How to Make Surprise Ball Party Favors
Imaginative Crafts, Do-It-Yourself Projects and Video Tutorials by Robert Mahar, robert-mahar.com
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Robert’s Surprise Balls Pinterest Board:http://pinterest.com/robertm/surprise…
Materials:
Crepe Paper Streamers (various colors)
Crepe Paper Folds (optional)
8 — 10 Small Trinkets/Prizes
Tape
Glue
Ribbon (optional)
Tools:
Scissors
Directions:
1. Unroll 2-3 arm lengths of crepe paper streamer. Begin with the largest of the trinkets and begin wrapping it with the streamer. Once the trinket is completely wrapped, tape the end.
2. Continuing wrapping with a new color crepe paper streamer, slowing forming a ball shape. Add additional trinkets and change streamer colors as you’d like, building up the ball until it is approximately the size of a baseball.
3. When all of the trinkets have been wrapped into the ball, add 2 — 3 additional layers/colors of streamers. When applying these final layers gently adding tension as you wrap, stretching the crepe paper and creating a smoother outer surface.
4. You can stop at this point or optionally wrap the exterior with strips of 1″ wide strips cut from crepe paper folds, which tends to be a finer quality giving a nice finish to the surprise balls.
5. The surprise balls can be decorated in a variety of ways:
• Leave them a solid color and wrap bow around them with satin ribbon.
• Create a pattern of overlapping stripes with strips cut from various color crepe paper.
• Decorate the exterior to look like a person, animal or object
6. Consider adding a cleverly worded tag to your finished surprise ball, directing the recipient to unravel it and find the goodies inside!
Helpful Tips:
• Keep your surprise ball trinkets small! And it’s helpful to have a few flat items to wrap into the last few layers of the ball. For extra fun, add confetti as you wrap the ball!
• Depending on the size and variety of goodies you wrap into your surprise ball, it is very unlikely that you will end up with a perfectly spherical ball…and that’s ok! Gently stretching the crepe paper as you apply the final layers will help create a smoother surface, but extra lumpy surprise balls can always be disguised with a bow!
• Surprise balls make fun party favors and can also double as place cards when you add a tag. Consider coordinating the colors and contents of your surprise balls to the theme of your party/event.