Adventures in Decorating: Outdoor Christmas Ball Ornament

In case you missed my tutorial I shared a few weeks ago on 

So You Think Your Crafty 

Here it is again! 

On the front corner of our house, next to the front door, we have a hook for a flower basket. Every fall I get sad when I have to take the flower basket down because that corner looks so empty and lonely. So, I decided to make an Outdoor Christmas Ball Ornament to hang on the hook in the winter to give that corner a little color and something interesting to look at. 

 I originally got the idea for this project when I was at Home Depot. They had these pretty, real pine balls that you could buy and hang outside. They were a little pricy and since they were real, you would only be able to use them for one Christmas. I am all about making things that can be reused year after year, so I decided to make my own!

 I purchased a large Styrofoam ball and gathered some artificial pine garland, red ribbon, artificial poinsettias, green felt, and my hot glue gun.

FIRST: I cut the felt into strips and hot glued the strips of felt to the outside of the styrofoam ball. Don't worry if there is some white styrofoam peeking out between the strips of felt. You will actually need small strips open later so don't totally cover the whole ball perfectly with the felt. It will kind of resemble a green volleyball when you get it all covered. 

 SECOND: Cut 2 long strips of ribbon and make an "X" with them on the table and set the bottom of the styrofoam ball on the middle of the "X". Using hot glue to secure the ribbon to the ball, bring each end of the ribbon around to the top of the ball. ( This was a little hard to get a picture of. Picture a globe with the South Pole and North Pole the red ribbon looks likes a line of latitude connecting the 2 poles...I know, I'm a Geography nerd. I love it!)

THIRD: Cut off 8 inch pieces of the pine garland. Starting at the top (or North Pole) of your ball, make a small hole in the styrofoam. Fill hole with hot glue and push the end of the piece of garland into the hole to secure it to the ball.

 Do the same with the other end of the strip of garland at the bottom (or South Pole) of the ball. Your goal is to cover all of the green felt with the garland. 

FOURTH: Spread out smaller branches of the garland to cover the green felt and tuck ends under the red ribbon securing with a little hot glue. Repeat this process until all green felt is covered. I needed 4 long strips of garland and then a few smaller filler pieces to fill in "bald spots".

FIFTH: Add any decoration you may want. I had these artificial poinsettias, and added 2, but you could use little bits of mistletoe, or pine cones, or even some little glass Christmas ornaments. I like to get stuff like this at the dollar store! Secure them to the ball with hot glue. I also added a little ribbon tail to mine. And the loop at the top to hang it by is made of the same ribbon. Once the hot glue has fully cooled, hang it outside! 

And there you have it. An Outdoor Christmas Ball Ornament that you can use to brighten that spot you hang a flower basket form in the summer, AND you can use it year after year.