Stress is a serious problem which most of us are bound to experience. After bracelets and fidget spinners, stress balls are the hottest new favorite gadgets people like to use to fight
depression and anxiety to reduce tension.
You probably understand the principle of the stress ball – but did you ever wonder if you can make one yourself?
You’ve probably seen quick & easy tutorials making your own stress ball with the help of a balloon.
But let’s say you don’t have a balloon and you couldn’t find any stress balls in shops near you, delivery might take its time – and yet you still require a homemade stress ball.
Can you make a stress ball without a balloon?
The answer is simple, yes of course! And in this post, you will find everything you require and steps you need to take in order to accomplish this.
Who knows, maybe you even become that good at making your own stress balls that you even decide to set up your own shop.
Therefore, keep on reading, because by the end of this post, you will be making your own stress balls sooner than you imagine!
Benefits of Stress Balls
A
stress ball is a simple malleable toy, around 7 cm in diameter, which can be squeezed inside the palm of your hand ostensibly to relieve muscle tension and stress, at the same time exercise the muscles of your hand.
Easily portable and able to fit snugly into your palm, a stress ball is easily available in stores and is ideal for everyone.
But why are stress balls so popular and how are they connected to helping release the stress?
It’s a known fact that repeatedly squeezing the stress ball releases tension and in turn helps to relieve stress.
However, what most people doesn’t know is that stress balls in addition to the mental help can also improve the
blood circulation. After all, you’re doing a physical activity and even though it doesn’t require a lot of effort – the motion is still a good way to keep the blow flowing.
But there’s one benefit that almost no one knows about.
The most secretive benefit is that the stress ball can help with treatment of carpal-tunnel syndrome and even arthritis.
Now when you know all the health benefits, you can easily understand the reason of stress ball being used for meditation too.
We believe you’re all hyped up to get your blow flowing and mind healthy – so let us show you how to make your first stress ball!
Things You Will Need Before You Proceed
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make a stress ball without a balloon.
- A bowl
- Glue
- Shaving cream
- Cotton balls
- Contact solution
- A spatula
- Paint
STEP 1: Place the bowl on a stable surface like a wooden bench or table
Ideally, you would want to have a larger flat surface cleared so you can place all your ingredients and yet still have plenty of space to make the mixture required to create your own
DIY squeeze ball.
Bowl size should be the regular (medium) size but going for a larger bowl isn’t a bad idea either. As long as the bowl can hold up all the necessary ingredients for the mixture – it’s good enough.
STEP 2: Pour some glue to the bottom of the bowl.
Since a lot of glue will be involved in the creation of the mixture for the stress ball, we just want to stay on the safe side and advise you to use a bowl that you aren’t using regularly or a bowl you don’t need no longer.
How much glue you should add is up to the bowl you’re using. The idea is to cover the bottom part of the bowl with glue so the glue creates a surface at the bottom of the bowl.
STEP 3: Add shavings cream to measure six times the amount of glue you Just added.
You might not be able to measure the amount of glue you’ve added to the bowl previously – but this step requires to approximately judge the amount of glue you’ve used and then add 6 times of the shaving cream.
Any shaving cream will do just fine.
STEP 4: Use the spatula and stir to mix the solution well.
Just like we’ve advised you to use a bowl you might not need in the future, we also recommend using a spatula which you might disregard afterwards – due to the glue texture that might be hard to clean off.
You should stir the mixture for about 3 to 4 minutes, however, feel free to mix it for longer in order to get these two ingredients combined well together.
STEP 5: Add any paint you want.
Food color paint is the best paint you can use since it will be light and won’t affect the mixture too much. Alcohol based paint might be good enough but it might affect the mixture.
Keep on mixing the mixture with spatula as you gradually add paint so the mixture becomes the color of your choice.
STEP 6: Add contact solution and stir vigorously until the mixture becomes Slime.
Any contact solution will do and you should gradually add it to the colored mixture as you mix the mixture with spatula.
The idea is to keep adding the contact solution until the mixture results in a more slime-like texture which you can shape.
STEP 7: Remove contents from bowl and place it on a flat surface to expel excess liquid. Clean surface afterwards.
In order to ensure that the mixture is as dry as possible so you can shape it accordingly – you should remove the mixture from the bowl and place it on the flat surface before proceeding.
STEP 8: Flatten the slime as it sits on the flat surface.
In order to flatten the slime, you can either use your hands but we highly recommend using any plastic-like object to avoid the stickiness.
STEP 9: Get the cotton balls and start to break them down into smaller Balls measuring 3 grains of rice.
This is one of the most important steps where your slime mixture will start becoming a stress ball. It’s important to get the cotton balls and break them down into very tiny measures which are very similar to 3 grains of rice before mixing it with the flattened slime mixture.
STEP 10: Embed them and place them on your flattened slime paste until the cotton balls are broken down.
It’s all about adding the broken cotton balls into the mixture – however, keep in mind that you shouldn’t overdo it.
STEP 11: Fold up the flat slime paste and roll it up into a ball. At this point, It should feel solid in the palm of your hand.
This is the step when you will notice your DIY mixture will turn into a very look-alike stress ball. In order to continue at this point, you should fold up the earlier flattened slime paste and roll it into a ball. You shouldn’t worry about the shape of the ball for now.
However, ensure that the mixture feels very solid in your hand.
STEP 12: Flatten the slime, break down more cotton balls, roll them into Balls until you are pleased with the consistency.
This steps is basically re-doing the step number 10 just to ensure the proper structure of your DIY stress ball. This will help improve the texture and make sure that the stress balls remain the texture throughout the use.
STEP 13: Once you are pleased with the thickness of your slime, you may now roll it into a ball. This is now a slime stress ball.
When you are satisfied with the thickness, shape, and texture of your stress ball – you can roll it one last time into a ball and you’ve completed the process!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MB0ywwCB0
Leave the stress ball to dry and you can put it to first use in just a couple of hours later.
However, if you are not satisfied with the thickness or texture of your DIY stress ball – you have to go back to the step number 10 and do it one more time (or as many times as required to achieve the perfect structure you required).
For best results, ensure you stress ball doesn’t fall apart, stick to cloths, stain surfaces or stick to rugs in the process of creation but also during the use and after the use.
This means you will have to pay a little bit more attention to the storage of your stress ball after the use – but in our opinion, it’s totally worth it!
After all, now you know you can always make another stress ball, even if you don’t have a balloon.
However, you can repeat the same process by using a bigger bowl and a lot more ingredients to create more than one stress ball at a time.