial helped you. I hope your daughter loved it :) Yes, I think attaching the picture is not possible.. Perhaps via Facebook or email (marielle [at] magicaldaydream (dot) com )? Would love to see how your piñata turned out!
Emily Carroll
October 9, 2020 at 22:20
How how do you make pinata?