Hi I'm new here and worried about my ball :(

[UltraViolet]

Hi, welcome! Ok, first off, take a deep breath and chill out. You're going to get a lot of conflicting advice, so try not to run around crazy changing everything every time someone posts. You are working on making things better, so a few days at sub-optimal aren't going to cause major damage to your snake. I'm going to pretend your snake is still downstairs because that's where the most info is coming from...

UTH- good, you've got that on a dimmer and are monitoring temperatures. That is very very important. Make sure you don't need to reduce your UTH heat now that there's nothing much between him and the glass- the thermometer probe can sit right on top of the paper towels.

Humidity levels- Ok, now that you've changed from Eco-earth to paper towels, you will need to give it a day or 2 to figure out your new levels. Relax, he isn't sitting in wet and if he is about to shed, humidity in the 70s is good.

Ambient temperatures: Right now it's pretty chilly for the long term, but ok for short term. You said you had a hide over his UTH, the air is probably a bit warmer in there. If he's cold, he'll go there. I have a 50 watt night glo bulb heating a 20 gallon tank, and it is almost enough, but it was perfect when i had a 10 gallon. It just bumps up the heat a few degrees.

How heat and humidity interact: You are measuring relative humidity. That is a ratio of how much water vapor is in the air to how much water vapor the air can hold. When the heat increases, the air can hold more water vapor so the relative humidity drops and the air feels drier. You may find your humidity levels go down once you have your ambient temperatures better controlled. The other side of this is that added moisture cools air temperature. You may find that by using paper towels your humidity levels drop and ambient temperatures rise a bit. Remember, every time you change one the other will change, and you need to give it a bit of time to adjust.

Unused Eco-earth: do you have Craigslist? Someone uses it and will jump at a bargain. Or see if someone at the pet store you got it at wants to buy it. I was talking to the reptile dude at one of our local pet stores about looking for a cheap 20 gallon, turns out he was keeping a tarantula in one and wanted a 10, we traded that night when he got off work.

You're doing fine, stop panicking. Within 3 weeks of adjusting you'll have everything settled.