Craft Review: Martha Stewart Sponge Balls

Today the girls and I needed a little cooling off, so we made Sponge Balls, or Sponge Bombs as we prefer to call them.

I found the idea on Pinterest, originating from Martha Stewart. I followed her instructions in making our sponge bombs, but after trying them out, I felt they needed a bit of improvement. So my instructions include the improvement.

To make one ball, you will need 3 standard kitchen sponges,
the kind without the scrub surface. We're making 2 balls.

Using a pen and ruler, draw lines lengthwise on each
sponge, 1/2 inch apart.

Cut along the lines. Each sponge will yield 6 strips.

It's best to use new sponges, as they are easier to cut if they are straight from the package. And clean Sponge Bombs just seem like a good idea.

The next steps feature my improvement...

Take 6 strips. Lay 3 of them on the table, with 3 more on top
in a two layer stack. Then tie a string around at the center.
Tie as tight as you can. Do the same with the other strips
so that you will have 3 bundles.

Then tie all three bundles tightly
together to make a ball.

Martha's instructions have you tie all 18 strips together at the same time. It was harder to get a tight tie with the string, and as we played, pieces of sponge from the center of the ball kept trying to come out, and eventually did come out, causing the whole thing to start to fall apart.

After we were done playing, I remade them using my improved assembly. It has not been fully kid-tested, but I did take them outside and hit them several times against the door, and so far they seem to be a little more durable and ready for our next battle, because the originals started to fall apart after only a few hits.

I discovered that it is way more fun to aim Sponge Bombs at Mom, so be prepared to get wet, too. And they are far more forgiving of bombs returned from Mom than those coming from each other.

Most definitely fun, and they do last longer than water balloons, and consume less water than the sprinkler. And hopefully with my improvement, we can get a few more times of water fun from them.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:14