Crepe Paper Surprise Balls

For my bridal shower, 11 years ago, I wanted to make sure the guests had a good time.  My family arranged the venue, food, music and decorations but I contributed the games.  (Yes, it felt a little uncouth to help plan my own party...)   We played 'Don't Say or Do',  'Tissue Paper Wedding Dress' and 'Shopping List'.  But my favorite game was 'Musical Surprise Balls'.  For that game I wrapped a wearable item around alot of newspaper and crepe paper.  The guests had to pass/toss the ball around to music and when the music stopped, the person holding the ball got to unwrap it until the music started again.  When the ball was finally unwrapped, that person had to wear the surprise item.  This was hilarious because while some of the gifts were very nice (silk scarfs, jewelery and hair pins) other gifts were a hoot; shower caps, fake noses, bras and thick glasses.  It was even funny when my aunt had to wear a hair pin prize.  The hair pin was beautiful but since she had just gotten a haircut (a very very short haircut), she looked ridiculous.  Thank goodness everyone had a sense of humor and kept their prizes on the rest of the night.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I was reminded of the experience above when I recently re-discovered two paper artists from California.  Their names are Anandamayi Arnold and Aimee Baldwin.  They make the most wonderful, realistic flowers, plants, birds, food and small animals from crepe paper.   And Anandamayi makes such perfect surprise balls it must be hard to decide to open them up. Oh well, you can't have your cake and eat it too.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


You can also purchase already made surprise balls online at stores like topsmalibu.com and surpriseballs.com.