Have you ever seen party favor balls? They are crepe paper balls formed around itty bitty party favors. Your party guests unroll and unroll and unroll to reveal as many little surprises as you want to wrap. I just made my first favor ball — Shark Week-style, of course — and my girls gave the suspense factor of this party favor a big thumbs up.
See my other Shark Week tutorials: shark fin soda bottle and shark tooth Rice Krispies Treats.
Supplies
- Crepe paper rolls
- Glue dots or scotch tape
- White glue (I like Aleene’s Thick Tacky Glue)
- Black marker
- Red marker
- Blue scrapbooking cardstock
- White cardstock
- Paint brush
- Scissors
- Tiny party favors
Instructions
1 – Place a glue dot on the favor that you’ll wrap into the center of the ball. Apply the crepe paper to the glue dot.
2 – Begin wrapping the crepe paper around the favor, twisting as you go so that all sides of the favor are covered.
3 – Keep wrapping until you are beginning to achieve a ball shape. Add your next favor to the flatest side; it will help round out the ball. Then keep wrapping. Repeat until you’ve wrapped all the favors.
4 – Now that all your favors are wrapped, keep rounding out your circle. Make tight layers, and secure the last bit with another glue dot.
5 – You’ll have some edges that don’t want to smooth down. The experts probably can wrap these puppies to perfection, but I just dipped my paint brush in some white glue. Dab the glue under your sticky-out layers and press them down. Problem solved.
6 – Time to make your shark fin. Freehand this out of blue scrapbooking cardstock. Be sure to leave a little extra at the base, so you can fold this over. Use your first as a template for the rest. Snip the fold vertically so the base will be able to bend around the ball.
Add glue to the fold and press it into the favor ball.
7 – To make the shark’s mouth, cut a piece of white cardstock into a rectangle. Hold it to the front of your favor ball for size. Then, trim the rectangle so there is a rounded triangle at the top and a slightly rounded bottom.
8 – Sketch a mouthful of shark teeth. Poke your scissors into the middle of the shark mouth, then start cutting out the teeth. I found it easiest to cut all of one side of the teeth, and then all of the other side.
9 – Brush glue on the pencil side of your shark mouth and press it to the front of your favor ball.
10 – Use your black marker to add eyes and your red marker to add blood drops. (I drew my blood drops upside down – whoops!)
And here’s your final shark favor ball! Now let the kids have at it!
That’s a lot of crepe paper. It took not quite a half roll of crepe paper to create one favor ball, but of course, you could make this smaller and save some paper.
Will you try favor balls? You can use multiple colors of crepe paper or style them in any other way you like. I’d love to see what you create!
This is such a cute idea, Jennifer! Love it!
Thanks! It was a hit in our house. The only trick is constantly unwinding the twisting crepe paper!