For this project I’m going to show you how to quickly and easily make a set of Sky Balls.
They’re called Sky Balls because if you throw, or launch one high into the air, you’ll
see a little parachute opens up, bringing them safely back to the ground. Which might
add a whole new dimension, to the fun you can have outdoors.
Let’s start this project with a pack of latex party balloons. It’s nice to have
a variety of different colors, and I found a bag of 25 at the dollar store.
We’re also going to need some rice, and a small plastic parachute. These parachutes
are made from dollar-store tablecloths, and I ended up with 8 of them, for about $1. So
watch for how to make these in another project video.
Now the construction of our Sky Balls are going to be very similar to the Ninja Balls
we made in another video. You’ll probably remember in that project, we used balloons
and flour to make a batch of seamless, superhero stress balls, that are customizable and fairly durable.
Now, we’ll be making our Sky Balls pretty much the same way, but instead of flour and
juice bottles, this time let’s try rice, and a 2 oz baby bottle. And if you don’t
have rice, you could use popcorn kernels, sugar, or just anything else you can think of.
Now one bottle, full of rice, is all we need, and you should find the mouth is the perfect
size for making the transfer.
Ok, let’s dig through our pile of balloons for one white balloon, and 3 others, the same color.
Blow up a green one and twist the end so the air doesn’t leak out, then stretch the mouth
over the top of the bottle. Turn everything upside down, you should be able to see all
the rice flowing out of the bottle, and dropping into the bottom of the balloon.
Give the bottle a little shake, then pinch the neck of the balloon and carefully pull
it off. If you slowly and carefully let all the air out, then tie a knot in the neck to
seal the rice inside, you should end up with a cool little squishy ball.
Now to make it a little tougher it’s a good idea to add at least 2 more layers for durability,
so go ahead and cut the excess off the top of the knot, then grab another balloon and
stretch the mouth wide enough that it will fit over the entire ball.
Do it one more time, and you’ll have a simple homemade stress ball with 3 layers of protection.
And of course you can add as many layers as you want.
Now to give the balls a little character, let’s cut 3 half circles around the edges
of a white balloon, and make a hole through the center as well.
Stretch it around the outside of the ball, and smooth out any wrinkles, to finish it
off and make it look really cool.
Alright it’s time for the squishy ball and the parachute, to join forces.
Look for the two loops at the end of the parachute cord and carefully thread a piece of string
through both of them and tie them together. The other end needs to be tied to the balloon
as tightly as you can, making sure the string is attached, underneath the knot at the top.
Now go ahead and cut off the excess string, and your para-ball is finished. Ready for
you to head outside, to see if it works.
All you need to do is toss the ball high into the air, and the parachute should open and
float gently back to the ground. I’ll show you how to pack them so they do that, in just a second.
Now of course the tighter your pack your chute, the longer it will take for it to open. Which
means the higher you can get them.
I spent 2 more hours and made 8 different colored, Sky Balls, each with their own white
jackets. Which kind of makes them look like a nest of flying Yoshi’s eggs. They’re
soft and squishy like stress balls, and the rubber skins make them really easy to handle.
Now just for fun, let’s try using a hand-held water balloon slingshot to see just how high
we can get them before they open. Impressively, you can see it does a pretty descent job.
I like this method because the slingshot is powerful, and looks awesome. And it really
doesn’t take much effort to get the parachutes way into the sky. But if you don’t have
one, remember that throwing the balls by hand, can be just as fun as well.
Now to pack our parachutes, simply hold them at the top so you can pull the strings straight,
then squeeze all of the air out of the material. Fold them in half, and begin rolling the parachute
up toward the ball, and when you get to the strings, carefully wrap those around the parachute
as well. This will help keep the bundle together, but’ll also unravel fairly easily when we throw it.
The tighter you can get your parachute, the longer it will take for it to open, and if
you wrap the strings in a “cross” pattern, it’ll add a slightly longer delay. By the
way, you’ll probably notice that your parachute opens a lot faster when the wind is blowing
as opposed to when it’s calm outside, so make sure you take that into account as well.
If you notice the lines start twisting up after a bad throw, it’s not hard to unravel
them, but if you want to go one step further, try adding some elastic cord and a barrel
swivel, to your balloons. I found these swivel clips in the fishing isle of a local super
center, and you can see the clips make it really easy to untangle the lines, then clip
them back together when you’re in a hurry.
To finish up, I took my kids to the park and tried loading a ball into the Candy Cannon,
pressurized to 120 PSI with a bike pump. This way, even my kids can shoot them sky high
with the simple press of a button.
And since the parachutes only take a few seconds to repack, they can be ready to launch again
as soon as you are.
Now check this out. For one last experiment, I went ahead an loaded all 8 of my Sky Balls,
into the Candy Cannon at the same time, to see what would happen if we fired them off at once.
The result, is unexpectedly awesome. They kind of look like a team of mini skydivers,
out for a good time.
Well now you know how to use rice, balloons, and a plastic tablecloth parachute, to make
a cool set, of high flying Sky Balls. And chances are, you already have the materials
to make them hiding somewhere around your house.
Well that’s it for now. If you like this project perhaps you’ll like some of my others.
Check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com