Christmas prep 2012 - DIY Christmas balls

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back to share my Xmas 2012 preparations. Normally, I  start the 20th of November and try to get most of my stuff up on the 1st of December. That means that I have lots of time to enjoy the extra time with my family and our beautiful summery weather during December.  May I remind you that in sunny SA we have the end of our school year now and that means that everyone gets into a holiday mood that is very hard to resist.

My second project is DIY Christmas balls.  And this is what they look like:

I came upon the idea when a 6 year old came over and I wanted to give her something creative to do. You can be sure - this is perfect to keep little hands busy and you will end up with wonderful decorations for your tree / table.  I have done a few of them in red but as it's summer, I felt that a bit of limeade would cool down my color palet.  My inspiration came from the Color Throwdown:

I'm sure you can figure out how to make them yourself but here it my tips anyway:

You will need:

A styrofoam ball, pins, a punch, ribbon and beads.  I don't normally buy paper punches but had this one from years gone by. I'm sure you can use circles / starbursts / stars - use what you have in your stash.

Punch out the flowers.  (I used about a quarter of a 12x12 page for a 2.5 inch ball) Just a tip - if you use thin paper like wrapping paper, I punched through more than one layer at a time - it just worked better with my punch.

First of all fold 6 inches of ribbon double.  If you don't want to hang your ball, you can skip this step.

Now thread a bead onto a pin, then a flower and then the open end of your ribbon. The whole stack goes into your styrofoam ball. And that's it - you just keep stacking and sticking until the ball is totally covered. Easy peasy!

My pins came from a stationary shop because they are much cheaper there but you can use whatever you have at hand.  If you use pins with colored heads, you can skip the beads.

You can also use pages from old magazines but it looks better if you use the same color - I have tried painted pages and even spray painted office paper - it works perfectly.

That's it from me. Please come back to play as I'll be sharing more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go. Have a great day!

Hazel
xXx