Sisal and styrofoam

I have a really cool idea involving Styrofoam balls. However, I keep buying the wrong size. So, this weekend I spent a bit of time doing a few crafts with the wrong sizes since I have them. (I haven't given up on my original idea yet! It will be here one day...)

In the meantime, I have a bag of 6 3inch green Styrofoam floral balls. They were cheaper than the white ones and I'm always wanting cheap. I also had a spool of sisal that I bought for my olive jar recycle project. So, I got to work.

The following will be a lot of "this is what I did.... but you should do this..." I took the road less traveled and it made all the difference, but not in the good Robert Frostish kind of way. I made it a lot more difficult and gave my thumb more burns than necessary....

Step number one not to follow: 

When you begin, do not start in the middle and then work your way to an end. It wasn't until I was almost to the end that I thought, "Shoot... I'm going to have half of it covered...." Yeah, it took me that long to realize it. I hot glued it on each side until I started getting closer to the end. The smaller the coil, the more glue I put on. That was mainly because the smaller coils wanted to slide off otherwise. 

 

Pretty, eh? I think so....

At least half of it anyway! I did the very end by filling it with glue and then coiling around. I cut it once I was ALMOST done and then spun the ball on my index finger to get the end down tightly. The things we do for cheap, cool crafts.... Since, I wasn't thinking when I started this one, then I had to start over in the middle on the other side. Again, I started in the middle and worked my way out. What did I have to lose this time? 

When I had it 'done' I still wasn't happy with it. I could still see the green Styrofoam. I knew that if I saw this on someone else's blog I would think "Oh, cool! I love how you can see the green Styrofoam through the sisal. I can't even tell it's the Styrofoam!". I would think that.. comment that and it would be true. But, I just thought that I will forever see this ball and see Styrofoam. So, I did another round on it. I was a bit smarter with this pass....

I found a place (on the end this time!!!) where I could see green and glued my end there. I didn't want to have to recreate the ends again. I thought that they looked pretty good. So, with this second go 'round I just filled in the blanks as I went around. I used a lot more glue this time too. I ended up almost completely recovering the entire ball, but it looks a LOT better after the second layer. 

Yeah, yeah... the sisal has green stripes randomly through it... Here I was trying to get rid of all the green. But, green strands in the fibers of the sisal is MUCH different than the Styrofoam ball showing through!

I mentioned that I have 6 of these green balls and I also have two 4 inch ones. (So, I realized too late that I need a 3.5 inch one for my original plan) In other words... get ready, I have more Styrofoam ball projects coming soon! These include, but are not limited to projects involving moss, sticks, twine, hot glue, and my old friend- a few pages from the dictionary I seem in include in every picture project and wall project I do. And... the one that started it all! (once I find that blasted ball the right size!) I know, I know... the suspense!!