Glass Garden Balls DIY

By special and numerous requests, here you are, the tutorial for my glass garden balls ....originally posted in 2013!

My blog header shows my love of cobalt blue glass

 and I've added that love of blue glass to my garden art.

Years ago my family got me a big blue gazing ball for my 

daisy flowerbed and I knew I wanted more, more, more! 

But hey, those gazing balls are not cheap and they are surprisingly fragile. 

Basically they are just giant glass Christmas balls. 

And they break if they fall over.What to do?

My first idea involved a bowling ball and lots of glass half marbles from the Dollar Store. 

I got this idea from the Garden Junk forum over at Garden Web.

 I used Silicone II adhesive and  did a bit at a time, only glueing the gems

 on top and let the adhesive dry a bit the turning the ball and doing another little area.

 If you try to do the sides the gems will fall off before the adhesive sticks well, so slowly slowly.

 I LOVE how this came out!!! 

The bowling ball cost me $4 at a thrift store and I used about 6 bags of glass marbles.

The Silicone II cost $4.

 My first blue glass garden ball for about $14. I was hooked!

I snagged this round glass light fixture for 25 cents and knew it would be my next ball project.

 Dollar Store half marbles and garage sale finds gave me the blue glass I needed.

I decided to go with this Amazing Goop silicone adhesive because it was CHEAP.

 It is basically the same formula as  the Silicone II. The total cost on this 

pretty ball is less than $10.

This is definitely an OUTSIDE project since all the glues I've mentioned are incredibly smelly. 

Even outside I have a fan blowing across my work area to avoid the fumes. 

I settled on my front porch and started gluing. Put a small blob of glue on each

 individual marble, you do not have to goop it on. Smear a layer on the topmost 

area of your big ball and put your marble in place.

 I twist them a bit to make sure they stick together.

IMPORTANT! 

The adhesive does not set up instantly so you will have to do small areas

 of your ball and let it dry for several hours then turn it over to do

 the other sides. If you go too fast and  skip this step  you'll have

 glass marbles falling off all over the place! 

In this project patience will reward you with a beautiful art piece.

And done!!

Here she is (of course she's a lady! LOL!) nestled in a soft bed of creeping Jenny. 

A hot pink petunia will join her soon.

 I love the bright blue glass against my blue deck railings and house color.

Oooh ahhh!

And here is the first bowling ball I did 20 years ago!

 She's looking pretty good for her years.

Since then I have glued glass gems to lamp gloves, plastic Christmas balls, 

styrofoam craft balls, soft balls, plastic balls from Dollar Tree and even a hampster ball!

I am always looking for more round balls to decorate for my garden!

DIY a Fake Stone Planter from Styrofoam Box

          

This is a repost of a popular project which has been requested over on 

Facebook's Garden Art Junk group.

 

Here's what I do with those holiday ham styrofoam boxes 

I don't want to pitch into the landfill.

RECYCLE!

I make "stone" planters for my succulent pots!

Here's how....

and please note, this is best done OUTSIDE.

This part is messy!

Using a serrated steak knife, I cut the top edge down to make the box the size I wanted.

Then I scored all the sides with a wire brush.

I made stone shape grooves with a butter knife. You can cut as deep 

or as shallow as you wish to get the look you like.

Next, I brushed a some grey, white and black acrylic craft

 paint over the whole box.

Very sparingly, spray black spray paint at some of your stone joints. 

The paint will melt the foam and give it some very rocky texture. 

Don't over do it, you can always add more texture.

 Go slow and look at the results from all angles.

Now with a brush or a paint rag or a sponge of what have you,

 start layering on acrylic craft paint in rock and moss colors.

 I used black, charcoal grey, brown, several greens and even a bit of dark blue.

I do not plant my succulents directly in the styrofoam box. 

I keep them in their own pots so I can change them out as I wish.

 But I have to say, the sedum in this fake stone box look wonderful!

Spray Paint That Porch Rug!

Soooo....here's the start of our front desk fix up. 

Good colors, structure and the furniture is all usable for another season. 

But what the heck to do with that boring beige outdoor rug?

As usual, I wanted quick, pretty and easy.

 I have flowers to plant!!

And here's my solution....

SPRAY PAINT THAT RUG!

 

I had spray paint in black, turquoise and white on hand. I also added a nice leather brown color.

     I looked around for different round shapes to use as stencils and

 ended up with a pizza cardboard, pie plate and saucer.

Simple simple! Spray several light coats until you

 have the color you want.

 This also avoids DRIPS.

                                   

Ta da!

Sunshine or shade, the colors really POP.

This is a super simple and super pretty solution to that boring deck rug.

 I will do it again when we replace this rug in another summer.

 It makes me smile!

I love a man who welds

Or maybe I should put that a different way.....I love a man, and he welds!! My husband has mad blue collar skills and has always been a hands on kind of guy so I've been the very very lucky person he makes things for. Hey, he makes things for other people, too, but I get the best of things on this deal.

He built this wedding arch which we used for the centerpiece of my sister's wedding. It has lovely scrolled heart designs up both sides. Now it stands at the bottom of our stairs to support this climbing rose.


He also built custom iron railings for our decks and stairs. He used to do this for a living, so this was easy peasy for him. I looked around our yard and started making a list.....he just "loves" it when I get out my handy dandy spiral notebooks full of notes and drawings. Usually I have an idea, he tweaks it to make it work, I show him what is important to me, he shows me what he can do to incorporate that.....yeah, he loves to see me carrying that spiral notebook around the house!! Lol!


BTW. my grandson trimmed this ivy for us before it took over the entire walkway. Did you know that needlepoint ivy doesn't stay small and delicate? That it gets voracious like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors? Well, it's trimmed for now but it will be back. Feed me, Seymour!


