Mash them! Juggle them! Customize them! Just grab a bag of flour and party balloons and create a colorful batch of superhero stress balls at home for practically nothing!
11
NINJA STRESS BALLS
SKILL LEVEL:
EASY
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
APPROXIMATE TIME:
15 minutes
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
+ 2 wide-mouth juice bottles
+ Bag of latex party balloons
+ Bag of flour
LET’S BEGIN
ASSEMBLING YOUR NINJA STRESS BALLS
1. Cut a plastic water bottle in half and then turn it upside down, forming a makeshift funnel.
2. Use the funnel to transfer ¾ cup of flour into an empty wide-mouth juice bottle.
3. Blow up a balloon, twist the end a couple of times, and stretch the spout over the mouth of the juice bottle. When attached, let the balloon go, turn the bottle upside down, and squeeze all the flour into the balloon.
4. Pinch the neck of the balloon and pull it off the bottle to let the air out. Keeping the neck pinched, massage the base to compress the flour and move any trapped gases to the top.
5. Clean the outside of the balloon with a damp cloth, then carefully use a pair of scissors to cut off the neck. While you still have the scissors out, cut the ends off a few more balloons of the same color.
6. Use all your fingers to stretch one of these balloons open and place over the center of the flour ball. Wrap it around to the underside to seal in the flour. Pull the edges to smooth out any ripples. Repeat this step with two or three more balloons to increase its durability.
PRO TIP: Try adding a few dabs of superglue on the underside of the lip to make your balloon extra secure.
7. Finally, add a “ninja mask.” Cut U shapes around the edges of a black balloon, then fold it in half so you can cut a U shape out of the middle. Putting the mask on the Ninja Ball is as simple as turning the band inside out and wrapping it around the outside of the ball.
8. Try matching one of the holes of the mask with the seam on the ball, and the seam will virtually disappear. This will give it a professional touch, and most people will have no idea how you made it.
ALSO TRY: Play around with different color combinations and firmness levels. See what happens when you fill a Ninja Ball with sand or sawdust instead of flour. Try four solid green balls with blue, purple, red, and orange masks to get Ninja Turtle eggs, or think up any other superhero color combos. The options are limitless. Why pay $10 for a pack of three when you can customize your own for ridiculously cheap? Plus, these come out better than the ones you see in stores! They’re soft, durable, and ultrafun to play around with.
WARNING:
So awesome and easy, you may become addicted.
FUN FACT: Did you know the first stress ball was actually a walnut? During the Han dynasty (206 BC), warriors would squeeze walnuts because they believed it would enhance their fighting skills in battle.