Kids love to play dress-up, it feeds their imagination. They especially love fancy dress parties where they get the chance to act out their favourite characters or disney storylines. A great idea for a fancy dress outfit is a masked party. And a great way to create masks for the kids is to use paper mache balloon masks. How and what are these? Well, I shall explain!

Since the kids are only going to be at the party for a few hours, it’s not practical to get them to make these from scratch during the event, but what you can do is use this as an opportunity for your own kids to get their hands mucky with some gloopy strips of glued-up newspaper. This is guaranteed to raise a smile, and they’ll love knowing that they’ve helped you out in preparing for the party

To Make The Paper Mache

The first thing you’ll need to do is prepare the glue you’ll be using for sticking the newspaper to the balloon. There are three things you can use to do this..

1 - Flour and water glue

Boil 5 cups of water in a saucepan.

Mix roughly a quarter cup of sieved and lump-free flour with a cup of cold water and mix this up until it is smooth and runny. Once this is done, add this to the water in the saucepan and gently boil for about 3 minutes, until the glue thickens. Important - Allow to cool before using.

Or, if you want to use a thicker glue, use 1 whole cup of flour per three cups of water.

2 - Wallpaper paste glue

Make up a bowl according to the manufacturer�s instructions. Use a little less water than recommended if preferred. Keep in an airtight container. It will keep for several days in a fridge or a cool place. Wallpaper paste has the advantage of containing a fungicide to prevent mould.

Important - It is not a good idea to let children use wallpaper paste in case they put their fingers in their mouths.

3 - White PVA glue

Just water some of this glue down and it will be ready to use for the balloon

Apply The Paper Mache To The Balloon

Once you’ve made up the glue mixture, it’s time to get messy! What you’ll need to do now is get some old newspaper and cut it into strips (roughly 2-3 cm across). Then get a balloon which you’ve blown up (but not too full, you don’t want the balloon accidentally popping while you’re covering it in newspaper strips) and onto the balloon start layering the strips of glue covered paper until you’ve covered the surface of the balloon fully and there is none of the surface showing through.

Leave this to set for about half an hour or so, it doesn’t need to get too dry at the moment, then start layering on more paper, again a strip at a time until you’ve covered the entire surface of the balloon.

Repeat this procedure about three or four times and then you’ll have a well coated surface, all that’s needed now is to leave the balloon to dry. If you have a heater in a cupboard or somewhere else that’s reasonably warm, leave the balloons there overnight to allow the paper and glue mixture to harden adequately.

Popping The Balloons

This part can either be done beforehand or if you want to let the kids on the day of the party get a little more involved, you can get them to help. All that’s needed is something reasonably sharp (a knitting needle is probably the best idea) and using this, push a hole in the top of the balloon carefully, so you don’t damage the paper mache. Then, using scissors - and you probably want to do this yourself rather than trying to get the kids to do it - carefully push into the hole you created and cut lengthways around the hollow paper shell so that you end up with two halves.

These halves will form your masks. Now you can get the kids to help decorate with child-safe paints and string or elastic to tie onto the masks to go round the back of the head and hold the mask on. You’ll also need to cut eyeholes and mouthholes in each mask to ensure that no-one is running around blind!

Et voila! A cheap and very affordable solution for a fancy dress party that’ll ensure that everyone present has a great day.