Mr. Big Mouth

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful week. My week was mostly full of an icky migraine, which is now gone just in time for the weekend! Yay!! Thankfully I have a super easy and fun craft project that I can do no matter how my head is feeling.

I like to lovingly call it Mr. Big Mouth. It was, as usual, something I saw on Pinterest. I had decided to make them for several friends for Christmas, but when I followed the pin link to get some directions it led to a Japanese web page. After translating the page (thank you Google translate!) I found that these were made as a prototype and were not actually a craft project nor were they even for sale anywhere. I was bummed for awhile and trying to think what else I could make for people but then my stubbornness kicked in. Well, as with the book purse, I knew I could figure it out, or at least a close approximation of what I saw in the picture online. :)

Supplies (and where I bought them):
Tennis balls - Walmart $10 for 12 ($0.83/ea)
Suction cups with hooks - Target $3 for 8 (($0.38/ea)
Fabric paint - Michael's $5 for 4 fl oz (I use a lot of this so I bought a big bottle, smaller bottles are about $1)
Utility knife - Already owned
Hot glue gun - Already owned

Each Mr. Big Mouth will cost you under $1.50 to make and is a fabulous gift and conversation piece for work or school.

Mr. Big Mouth

These are the supplies you'll need.

Step 1
Carefully, make a slit with your utility knife that extends from one white stripe to the other. You will need to make multiple passes to get all the way through, unless you have an extremely sharp blade. The rubber lining on the inside usually doesn't cut evenly or 'pretty' so you may want to use your knife to even it out until it's to your liking. Don't remove all of it around the opening because this is what is going to provide grip for whatever he's holding.

Step 2
Make a + shaped cut on the back side. I learned from trial and error to make the cut centered to the slit on the front and up about half an inch. This will allow the Mr. Big Mouth to hang properly.

Step 3
Separate the hook from the suction cup.

Step 4
Insert one half of  the hook into the + shape cut that you made in the back side of the ball. You could also insert the suction cup if you'd like to.

Step 5
Open the 'mouth' of your ball and add some hot glue. You want the hot glue to be on the  inside to make sure your hook or suction cup does not pull out while it's hanging.

Step 6
Using your fabric paint, add your eyes. I didn't want anything too elaborate so I stuck with simple dots. I have one friend who is very in to anime and so I got a little more creative on hers. You could even glue some googly eyes or felt eyes on to your Mr. Big Mouth if you wanted to.

Step 7
Find something that you would like your Mr. Big Mouth to hold. Keys, cables, pens, etc. and enjoy!

This is the one I made with the suction cup on the back. I use him to hold things while I'm crafting. Here he is on the side of one of my craft tackle boxes.  

Have a great weekend and happy crafting!

Claire