Garden Globes

4 Materials
$30
2 Hours
Easy
As many of you know from reading my previous posts, I am not a garden girl. I love the idea of growing things and making my yard beautiful with tons of flowers, shrubbery and the like, but I've just never been good at maintaining plant life. I'm still trying to keep my few plants and herbs alive (so far, so good!) but in the meantime, I'll work on beautifying my yard with stuff I know I can do--decor! These garden globes were pretty easy to make once I got a technique down and I was pleased with the outcome.
I used terra cotta saucers, glass light globes, flat Dollar Store marbles, and a strong adhesive.


*Note: I originally wanted to add little fairy lights (the Starlights pictured above) inside the garden globes, but turns out that I couldn't, because I was going to be gluing the globes to Terra Cotta saucers, so I had to scratch that from this project.
STEP 1: Add Adhesive to the Saucers


Apply the adhesive of your choice to the Terra Cotta saucers. For my small (4") glass light globe, I used a 4" saucer and for my large (6") glass light globe, I used a 6" saucer. I was originally using caulking for my adhesive, but it was a DISASTER when I started gluing the marbles to my glass light globes. However, for my saucers, the caulking sufficed...it just takes FOREVER to dry.
STEP 2: Attach Your Light Globe to the Saucer


Place your glass light globe on your saucer. Because of the caulking and how long it takes to dry, the light globe wasn't secured, so be careful with doing the next few steps. If you do decide to use caulking, I recommend doing this step and letting it dry overnight.
STEP 3: Adhere Your Marbles


Adhere your marbles to your light globe. WARNING: DO NOT APPLY YOUR FLAT MARBLES LIKE THIS!
Disclaimer: With my smaller light globe, I started adhering the marbles from the bottom and worked my way up, however, the marbles started sliding off...
With my larger light globe, I changed my technique and started adhering the marbles from the top first. This worked better, however, I could only get so far before the marbles wanted to start sliding off again (because the caulking was taking forever to dry), so I applied all that I could without them sliding off and let it sit overnight to dry.
The next day, I changed my strategy. I picked up a different adhesive--this stuff is thicker and on the chalky side so it helped with my issue of the marbles sliding off. With this new adhesive though, I could only put a little dot on the back of the marbles before applying them, because this stuff dries white, not clear.
Note: Once I was halfway through this project, and had already adhered my small glass light globe to my small Terra Cotta saucer, I decided to paint the saucers. I carefully painted the small saucer, trying not to get paint on the bottom marbles (though I did accidentally get a few spots), then, since I only had the top half of my large glass light globe finished with the marbles, I painted my larger saucer really quickly and used the same thick/chalky adhesive to adhere the globe to it.
***SUPPLIES UPDATE!!!


My husband grabbed this adhesive for me and it worked wonders for this project! As some of you know, I had a horrible first attempt but, "if at first you don't succeed, try try again"...right? This adhesive did the trick to keep me from losing my marbles (pun intended lol).
Aren't they just so sparkly and whimsical? Who says you need to have a green thumb to add bursts of pretty to your garden, right? Here's how easy it was...
In the end, given the mega disaster with the sliding marbles, I was happy with how these garden globes came out. The marbles themselves were $1 a bag at The Dollar Tree so for such an inexpensive project, I was pleased with how these blue garden globes gave my very bare flower garden a nice POP! Another addition you could make would be to put these globes on some sort of stake to raise them up off the ground.


*Note: for both globes (one large, one small), I used a total of 6 1/2 bags of marbles.


*Also note: I went back and added the fairy lights after all. I simply drilled a hole in the bottom of my saucers and fed the lights through. They look so pretty lit up at night!
Suggested materials:
  • Terra Cotta saucers   (Home Depot)
  • Glass Light Globes   (Home Depot)
  • Flat Marbles   (The Dollar Store)
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 77 questions
  • Stephanie Burnes Stephanie Burnes on Feb 24, 2021

    How did you drill a hole on the bottom of the terra-cotta dish? Doesn’t it crack when you drill?

  • Ros51383986 Ros51383986 on Jul 20, 2021

    Would E6000 work to glue the stones on its weather resistant, very good glue ? I use it on my outdoor garden creations made of recycled dishes , I think it would be easier than caulking . I have never tried to drill terra cotta ? Thank you for the info !

  • Rebekah Rebekah on Jan 05, 2022

    Cant find the Dap Instant Grab Adhesive anywhere online.... Could ya just use Super Glue Gel??

Comments
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5 of 286 comments
  • S April Ratliff Brown S April Ratliff Brown on Dec 23, 2019

    I'm inspired and think that I will try this with solar lights.


    • See 2 previous
    • Colleen Colleen on Jan 31, 2023

      Did you put the solar light inside the globe, and did it get enough sun to recharge? My thought was to find a solar light stake with the panel on the stake instead of in the light itself.

  • Sharonsgarden Sharonsgarden on May 18, 2020

    If you grout this, it will make it last longer, preventing water from getting under your adhesive and wearing it down over time. It will also focus more of the light directly through the gems versus coming out from where there are no gems.

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