How to make a Balloon Juggling Ball
DIY juggling balls made from balloons and rice are on the agenda today! We love DIY Toys, and this is a great kids crafts for rainy days.They also double us as great homemade stress balls, so make a good gift for Dad. This idea came from my neighbour’s 9yrs old son – the balloon juggling balls have been around a while.. but I love the idea of turning it into a superhero! What a clever and imaginative boy he is indeed.
Aren’t they fun?
With lots of red, blue and white balloons left over from the Jubilee, we got cracking.
Don’t you think that our Superheroes are perfect for 4th July too? Would make for a fun activity on 4th July party – first make some with the kids and then challenge the kids to learn to juggle…
To make Balloon Juggling Balls you will need:
- 2-3 balloons (3 if you are making these with young children),
- approx 60g rice,
- pen,
- small plastic bag
UPDATE: I love the suggestion in the comments to fill these with sand as an alternative filling for stress balls!
How to make Balloon Juggling balls with rice or sand
You can watch the video on auto play or follow the step by step photo instructions!
1) Snip the end of one the balloon – the one you intend on having in the centre. We filled the white one first and kept the dark blue one for the head. In retrospect, as we drew faces on with marker pens, I would reverse the colours – our faces don’t show up very well on the dark blue.
2) Fill you balloon with rice. This was a bit fiddly and messy.. I held the balloon open, whilst Red Ted scooped in the rice with a spoon. As it got fuller, I squished the rice down as he filled. Tricky. I had a look online if there was a clever way of doing it.. and low and below there is: see Tip Junkie’s top tip of filling your rice in a small sandwich bag first! Ha. Clever. It works… but if you don’t have any sandwich bags… then stuffing it with a spoon and fingers works too.
3) Cut the top off your second balloon and stretch over the rice filled balloon – making sure you cover the hole to keep the rice in. Try not to create any are bubbles.
4) Using the “snipped off bit” – cut a piece off – approx 2cm or an inch. Then stretch it over your ball to make a mask. Using nail scissors or a needle, carefuly poke some eyes in mask. Take care not to damage the juggling ball. The majority were easy enough to do. But for some reason on the blue ball with the white mask, the white kept splitting and splitting and splitting… mmmh.
5) Draw on your face with a ball.
Red Ted’s favourite!
Pip Squeak’s favourite!
Isn’t my neighbour’s son simply too clever? Go him!
Now juggle or play. My kids decided that they were not interested in juggling, but throwing. Fine. Which did mean that half the masks ended up coming off. But the faces are still there and intact and look good. So all is well!
Here is our Video How To Make Juggling Balls:
More fun DIY Toys you can make:
