Crackle Paint Those Christmas Balls For Halloween!

Since I discovered the easy peasy way to make a crackle paint effect with Elmer's glue, I've used it on just about everything. Christmas balls redone for Halloween are no exception. There are lots of pics in this post, but it's a fun project so read on...

I buy Christmas balls all year long when they are cheaper than cheap cheap. I'll be watching for more in different colors but my favorites for this project are silver and gold.

Ooh aaah!

Here is how you do it.

Pop the top off the ball and insert a pen or dowel or paint brush handle so that you can hold the ball without touching it. Trust me, this makes everything easier.Go into your stash and grab the Elmer's glue. This technique works with both the school glue and glue all by Elmer's.

Brush a thick coat of glue all over the ball. Not thick enough to run and drip but still, get a good coat of glue on there. Prop it up and let it dry for 5 to 10 minutes until the glue is tacky but not wet. Do NOT let the glue dry completely, but IF you do, just apply a new layer of glue over the top and let that layer get tacky.

Using a soft paintbrush, apply acrylic craft paint in long smooth strokes in one direction. I used gloss black. After I painted all one direction I did a few soft random crosswise strokes just to see what it would look like. Do not go back and forth with your brush, you will drag the glue layer. Prop that ball up and let it dry. 

Five minutes layer my paint was starting to crackle. I LOVE this part! See the crosswise crackle? That is from the soft sideways stroke I tried. I like the interesting pattern it made.

Let the ball dry completely. Once it is dry (and gloss craft paint takes a long time to dry, so be patient if you use it) you can use your wonderful crackled ball as is or seal it with acrylic spray.

And here is what this effect looks like on colored balls!

Here are a few orange over gold balls on my Halloween tree.

And a few more in a vintage wire basket.

So now my brain is churning out ideas for Christmas decor. Wouldn't white crackle over silver balls be a beautiful shabby chic look? Gotta try it! Or red paint over silver. Or white over red. Man, I am going to be doing this again and again in the coming weeks just to see what different combos look like.

So try it, you'll like it! It's easy and cheap and oh so fun to do. You'll never have so much fun watching paint dry than with this project, I guarantee it!

Here's a link to my uber popular post on crackle paint with Elmer's glue with LOADS of painted examples on different surfaces....

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar. Come visit and check out all the neat ideas!

Faux Moss Decor Balls

Here's a reworking of one of my favorite springtime projects...mossy decorating balls. Just a beautiful bit of emerald green for St. Patrick's Day!

The Dollar Store sells sheet, roll and loose moss, which is sort of olive green and dull grey. But they also sell foam rocks covered in fake emerald green moss. What a beautiful color and texture! This is exactly the gorgeous green of the moss on our Oregon mountain. So these faux mossy rocks worked out great for my next project...mossy decor balls!

I spray painted a large Dollar Store Christmas ball brown (2/$1 after Christmas sale. Score!) 

 Then, at my grandson's suggestion, I peeled the pretty green fake moss off the fake foam rocks. The moss won't all come off at once or in a clean piece. Some foam will stick to the back.

I hot glued the pieces to the ball. They are a little irregular and the pieces of foam that stick to the back gave them a few small bumps, just like real moss.

I really LOVE the way these came out!

I made two more with different size Christmas balls then had some fun arranging them in a vintage wooden bowl with a gorgeous piece of driftwood, creek pebbles and my favorite paper dragonfly. So pretty!

Just lovely on our coffee table with the morning sun shining across! See how realistic those moss balls look?

And then I put them in a different display and added googly eyes. Why? Because I could, and it made the family laugh. It probably also made them worried about me, lol!

The cost for these mossy decor balls is minimal. I figure $2 for the balls, $2 for 2 packs of fake moss rocks, hot glue and spray paint I had on hand and an hour or so of fun crafting. So $4 total? The googly eyes are in my stash, you never know where they'll show up next. Let's call this fun project $4 for 3 pretty decor balls that are perfect for  spring decorating. Gotta love that!

I'll be adding this post to the linky parties in my sidebar, come visit and see what's cooking out in blogland.

Mossy Decor Balls

Sorry I've been AWOL for these many weeks. Finishing chemo, starting radiation, selling our house and moving have totally wiped me out! The good news is that in the next couple of weeks our life will settle down once more and I can start posting all the great ideas I've got piled up in my brain.

For now, here is one of my favorite springtime projects which I posted last year. I plan on making more of these mossy balls, and soon. Enjoy!




