Make your own Stress Ball

My DH loves having a stress ball on his desk at work and I like them because they are great toys for fidgety people (I should know ;D). It also makes a good father's day present or stocking stuffer.
When my fingers are bored I destroy small objects, tap annoyingly on the table, subconsciously doodle on things that should not be drawn upon, or use them to eat despite not being hungry (If only I could subconsciously type this blog!).
Commercially produced stress balls are ridiculously expensive so I found a few easy tutorials on making your own. All you need to do to make this project truly crafty is knit, felt, or sew your own cover for it!

Before proceeding to the tutorial links below I have a few notes on my own experience with creating stress balls.

• Use balloons at least 12 inches in size or larger. I tried 9" balloons first and they broke every time.
• When layering dough stress balls use cooking oil to slick the inside of your balloons. This makes inserting your ball into each balloon layer easier.
• Making dough stress balls is a 2 person job! You need one person to hold the balloons open while another stuffs them with dough or stuffs one balloon layer into the next.
• This is, thankfully a short project! Your fingers will be tired after making just a couple of balls.
• The recipe for dough stress balls in the first link makes enough dough for 2-3 balls.
  Here is a good YouTube video on the subject from tikigod1974. I like how they use the empty water bottle to fill the balloons with powder.
•  CURIOUS ANIMAL WARNING!!: Some pets find balls of any kind fun to play with. Unless you want flour and corn starch all over your home, keep your homemade stress balls away from curious animals (as well as small children)! Once destroyed the remaining parts can also pose a choking hazard.

Here is a simple explanation on How To Make a Stress Ball; without pictures. It's so simple you don't need them.

Here is a neat video I found on YouTube showing how to use a water bottle to fill a stress ball.


Lastly, if you are good at crochet or knitting you may want to make a wide mesh cover for your ball. This will make the balloon bulge out of the mesh in interesting ways; or you could recycle some wide netting of some sort.