21 Days Until Christmas... Jingle Balls

I called these Jingle Balls, a) because they are ball shaped and have Jingle bells in them, and b) because it is funny... Like ordering Chicken Balls for Chinese food - makes me crack up every time.


I have yet to get any good pictures of them - Maybe once we have the tree up and decorated... But the idea is basic and simple, and easily executed. You just need some white-glue-drying-time patience (and a place where your dogs wont try to play with them...)

I just realized I don't have any pictures of them finished... so these will have to do for now, I will definitely get some finished and on the tree pictures up as soon as I can.

 There are tutorials flooding the internet about these things, and they are kind of fun to make. They take a little bit more time than you might expect if you have never made them, but it is simple.

You will need:
 -water balloons -or regular size balloons if you want to make big balls (hehehe)
-Jingle Bells - to put inside the water balloon, so it ends up in the string ball
-string
-white glue (you could use fabric stiffener too... I like white glue because it is cheap, i already have it, and I don't need to go searching for an expensive addition to my crafting supplies that we are already drowning in.)
-somewhere to tie these up so they can dry until hard, without being disturbed. (I left mine for a few days, just for good measure, and not at all because I had forgot about them)



Step 1- get the jingle ball into the water balloon. This is probably the most difficult part.  I should also note that you should probably pick some jingle bells that are not tiny. When you are wrapping your string around, you will need to make sure that every hole is small enough to keep the jingle bells inside the string ball.

Step 2- blow up jingly water balloon until is is rounded. You can always let air out of the balloon, but it becomes a pain to have to blow it up more. (don't forget to tie it.  - I wasn't going to add that in, but just in case)

Step 3. tie a separate string onto the  tied end of the balloon, so you can hang this sucker up to dry.

Step 4 - Glue goes into a bowl... and Step 4a - unravel some string now so you dont have to deal with tangled string while your fingers are covered in glue (Yep, it is going to get messy)

Step 5- String goes into glue... and then you start wrapping around the balloon. You are going to want to remove some of the excess glue from the string, but not too much... you want it there to add the strength.

Step 6- wrap the string around and around and around in random directions until you have it the way you want it. - Making sure that all the spaced between the strings will be small enough to keep the Jingle Bell in there.

Step 7 - Let dry VERY well

Step 8 - Pop your balloon

Step 9- You will probably need to use a small knife to cut out some of the dried glue from the spaces. And to fully remove the balloon.

Step 10- Tie a string around it so you will have something to hang it up with (if you want your Jingle Bells to hang)