Rain Day

It’s January and yet the Toronto weather has covered almost ALL of the currently available seasons, from relatively balmy to pouring freezing rain to snowing and back around. Rudi (who is 3) is deeply confused about what footwear to use as there is a smorgasbord of shoes and both snow and rain boots. Today it is a rain day, serious enough that we buckled down for a crafty, cozy, thoughtful day in.

I tend towards melancholy and sentimentality (in an Anne of Green Gables sort of a way) so a rainy day really cranks up my dramatic misty-eyed side! Lots of contemplating change and what my work means to me and how I do/will define myself as a crafter and/or business woman with my sewing, what I’ll choose to make for business and what I’ll reserve for simple creative pleasure, and so on. It’s all good thinking inspired by a conversation with a new friend made last week — a friend of a friend who’s a long-time, self-employed creative type.

Alongside the contemplating, there’s some good old fashioned Hotwheels and Cars 2 games going on throughout the house, just to balance things out!

Rudi agreed to help me create my first ever how-to for the blog while we made some rainy day juggling balls! So here we go, for a quick and easy craft, just follow along!

How to Make Balloon Juggling Balls:

THE CRAFT: layered balloon juggling balls

TO START: You'll need: lots of balloons (3 per juggling ball), scissors, lentils (or rice), thin plastic bags (we cut ours from the corners of kitchen garbage bags)

STEP 1: Pour 1/2-3/4 a cup of lentils (or rice) into your plastic bag

STEP 2: Tie a tight knot in the bag (or you can use a tiny elastic)

STEP 3: Cut off the excess bag above your knot

STEP 4: How your bag of lentils should look (pause for dramatic effect) yes, correct, sort of like drugs found in a suspected mule's esophagus or butt on a bad TV show. No need to read this step out to the kids in the house. And now continue on to step 5!

STEP 5: Cut the narrow bits off your balloons

STEP 6: Wrap 2 of the balloons around the bag of "lentils", one over the other, so that there is no plastic bag showing. I used the same colour for a consistent base (but you can get wild and go with 3 or more colours of course!)

STEP 7: Cut some extra holes in your 3rd balloon, 2 or 3 should do the trick

STEP 8: Wrap your 3rd, holey balloon over the first 2 balloons and you're there, 1 lovely, multi-coloured juggling ball done!

FINISHED! Ta-da! A variety of well weighted yet not too dangerous juggling balls.

2 comments

January 23, 2012 at 6:42 pm

Rhonda Lakowski says:

What a fun project! So colourful, easy and great for kids.
I will share this idea with my nephews. Thanks PocketAlchemy!
Rudi is a wonderful little helper!

January 26, 2012 at 9:41 pm

Jean Elaine Kendal says:

Rudi’s hands are so expressive: such energy and commitment in the “Step 1” photo–lentil/rice throwdown; pure joy at the wonderfully alluring end result shown in the “Finished” picture! Oh, and I’ve always wondered what the secret ingredient ls for this kind of juggling ball, and now I understand that it’s the plastic bag to hold the rice or lentils, so thank you, PocketAlchemy. I might as well admit that I’d always thought it took more dexterity, patience, and persistence than I’ll ever have in all my life to send all those little grains one by one down the neck of the inner balloon!?! So now I, too, can make a set of 3 and learn to juggle….

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