When we found out my wife was expecting with our second child, we wanted to do something fun with our son, sorry older son, for him to find out if he was going to have a little brother or a little sister.  We debated doing a cake or balloons, but ultimately with the recent fad of gender reveal golf balls and baseballs, we decided to go that route with him.

The issue is those things are unnecessarily expensive.  On Amazon, they range from $15 – $30.  On Etsy, the price range all over the place, and even for those options that seem cheap, they cease to be as such when you consider the hidden shipping costs.  Reading review of these items, the balls are flimsy, and as we’ve seen on YouTube, you are setting yourself up for a wasted moment.  The last thing we wanted was to buy an overpriced baseball, have our son swing and miss, and then miss our opportunity to do something fun with him.  To that end, we decided to attempt to make our own gender reveal baseball.

The baseball part is quite easy.  First, we went to Party City, and for $1.00, we purchased one of those globes they sell you to fill with their penny candy.  I recommend the clear globe because it is easier to paint.  For the pain, we went to Michaels and purchased acrylic paint for less than a buck.  We also splurged for a small paint brush for under a buck.  Just like that, we had our own baseball for less than $3.00.

After painting the baseball and setting it to dry overnight, my wife drew seams on the baseball using a red Sharpie.  Really, any magic marker would do the trick.  What was tricky was what to put in the ball.

If you Google it, you can find a number of ways to make your own holi powder.  For us, we mixed food coloring with one cup of water.  We then mixed that with three cups of flour.  You need to use your hands for this to help prevent clumps from forming.  It’s a tedious process.  After you are done, put it on a couple of baking sheets in the oven at 200 degrees.  Do not go above that because you risk burning it and turning it brown.

If you don’t want to do that, you can purchase it somewhere on the Internet or pick up the powder or confetti from somewhere.

Once you put it in there, you have a cheaper option and one that is not going to simply explode just by hitting the ground.  Still, with the impact of a baseball bat, the ball will easily come apart, and the powder will spray all over the place revealing the baby’s gender.

IT’S A BOY!