Halloween Craft With Tutorial

I've been to a couple of craft shows recently, and I keep seeing Halloween noisemakers. I would have taken some pictures of the ones that I saw, but they frown upon that at craft shows! I really love them though, but I don't love the prices, so I decided to try and make my own.
And this is how they turned out.

They're pretty cute, and if you'd like to make some too, I'll show you how.

I started with paper mache boxes........

and paper mache balls, and some dowels, all from Michaels. I forgot to take pictures of some of the steps, so this won't be the best tutorial you've ever read, but I think you'll be able to figure it all out just fine.

The box that I bought is too tall, so I cut it down so that the back (or bottom of the box) would be flush with the lid, making the whole thing about 1/2" wide. DO NOT put the box inside the lid yet, because it will GET STUCK! Now go ahead and embellish the lid or ball the way you want, by painting, decoupaging, etc.

You don't have to paint your dowel, but I painted all of mine black.

Now put something inside your box or ball that will rattle when you shake it. I used split peas! Then close your box. Ok, here's where I should have taken more pictures! You need to make a hole that your dowel will fit through. I used a drill, going very slowly so that I didn't bend the box. Start with a small bit, and work your way up to the one that's the same size as your dowel. When I was ready to push my dowel in, I put a drop of hot glue on the tip of the dowel, so that when the dowel was all the way in, the dowel would adhere to the top of the box and not flop around inside. Does that make any sense at all? I had lots of fun making these, and I'm working on a couple more. If you have any questions, because you couldn't make heads or tails of this tutorial, feel free to email me. Now get shakin', and give these a try!