Make your own globe... lots of trial and error

My most recent projects all surround my recent globe obsession merging with my thriftiness. 

 I hadn't planned on doing the jute, sisal, or dictionary ball, so they probably won't all hang out together except in this picture. Long story short: I needed 3.5 inch balls for my "I need to make my own globe" kick. I didn't realize this and bought a bag of 3 inch ones and then later bought a bag of 4 inch ones. Sooooo, I had 1 or 2..... or 8 Styrofoam balls that needed a bit of creativity and a lot of hot glue. So much for being thrifty, huh?!

This whole project began with a "make your own globe" Google search. I didn't find whole lot of globes that I loved, but I did strike some gold and found a few I liked. I even expanded my search and found a great solar system with actual photos. I printed Earth, Venus, and the moon from that site and found a cool, older globe from another one.

Here is the Earth that I printed from the solar system site. Yes, it is as fun to cut out as it looks!

I printed my globes and began to work. I thought, and thought, and thought, and emailed people, and thought some more about how to actually MAKE them. I still haven't found 3.5 inch balls. I didn't want to "shave" off a half inch from the 4 inch balls... I didn't want to paper mache the 3 inch balls to make them 3.5 inches...

After about two weeks of no solutions and no 3.5 inch balls, I finally decided that I wasn't teaching world geography off of my globe-- it didn't have to be perfect. I wanted it to look tidy and decorative. So, I pulled out the 3 inch balls and got to work!

I used Elmer's glue. I actually made these while I was on vacation and didn't think to also bring my hot glue gun.That's how excited I was about this project and sharing it!

I used quite a bit of glue. I wanted to make sure it stuck well and, although I wanted it to be a bit "bumpy", I didn't want it sloppy. 

The poles of Venus. 

They overlap because the ball wasn't large enough, but, I ended up liking it better anyway! I also liked that this one doesn't LOOK like a planet. It is just a little ball with some stripes. I even liked the way the strips show up. It gave it some unexpected texture! And, because the ball was smaller than it should have been, I also had to cut off one "strip" from my printed pieces. They fir perfectly that way, but were still a little long at the "poles".

Earth actually turned out better than I expected. Because it was such a dark blue, I had to really work to get ALL of the white cut off. I didn't want stripes down my Earth. It already had lost one whole section of space and its ice caps shrunk a bit more. But, I think it turned out pretty good! It isn't perfect, but I prefer character over perfection :).

My South Pole is a victim of global warming and the ice caps are receding.

If you make this, use hot glue. I am a 'glue puddler', as my hubby says, and I used too much glue. It stuck well. But, after it was all dried, the glue washed out some of my printer ink. Luckily, it washed out on the parts that I didn't plan to show anyway!

I'm sure that there are people out there who know how to tweak their printer settings and make this work for 3 inch balls.  I am not one of those people. When you are not one of those people, you figure out how to work around that fact!

Although this batch is done, I am still not done on my "global mission". Anyone have any tips, any better ideas, any "I can't believe it took you weeks to figure it all out" comments :)?