Introduction: Real Pokemon Balls

My son loves Pokemon and wanted to make some real Pokeballs that we could use outdoors (IRL). This Instructable will show you how you can also make these great balls. Enjoy!

Pokemon is a copyrighted by The Pokemon Company.

** No animals or Pokemon were harmed in the making of this video.

Step 1: Materials

To make these Pokeballs you are going to need the following supplies which you may have around the home:

  • White ping pong balls
  • Painter's tape
  • Red glossy spray paint
  • One Penny
  • Sharpie pen

Step 2: Prepare the Balls for Painting

The ping pong balls that I used had a seam that ran around the circumference of the ball. It is a little bit hard to see, but if you hold the ball up to the light you can see it. This seam is exactly in the middle and perfect for helping you wrap painter's tape around the ball. Start off with covering the bottom half with tape so it stays white when you paint the other half. The balls I got had a logo on one side, so I made sure that the logo was not covered up by tape. This way it would be painted over and you won't see it any more.

After you cover one half with tape, lay a penny down on the tape and trace a circle around it. Then cut out the circle and place it on the ping pong ball in the middle. Now you are ready to paint.

Step 3: Paint the Balls

Give the ping pong balls a good coat of red paint. Make sure you get all of the way around the balls so the top half is completely covered in wonderful, glossy red paint. After you finish painting, let the paint dry. Since it was a very hot, sunny day, I only had to wait 4 hours before I could go to the next step.

Step 4: Draw the Outline

Take the painted pokeball and, before taking any tape off it, wrap another piece of tape around the middle leaving a small opening. Mine was 2-4 mm. Now with your Sharpie pen, draw the black outline around the entire circumference of the ball. Don't worry about trying to be neat--that's what the tape is for. After you have gone around the outside, remove all of the tape. Next, use your penny to trace a circle around the center.

Step 5: Play!

I made a bunch of pokeballs so I could catch lots of Pokemon. And when you are done throwing pokeballs, you can use the balls to play ping pong.