I wanted something fresh and natural looking for my living room and I knew I wanted to incorporate the bright green color of moss with weathered wood and stones. Unfortunately, the natural moss on our hillside is already turning brown and rusty, so I got to thinking how much I loved the color and texture of the Dollar Store moss rocks I had used before. I had looked at their sheet moss and it was too gray and drab for me. I want emerald mossy green!


I gathered the moss rocks I had on hand and 3 different sizes of plastic Christmas balls. After spray painting two a nice brown and leaving the other it's original silver, I planned to slice the curvy parts of the moss rocks off so I would have a bunch of moss covered shapes to hot glue to the balls.

Eww, I did not like it! It looked dumb! So I was talking to my visiting teen age grandson about this and he suggested peeling the moss off the styrofoam "rocks." Who knew the moss peeled off???? He proceeded to show me.



I told him he was a genius and he had saved my project! As you can see the moss peels off in irregular pieces, but you want these shapes for the best results. I used a razor knife to start the process but the moss peels off surprising easily. And if a bit of the white styrofoam sticks to it, it is okay, because you do not want the balls to be totally smooth anyway.

I just used hot glue and started covering the balls. I put the glue on the ball a small area at a time and laid the moss on top, and also the other way, with the glue on the moss instead. It works equally well as long as you have your moss pieces handy because hot glue dries pretty quickly. If it does dry before you get the moss totally stuck it is okay, just add more glue. The extra layer of glue and some of the stuck on styrofoam makes the ball less "bally" and more like a natural shape you might actually find in nature. That is, not a perfect round and a bit lumpy.


Save even your smallest scraps of moss to fill in and cover the edges where they are too straight. You do not want this to look like a bad toupee, but a natural, moss covered surface. Be sure to glue any edges that are sticking up and smooth your joints down. Any hot glue strings that are left on the ball can be readily melted away with your hair dryer once you are done.


I arranged them in my wooden bowl which usually holds all our electronics remotes. (We have SIX!!!! What the heck??!? Ahem. The remotes are now in a basket to the side.) I added more Dollar Store finds, like the polished rocks and pretty gravel, plus a chunk of really interesting driftwood and my favorite feather and paper dragonfly. With just a few little mini spruce cones, this little display is perfect.


It now resides on my painted coffee table (which was a $7 auction find from 28 years ago!!! It is also another blog post!) and it just makes me happy to look at it. I love the brilliant green "moss" and the wood grain of the bowl and grey texture of the driftwood and the polished stones....it makes me smile. And the best thing? When I got done with it and was taking my pictures, our grandson took a look at it and said, "That looks cool, Gramma!" High praise indeed coming from a teenager!!

It took 3 bags of Dollar Store moss rocks to do this project so that is certainly affordable. I already had the 3 different Christmas balls on hand, plus the rocks and gravel. If you actually bought what you needed just to make the 3 balls you could certainly do them for under $6 and end up with a very fresh accent for your summertime home. How about some Dollar Store wiffle balls mossified and stacked in a cloche or glass hurricane? I am wondering how this would work on a couple of birdhouses for a bit of cool, mossy goodness? Hmmmm.

I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar, please visit and see all the fantastic projects listed there! Thanks for coming by and leave a comment, if you will. I love and read them all. And check out my other posts, you never know what you will find!

Sometimes pretty just happens.

Well, we're making the change over from Thanksgiving and autumn decor to Christmas this weekend. Insanely Creative Christy and I have a list and together we have a plan. But sometimes things just happen and you have to seize the day. I have a big, old, oval trencher with a beat up chippy paint finish and as we took things down and put things up we started throwing the odds and ends in that old bowl.....

Hey, neat!

That's looking pretty cool, almost like we planned it, but we didn't. Had to take pics anyway.

Book page Christmas balls, vine balls, shiny balls go in. Chuck in some random silvery, pearly, metallic garlands next. Hey, that looks good!

A pretty yarn angel, a tangle of tiny pearl beaded garland...and a trio of rusty tin stars. Better and better!

Hey, these pretty little string angels need a place to rest before we hang them on a tree. Put 'em in the bowl. Sweet! So many pretty things together in one place, maybe we should leave this as is?

Maybe, but probably not. We've got plans and lists and schedules. But don't worry, old beat up chippy painted trencher bowl, we'll do you good when we're all done with things.

Just sharing the spontaneity of the moment ladies, sometimes good things happen if only fleetingly. Seize the moment and ENJOY!