The Earth Savers Blog

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The Art of Surprise

Holidays are coming quickly and although purse strings are tight for everyone it seems that the season of giving feels stronger and perhaps more important than ever.

Here is a quick, easy, affordable and delightful twist on holiday gift giving that EVERYONE loves so don't limit this idea to children.  It can also incredibly eco friendly as you can re-gift, reuse, and recycle things in your own home incorporating them into this great gift.

How to make a SURPRISE BALL:

What you need: Scissors, ribbon, crepe paper, string or yarn, fabric, and your items.

1) Gather up any smaller sized items that you might want to wrap including pins, misfit game pieces, clips, buttons, coins, keys, poems, lockets, gems, ornaments, jewelry, candy, snow globes etc.  If you are like me ( ok- i can be considered a hoarder) you randomly have most of these things sitting in the house anyways! or you can go to the dollar store, or even make many of the items.  Try to gather about ten- fourteen per ball ( you can really have as many as you like, but it's fun to have at least ten)

2) Make a quick list of your friends and kids in your life and make a mental note of their hobbies, likes, or something personal about them and try to group little items. For example- my friend Mandy loves vintage anything- so i put together some pins, buttons, images, a brooch, an antique key and made the very center of the gift a vintage belt buckle i found for her in an old antique store that cost me about $3.00.  Then there is my seven year old daughter who loves fairies and kittens so her surprise ball had lots of little fun shells, fairies, rocks, a hello kitty eraser, a tiny bottle of nail polish, a tiny butterfly, and a fairy necklace.  Boys love pirate coins, matchbox cars, tattoos, marbles, maps,  silly putty or anything really.

3) Start by taking your largest item (My mother loves to cook so I made a beautiful French toile dish towel into a ball and used it as the center!) and then start to "wrap" the item in string, yarn or crepe paper winding it snugly so that it covers the entire item.  As you go - keep adding a new item to another layer continuing to try to keep the shape (many of mine come out pear shaped but don't fret...they are just as much fun to open!) Once you have made your ball large enough you can add the finishing touches.  I like to print out an image- cut it into a circle and add a strip of ribbon or cut the crepe into a smaller strip to make it look more festive.  Use the glue to fasten your image or a sticker sealing the last loose end or ribbon. It's also nice to put a tag or sticker letting them know to unwrap their surprise being mindful that things will fall out as they go.  They also "travel" very well so keep this in mind when you need to send a gift through the mail.

4) You can really be as creative as you want with these - giving them as hostess gifts, party favors, or creating a great tradition for other holidays. 

If you would rather skip the fun yourself and order one, you can always order your extra special surprise ball through me @ [email protected] for $15.00 each but be sure to get your order in by December 18th.