Once bitten the transformation starts to take place

It's no secret that the Christmas bug has bit me and I am in full swing for Christmas and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. So I promised a Christmas craft and here is the first of many. I had an idea for our wedding to make these floral balls that would hang from Shepard's hooks on the aisle. I took styrofoam balls and hot glued yellow and white flowers to it, a ribbon at the top to hang and another ribbon with a crystal on the bottom. They were beautiful and relatively easy to make. I thought that I could take this same concept and make a Christmas decoration with "cranberries" instead.


I didn't want to go and buy a white styrofoam ball when I had a couple green ones left over from the wedding. I thought that I could just spray paint them with my Heirloom White spray paint and it would suffice.



Bad idea...let me tell you, something went terribly awry here. It may have been the 34 degree weather that I was trying to accomplish this in or maybe it was the fact that styrofoam doesn't take well to spray paint OR maybe it was my technique. Either way, I don't suggest it. Buy the white styrofoam balls and you will be good to go. I personally didn't have the time to go out and start again so I decided that I would just use the green ball instead.

I first took a pair of wire cutters and started to snip off the "cranberry-like" items from the original stem.

I had 19 sprigs of berries and they were only .59 cents each at Michael's Craft Store. So I began to cut these babies off one by one. I soon realized this is a tedious job and boy, oh boy does it make your hands ache when you are finished. So an hour and a half later, mind you I was also watching the Season Finale of Project Runway so I wasn't fully engaged in my own project, they were all cut and ready to go. I gathered my styrofoam ball, ribbon and glue gun. I first hot glued the ribbon on to the ball to make a starting point.

Then just start gluing the cranberries on to it. Try to go in a circular motion around the ball so that they fit nicely onto each layer and cover the majority of the area. Since you are working with a small item ie-the berry it is important to maximize your space and be mindful of your positioning. Do as I say not as I do!! As you will see I became impatient and just wanted the project done so started hot gluing in a random pattern. I'm not saying it won't work, anything is possible, but it didn't work out for me. I have a tiny bald spot on the back of mine that cannot squeeze another berry into.

It's not perfect and I am okay with that. I also think it needs something else like greenery or a ribbon perhaps. What do you think?

Overall it cost me about $12.00 (I had the ribbon and the styrofoam) and about 2 hours of my time, including the undivided attention to cutting the berries while watching Project Runway (say it with me-Yah, riiighht). Next is a SUPER EASY project involving HO HO HO and FA LA LA. I will showcase this tomorrow.