The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 5: Christmas Ball Ornaments

Inside: Beautiful and simple, these Homespun Christmas Ball Ornaments are some of my favorites, so I wanted to share them with you again.

Homespun Christmas Ball Ornaments

So this year when it came time to decide our Christmas DIY project, Mom and I had something else entirely in mind. We had set out to make a garland with strips of cloth, but it seemed like the parts of the project weren’t falling into place, and we were running into time issues–that last-minute thing again. Fortunately she’d seen some homespun Christmas ball ornaments and thought we should maybe try that. She’d picked up the Styrofoam balls and some fat quarters of festive fabric. Between us we had various yarn, twine, ribbon, and raffia.

The first day we were slow to get started, trying to figure out the best way to work. Mom had put one ball ornament together at home with green plaid material, and so we spent the next several hours deciding between colors, fabric, and design for the rest of them. I cut strips of cloth (8 inch by 1/2 inch), and she patiently glued them around the balls with a homemade solution of watered down clear Elmer’s glue, 1 part water, 1 part glue, that she coated the strips with. Modge Podge would have probably made our lives easier, but sometimes you have to improvise. By the end of the first day, we had five balls fashioned and drying on paper. Note: I grabbed scrap paper that happened to be yellow, and while it didn’t hurt the dark colors, the dye from the paper bled on to the white balls. So don’t use newspaper or colored paper. White scrap paper only.

Several days passed before we got back with the project. In the days between I had tea dyed one of the white balls by making a strong cup of tea, letting it cool completely, and then taking a paper towel and dabbing the tea on to the dried white ball. Once it was covered to my liking, I set it to dry again. When we reconvened (sounds official when I say that), we attached various ribbon, twine, and yarn on the balls. For the four colored balls, our biggest challenge was how to create a loop for hanging. We ended up using a glue gun to hold ribbon and twine in place, and we covered up the hanging loops by creating bows to glue over top. These are so light that it definitely works.

A Riff on the White Ball Ornaments

We did a few things differently on the white and tea-dyed ornaments. On the white ball I cut a strip of ribbon that has a burlap look to it, but I imagine actual burlap would work just as well. I glued this around the equator and tied a piece of raffia on top of that and fashioned a bow and glued a button on top of that. I used a white flat thumbtack to wrap a piece of raffia around and created a loop for hanging.

On the tea-dyed ball I took a piece of thin twine and just went to town on it, wrapping and gluing it little by little with just clear Elmer’s glue, going this way and that around the ball, ending with a loop–all the same long piece of twine. But it looked like it needed something more. Inspiration struck–thank you, God!–and I wrapped an additional small piece of twine around the bottom of the loop three times, and it just popped!

All in all, I think they turned off pretty well!

How to Make ‘Em

You will need:

6 – 2.4 in foam balls
8 – 9 strips of fabric per ball (strips 8 in. x 1/2 in.)
Assorted ribbon, twine, yarn, and raffia
Button
Tea for dying (if making the tea-dyed ornament)
Elmer’s glue
Hot glue gun and sticks

Directions

Place fabric strips (coated in 1 part Elmer’s glue, 1 part water mixture) top to bottom around the ball until it’s covered. Allow to dry.
Fashion ribbon around the balls in various patterns and glue in place with glue gun. (See pictures for inspiration.)
Attach loop on top and cover with a bow of the same ribbon.
For tea-dyed ornament, make a strong cup of tea, allow to cool, and then dab on to a dried ball made with white strips. Take a long piece of twine and begin gluing it in place with Elmer’s glue, little by little, because you’ll need to hold it in place with your fingers for a few minutes before continuing. End with a loop, and then add an additional small piece to wrap around the base of the loop.
For the other white ball, glue a strip of burlap-like ribbon (or burlap!) that’s 1-inch wide, around the equator. Tie a piece of raffia on top of that and fashion a bow and glue a button on top of that. Place a white flat thumbtack on top and wrap a piece of raffia around it, making a knot on top, creating a loop for hanging.
Have fun making our homespun Christmas ball ornaments!