Craft Project #11 - Decor Balls

Where has the time gone? I have just realized it has been over six months since my last post. Yikes!


DIY DECOR BALLS WITH DIY MOD PODGE

I love decorating, but my home decor has not changed in over 12 years. This is partly because I had children and partly due to the cost involved in re-decorating. My kids are a little more self sufficient now, and I'm so tired of looking at my boring out-dated decor that I finally decided to do something about it. Decor balls are everywhere in home stores and there are so many different styles that catch my eye but they are always priced a bit high in my opinion, so I've never considered buying any. Now that decorating has been on my mind, I decided to just make my own set. I completed a set of 6 for less than $6.


DIY TIP: MAKE YOUR OWN MOD PODGE
1/2 water & 1/2 white school glue.

Seriously, that's it. Yes, it works great. Just one 4 oz bottle of glue (under $2) and 4 oz of water.
I believe you can add a little bit of clear varnish for a shiny finish, but I haven't tried that yet.

The only other purchase I made was a set of 6 Styrofoam balls (4" diam) in the craft section.

Now, on to the 'How To' part....

Get your stuff together on a clean work surface.
-Make the Mod Podge (above) or use the store brand.

-Find some simple, wallpaper type clip art image online (print it), or use scrap booking paper, newspaper, or maybe even a brown paper bag.(I printed the Italian hand writing from the internet onto regular copy paper and used roughly about one full 8.5" x 11" sheet per ball.)

-Tear or cut the paper with your pattern into long strips.

-Dip each strip into the Mod Podge mixture, covering it completely. Use your fingers to 'squeegee' off the excess so it's not too drippy.

-Wrap the strips around one of the balls overlapping the ends. Continue wrapping strips until each ball is covered.

Lay them out to dry overnight. I rotated mine several times because they wanted to stick and it would pull off a bit of the paper design.

That's it!


These are so easy to make and a lot less expensive than buying them. Plus you can use your imagination and come up with your own design that will go with your existing home decor. I made mine to fill a cute little wine cork box on my new fireplace mantel.





Good luck with your project and happy crafting!