I saw the instructions for making surprise balls a while back on Go Make Something, and have been wanting to make one for a while. I finally got around to it over Christmas and took pics of the process. First I made up some ATC blanks to put in the center of the ball. I cut the blanks from white cardstock and used black permanent ink to stamp the ATC blank - it's a great stamp from Catslife Press. I wrapped the blanks in some ribbon to keep them together.
Then I added the other large-ish items: a rubber eraser and mini compasses on one side, a few stickers and red electrical tape on the other. This 'yarn' is more like ribbon, but stretchy. I decided to use different fibers to wrap this ball because I'm trying to tempt my friend into doing chunky books with me. I figure she'll be more likely to do it if she has a little stash of fibers to chunk up the pages. After these bigger items were securely attached, I switched to another funky yarn. 
I used some birght, fuzzy yarn to stick in a few small things - scrabble tiles and mini dominoes perfect for altering and some fabric flowers to use in ATCs or cards or other projects. Once I started using the fuzzy yarn the ball really started to take shape. It began to get rounder and rounder, and the corners of the ATC blanks started to get covered up.
The corners disappeared for good with the next layer - blue sparkly yarn. I stuck in a few more flowers in this layer. Then it all got covered up with pink. I sprinkled in a little star confetti too.
It was fun to make, and also fun to watch my friend unwrap it all.
