Surprise queso de bola

I found out about “surprise balls” the other day. They’re balls of small gifts and trinkets that fall out one-by-one as a recipient unravels strips of crepe paper in-between them. So what followed was the typical question I ask myself before endeavoring on a new art project: how can I “Filipinize” this?

Surprise coconuts? Surprise balut? Surprise kalamay? Nah, I felt I needed something more Christmas-themed.

And then it hit me. I tried queso de bola for the first time last week and loved it. They’re these tasty yellow balls of cheese wrapped in red paraffin wax that most Filipinos enjoy during the Christmas season. Instead of using crepe paper of different colors for each gift, I decided to interchange yellow and orange for each one, ending with a layer of red, and sealed with my gold queso de bola seal of approval.

Materials

• Crepe paper. In the Philippines you can find these at the mall in the school supply section. Not sure if National Bookstore has them, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t. In the US, your local arts and crafts store, like Beverly’s or Michael’s in Northern California, will have them too. UPDATE: Recycled old paper by painting them red and yellow. Boom you saved money and space at the landfill.
• Scissors. Cut folded crepe paper into 1″ strips to save cutting time! My surprise queso de bola here are about grapefruit-sized, housing 1″ inch to 3″ inch-sized gifts, demanding about 60″ to 80″ inches of crepe paper strips each layer. It all depends on how big you want your queso de bola, and how big your gifts are.
• Glue. Use this to dot some glue at the end of each strip to prevent the ball from unraveling as you add the next layer.
• Gold sticker paper. Cut these into circles and write your “to” and “from” on them to mimic the seals found on traditional queso de bola. Some seals are blue, some are gold, so choose what you wish! I made mine to mimic (albeit horribly) one of the oldest brands of queso de bola, Marca Piña.
• A black marker. To write “to” and “from” with.
• Optional: a cutting tool like an X-acto knife or equivalent, just to make cutting the circles out easier. To be honest the scissors will suffice.

Now all you need are gifts. Go out and have fun using your imagination… find trinkets, toys, medallions, stickers, notes, quotes, key chains, confetti (beware, it can get messy), love letters, etc. You name it, you can cheese-ball it!

Feel free to unleash your creativity on these awesome balls. They don’t even have to be surprise queso de bola. Whether they’re Filipino-themed, Christmas-themed, or non-themed, stuff these balls with trinkets you feel your recipient will enjoy. Your balls might not be as cheesy as mine though. Or my jokes!

Sources

• http://honestlywtf.com/diy/diy-surprise-balls/
• http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/surpriseballs/