DIY Squishy Glow Balls

As you probably already know Grant from the King of Random passed away a few weeks ago and I was obviously super sad to hear that. He was one of the very first YouTubers that I had ever watched and I was lucky enough to have met him a couple of times and even worked with him. He was a wonderful mentor he was a great example and after watching all of the videos the community had made after the news dropped it was amazing to hear how everyone seemed to have the same exact story where he was just a wonderful friend. My personal experience was whenever I'd go to an event that he was at, he would make me feel like I was his best friend when no one else in any of these events or anyone in the room would make you feel the way that grant did. He'd always reach out and he'd always take you seriously and not feel like you were a waste of time and so obviously it was awful news to hear. Grant was just an amazing guy to work with and everyone loved him. After the news I rewatched a ton of his older videos just going through seeing them all and as I was going through those videos I got the idea of making something based on one of his videos to share with my audience as something to honor Grant and his memory so that's what I did. I decided to make proto putty bouncy balls that even glow in the dark. 

To get started with the bouncy balls I needed a small little splash of water less than a milliliter which just enough to activate the silicone and set the hardening motion in place and after I mixed in the water it started a chemical reaction which eventually hardened the silicone and it gave off an acid that can kind of stung my nostrils kind of like vinegar and it definitely was not a very pleasant smell so I definitely recommend doing this any well-ventilated area.

Once I was ready to start rolling it into a ball I coated my hands with just a little bit of cornstarch, I did that to keep it from sticking to my gloves too much. After I prepped my hand I just start rolling away and I made sure to really compress it and squeeze it as I rolled it and that helped get rid of any deformities or cracks or creases in the silicone. When I rolled the putty between my hands there was a really thin layer of cornstarch on it from my gloves and it left a white kind of haze over the top of it which I didn’t think looked really good. I wanted it to be nice and bright and shiny and so I just kept rolling it in my hands until that haze started to disappear. But once that starch disappeared it started being sticky again, so I just a little bit more starch to the gloves. The key that I found out while working on this is to work quickly and make sure that it doesn't have time to stick you. Once the ball was ready to go it was important that I kept rolling it between my hands to keep the form I wanted, and then I gently dropped it onto a sheet of aluminium foil. 

So this was a really fun craft that I think anyone could do at home they are impressively bouncy, literally just like a bouncy ball and they make just a great squishy little nightlight. This would be just a great fun thing to do for all ages and I have so much fun with these!  Everyone at our offices is begging me for one of them.

Just want to say thank you so much and again I just wanted to say thank you so much to Grant and everyone at the King of Random for all you do all you've done to make YouTube such a wonderful place thank you so much you.