How to Make Surprise Balls

Hi Everyone

Today I'm going to share a relatively simple DIY gift idea. Surprise balls were one of my favorite things to get as a gift when I was a kid, hey I'd still actually love to get these now. They are just a blast!

Now I know a lot of people don't know what a surprise ball is, basically you get a bunch of small trinkets, jewelry/candy/toys/etc, and you take crate paper streamers and you wrap all the little trinkets into a giant ball of goodness that the person then has to slowly unwrap one layer at a time. 

This Year I'm making them for my step nieces and nephews, the one I'm making in this tutorial is more girly. You could really make these for anyone though, kids and adults alike you just need to pick the right stuff to put in it. Anyways here we go!

You Will Need: 

 2-3 (or more depending on how big you plan to make yours) 81 foot roles of crate paper streamers.

An assortment of small trinkets, Toys/Candy/Stickers/Coins/Jewelry/Etc.

Something round and not slippery to build the ball around.

A glue stick

A sticker gift tag

You may need tape 

 

 For my base I got these metal Christmas ornament gift boxes and filled a draw string bag with nickles and dimes for inside them. When you shake the finished ball it makes a great sound and its heavy so it will make the person getting it wonder even more about whats in it. You could really use anything round though.

 Collect your trinkets. Take everything out of its big bulky packaging. This is also where you may need tape. I wanted to make sure the directions stayed with the watch and Chinese jump rope so I taped the directions to them.

I wrapped a pair of leg warmers around the Christmas ball box so that the streamers wouldn't slide around and it made the finished ball look way bigger because the leg warmers were such a thick layer.

 Start wrapping! Make sure to wrap the streamers nice and tight, but not so tight they rip. Completely wrap and cover your base with streamers before adding any trinkets. 

 Wrap in your trinkets. I personally tried to do at least 2 wraps between each prize, and make sure to vary the amount of wraps between things. Also make sure to evenly place trinkets all around the ball so that it keeps its round shape.

 When you reach the end of your first streamer use your glue stick to glue the ends of your first streamer to the end of the new role. Give it time to dry all the way before you keep wrapping. You could also tape them together. 

 Keep Wrapping!

And adding trinkets.

And wrapping

and wrapping...

Until

 You're done! 

Make sure that you have at least 4 wraps with out trinkets at the end, But i would suggest if you have enough streamer left to as many wraps without trinkets at the end as possible 8 seems to be the ideal number.

Now take your gift tag and stick half of it to the end of the streamer and then stick the other half to the ball, this will keep it from unraveling before you give it to someone. Make sure to write your message on the gift tag before you stick it to the streamers. I wrote "Open Here" on mine.

The picture with the tape dispenser is just to give you an idea of how big mine came out.

This is a relatively time consuming project, but it is super easy and you could do this well watching TV or something. And trust me the reaction of the person who you give this to will be worth all the work.

I hope maybe this helped some of you figure a gift idea out. This is also a relatively cheap gift to make especially if you are making more then one because a lot of the stuff you can get in bulk for cheap at party places and such. 

I'd love to see a picture if you make these yourself, so if you blog about it or share a picture through twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else leave your link in the comments bellow. 

Have a great day!

Lexi