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Homemade Bouncy Balls are a great boredom buster and craft for kids! These DIY bouncy balls can also serve as a simple science experiment too!
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5 from 1 vote

Homemade Bouncy Balls

Homemade Bouncy Balls are a great boredom buster and craft for kids! These DIY bouncy balls can also serve as a simple science experiment too!

Equipment

  • 2 small mixing bowls 
  • spoons to stir
  • rubber gloves for sensitive skin

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon borax 
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tablespoons white glue
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • Liquid food coloring

Instructions

  • Mix together the water and borax in a medium-sized bowl. It's ok if a little of the borax remains at the bottom of the bowl, but make sure it's mixed as well as possible.
  • In a separate small bowl mix together the cornstarch, glue, and food coloring. You’ll want to make sure these ingredients are mixed really well for the best results. 
    Glue and food coloring
  • Add the glue mixture to the water mixture and stir until the mixture reaches a smooth, homogenous, gooey consistency.  This should only take about 10 seconds.
    Add glue mixture to the cornstarch mixture
  • Once it's gooey, use your hands or the back of a spoon to squish it around a bit until it starts to firm slightly. It's ok that it isn’t a ball at this point!
    Stir in mixture
  • Take the gooey glue mix out of the borax mixture and roll the mixture in your hands until round and hardened.
    Remove from liquid mixture
  • You can make 1 big bouncy ball or several small ones by breaking bits off before it has hardened. The longer you roll the ball in your hands the harder it will get. If you set the ball down it will flatten a little, if this happens just start rolling it again and it will shape up.
    Rolling into cylindrical shape

Notes

My bouncy ball is a bit sticky.
This fun craft can be messy! The mixture can be a little sticky as your roll it between your hands to form it into balls. If you’re feeling sticky go ahead and dust your bouncy ball/s with a little cornstarch before rolling. This will get rid of some of the stickiness and smooth out the surface. 
Storage Instructions:
Store the bouncy ball/s in an airtight container at room temperature making sure that they are not touching each other. They will combine after a while if they are touching. Note that they tend to flatten out a bit as they sit. When you are ready to play with them again, just roll the ball/s between your hands to reshape. After about 5 days the balls will have lost much of their bounce.