surprise balls!

I've been poked fun of a few times for doing things pretty "Martha-y" when it comes to parties and holidays, but I just can't help it. I love to make celebrations really memorable and fun.
I had seen surprise balls done before on a few blogs and knew that I wanted to try them out at some point, so a few weeks ago I asked my sister Katie if I could make some for my niece Amira's birthday.
For anyone that doesn't know what a surprise ball is, it is basically a mini individual pass the parcel. You are given a ball and unravel it to reveal little trinkets and treasures.
I started by going to a few stores and collecting little things that could easily be wrapped up into the ball. Stickers, small candies, tattoos, bracelets, balloons, the options are endless. You could also do things like write out jokes, riddles, fortunes and things of the like but unfortunately I didn't have the time to do that.

So then once I had all my trinkets bought I made sure to have all my supplies on hand.

This is what you need:

• crepe paper streamers
• ribbon
• tape or stickers to seal off the ball
• trinkets (make sure to have something that is round or that can be rolled into a round shape for the center, I even rolled up a pair of colourful socks!)
• instructions

Then all you do is begin to wrap the paper around the centre treasure and include a little something in amongst the layers. Then seal it with tape or a funky sticker, embellish et voila!

It was such a hit at the party and was so much fun to watch the little ones unravel their surprise balls. This is one idea that I will be surely using again.

xox