Creating Decor Orbs From Styrofoam Balls

12 Materials
$10
4 Hours
Easy

Ok, Winter can be a drabby time of year for some and the pandemic restrictions force us more than ever to be inside our homes which can get a little boring after awhile. Peering outside? Gazing upon the sea of white snowballs doesn't impress me much, I can't change that, but I certainly can change my inside view!

I thought to brighten up some areas of my home with little fresh, pops of color because color always cheers me up. Lets get started, it'll be fun and easy...I promise!

Two ply Paper Napkin

Most paper napkins are two ply, some maybe three, you'll need to separate the layers because you'll smooch them onto the ball one layer at a time. First things first, insert a skewer stick into your Styrofoam ball, it's a temporary aid to prep the ball and stand it up to allow drying time. I added the mod podge onto the ball with my brush and then laid the napkin on and patted and pushed it all around the areas of wet glue still using my brush. The more lumps and bumps that you create the better it will turn out, it's what going to give you texture with the finished look.

Decoupaged Balls Drying

Here they are placed into some large vases and set out to allow the glue to dry, I used small and large Styrofoam balls. Don't worry about the colors and patterns, it'll all be covered up as we go along.

New Textured Finish

Remember how I mentioned texture? See these here close up? There's lumps and ridges but it has way more interest now than just a smooth ball would offer. Too, the base coat of paint should cover all the patterns from your various napkins used, try a couple of coats of paint if the first one doesn't cover it well.

Decoupaged Balls Painted

For your base color you can use either dollar store paints, chalk paints or any household paint will do as long as it's a color you like for your home decor. I chose some beach themed tones for the base and for the accents I chose metallic paints in gold, bronze, silver or whatever you'd like to coordinate with the metals found throughout your home. This is the part where you can really customize it to match what you currently have or maybe a new direction you'd like to go in....ohhh exciting heh? I see the wheels turning in your heads... maybe this color or I could try that or even that? Go for it!

So here are the three with the outer coat finished by dry brushing on the bronze metallic paint as an accent, but notice the center ball? As I was looking at the base coat of them all, they looked kinda boring so I added a two tones look to experiment but in the end it wasn't that noticeable. It would have worked better maybe if I chose two contrasting colors for the base? Oh well, that's something for you to try now isn't it?

Shifting into another direction I chose to cover some of the balls with string and rope. These were just Dollar store items that I had on hand, you can even use leftover remnants if you have any.

Here's a selection of greens I made up using the tissue paper and rope options that I have shown you so far. Yeah I know that they are pretty boring there, hang on a second now well get to the finish line soon enough.

Snipping the Pine Cone

The key in making these work is to add interest with various textures so how about we mix it up a little more? This was a gold painted tree cone from a previous craft. I just used some snips to remove the bracts, this was just a simple cut and paste onto the ball and let dry.

Pine Cone Orbs

The end result was beautiful, it creatured a new textured finish to the balls and the gold brought a little bling. The outside edge of the cone was what recieved the gold paint but the inner part of the seed bract was still brown, so it created even more interest because of the two tones

Various Orb Finishes

So now we have the decoupaged paper napkin, the Pine cones and the string orbs. I used a nylon rope for the green and a jute string for the beige one.

Sharing more options once again with just using Dollarstore supplies or recycling items you can customize these into any color. The white , cotton one was made just with a recycled string from an article of clothing.

Making a Sequined Orb

For this new sequined one I'll show you the same process as I had used to attach the string, apply glue to half of the ball and start at one point and wind and attach as you work your way around and up to the other end of the ball.

Once you get to the half way mark you can add glue to the remaining half and hold onto the finished portion to work your way to the top. Just wind and press the string, ribbon or in this case a sewing notion to cover all of the styrofoam. I did paint the ball gold prior to gluing in case any spots showed through so that's another tip for you if your concerned that your wrapping material is a little sheer or sparse.

Here's an assembled option with a few if each type that I made, simply tossed into an ornate, gold metal basket. Now if that doesn't look bright and colorful I suggest you compare it with the first photo again, the sea of white?

Orb Display Option #2

I love all things vintage so another option was to place them in an oblong dish along with some added large, chunky bits from an old potpourri mix. I could have used some seashells or a few pieces of tiny driftwood to mix up the look and add more interest but that can be for another season perhaps.

You might notice I even mixed it up with doing one ball half string and half tissue paper, ya just have to play around with these... it's fun!! Note too, I chose the balls finished with the gold accents to tie in with the gold flecks in my bowl.

Let's go with another dish, more modern lines and bronze accented therefore I chose the balls highlighted with bronze metallic paint. I added the pine cone orbs and for even more interest...the actual tree cone itself, great new texture once again!

Here's a closeup view to see all of the patterns and texture that make it interesting, so much to draw your eyes into. The blue smooth shapes are colored nuts from the the potpourri mix, just use what you have to assemble the look you want.

See how the addition of the pine cones made it look a little more rustic and less beach themed? I hope these have inspired you to freshen up your decor with the simple addition of... balls! Who knew?? Well now you know because I shared my project with you, thank you all for visiting my post, until next time...happy crafting!

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  1 question
  • Linda Linda on Feb 17, 2021

    Why did you use the colored part of the napkin? Just recycle the plain white part and use the colorful part for a project that will showcase it.

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  • Leigh Leigh on Feb 19, 2021

    You're welcome! Your creation inspired me. I'm always thinking outside the box and seeing other people's projects always gets the creative juices flowing. That's what we are here for! Share and inspire each other.

    • I agree 100% there's so many great creative proje t's here to try or spin off from and do your own thing. I love to hear from others knowing that I inspired them, thank you very much Leigh. In the meantime happy crafting and creating!

  • Beth Booth Beth Booth on Feb 21, 2021

    I understand. Thank you for clarifying.

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