I needed/wanted (you know how that goes) a large heart topiary frame for the ivy in this planter.....okay, done. Then I told him the middle looked empty and since he had that nifty plasma cutter in his shop could he cut out this fairy silhouette? Which I just happen to have right here in my hand blown up to full size and drawn on this handy dandy piece of poster board?

The catmint in this planter is nice and lush but I needed/wanted some way to layer another pot on top for a bit of height and prettiness. Now this plant stacker ring holds a gorgeous pot of pampered flowers every year. I like it. I like it alot!

This is a short obelisk he built for the honeysuckle which threatened to climb over the fence. It's gorgeous, one of my favorite pieces, but that honeysuckle is going to take over we think!




Here are some of the other trellises which will go in the tomato planters on the deck, when we plant them. We had frost last week so we're really holding back.


Now here's a design which I hoped would be the most gorgeous candle stand in the world. We figured out a design on paper for a design that spirals up almost four feet within a one foot square base. It came out exactly like we planned. I put 8 chunky candles on there and lit it up after dark. IT LOOKED WONDERFUL! And then, the wind blew the candles out. We live on the side of a mountain, so evening breezes are a fact of life. Okay, so here come the short glass hurricanes. Nope. Tall glass hurricanes.......nah, the wind must not like our candle holder! No matter what we did we couldn't keep the candles lit on this thing unless we moved it inside....but 8 chunky candles within a foot square base put off ALOT OF HEAT, which is not safe for 8 foot ceilings. So, smaller candles it is, when we use it inside. Sigh.

But here is what I've done with it when I'm not pouting about the candle fiasco....I made 8 glass marble balls out of Christmas balls and use them on that sucker. They look great all year long and are pretty and colorful display on the deck all spring and summer. And in the wintertime......



This is the picture we take and email out to the family when it snows here. A pretty and graphic depiction of cold winter weather.

And this? This is all his idea, my spiral notebook didn't come into play at all. It is a 5 foot square star which we light up for the holiday season plus special family occasions. It sits out on the huge boulder which juts out from our yard and can be seen for miles up the highway, which is about 200 feet below. The open design means the pesky wind can't push it around or over, and when it's lit up on a foggy, misty night it looks positively ethereal floating up there.

And in the wintertime, it is just flat out gorgeous lit up at night with the snow reflecting the twinkly lights. Makes me smile.

And so, my tale of my welding husband is almost through except for the next chapter. He's teaching/insisting on me learning to weld! I've only done it a little so far and I jump every time I strike a spark with the gun for his wire welder, but I've managed to weld two things together and also learned how to operate the plasma cutter. He says I have a knack for it.....but I also think he's got an idea of ending the "tyranny of the spiral notebook." What do you think? Would a husband be that devious? Nah.

DIY These HUGE Flowers Like We Did For a Wedding

We made this beautiful backdrop for my grand daughter's wedding. Except for the hanging lanterns, we totally DIYed the vintage style doors, the hanging garlands, the petunias and geraniums in the urn planters and these luscious HUGE paper flowers for her decor.

Everything turned out AWESOME!!!

Here's a link to the door project...

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2014/06/gorgeous-wedding-doors-are-pinterest-win.html

Thanks to Pinterest, the bride had loads of ideas for her wedding and she chose these stylish flowers for a decorative highlight.

So during the course of one weekend, her mama, Insanely Creative Christy, gathered all her paper crafting wits and supplies and made these gorgeous oversize flowers. She looked at the photos and figured out just what she needed to do to make each style. 

These flowers are seriously HUGE, folks. This one is 30" across! She made them all with small paper plates for the centers and built out from there. This flower is made of poster board, coffee filters and copy paper. She used hot glue and a stapler.

The edges are curled with a bit of dowel. What a neat detail!

Here is the humongous rose. Did you notice that it looks a bit pink? Who knew that poster boards from different stores weren't the same shade of white? Now you know!

Here is the spikey chrysanthemum both during and the final. Again, the center is coffee filters and cut copy paper, with some curled tightly in the middle.

 Here is a peony style with folded, fringed poster board in the middle and the middle petals curled inward.

Another peony style with that pinkish poster board. She added beaded accents to the center of folded copy paper.

Here are the first three flowers hung together. See how the paper she used has different shades of white? We liked that sweet serendipity!

We hung them in my living room before the wedding to keep them out of harms way. They looked wonderful! By the time she was done she made a dozen blooms, all of them beautiful. The smaller ones were made of tissue and cardstock.

To hang them up we simply stapled through the back petals directly onto the wooden doors. Draped paper circle garlands gave the design a bit of movement and flow. We just LOVE how this came out!

Coming up next....what do you do with huge paper flowers like these after the wedding? We don't want to trash them and they do take a bit of space. So for now I've put them here in my master bedroom. Soon they will be props for my daughter's photography business. They will be here for a bit in a "flower cloud" above our bed, according to The Welding Man.

And again I say, "Oooh aaah!"

Book Painting For My Livingroom

My living room was looking winter dark and dreary so I decided to lighten up all my decor, 

starting with this bookcase painting in my favorite blues, reds, golds and greens.

I found a big blank thrift store canvas for the win. Three dollars!!

I Mod Podged old dictionary pages over the whole thing.

I drafted in the design and started the base book paintings.

I crackle painted several books on each shelf with Elmer's glue and craft paint.

It's an easy DIY and looks awesome!

I blogged about it here...

crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

Then comes lots of details and dry brushing and even some gel markers.

And I added one of my garden orbs since they are kind of my "thing."

              

I really like the new, lighter, colorful way my livingroom is headed.

 I am sure there are more projects in store. 

Thanks for stopping by!