How to… make Yarn Ball Lights (Guest Post)
This week we have a fun and crafty idea from Kim and her blog Kims Kandy Kreations. I know Kim from her fun weekend link up parties. Today she shares her clever yarn ball lights…
Just make sure you have heat resistant glue OR don’t leave these on over night… or use low heat emmitting fairy lights! I have also seen fire retardant craft spray that you could try out. I get paranoid about these things!!! Having said that, Kim made hers well over 6 months ago and all is well!
General experience also tells me that wool with natural fibres in it will glue BETTER.. but it should work with all wool!
Over to Kim!
Yarn Ball Decoration Lights
This is another one of those projects that I started “HOPING” that it would turn out.
Who knows when you are making things up, but in my head it was so cute…
I started with some water balloons, Elmer’s glue, and 2 shades of purple yarn.
I DRENCHED about 2 yards of the yarn in glue. [A top tip from reader Creative Jewish Mom, is to coat the balloon in Vaseline first!]
Then I wrapped it around a blown up balloon.
(I thought I had some MESSY pictures of this stage, but my camera is telling me the pictures are empty files, so you’ll have to imagine me covered in glue spending an hour wrapping these balloons.)
Then I let the balloons sit for 2 days.
It’s been VERY wet here lately, so I let them sit extra long just in case.
(I’ve also been pretty busy with some family matters, but we’ll pretend it was deliberate.)
After 2 days, I popped the balloon and pulled it out of my yarn ball.
There were a few balls that had become malformed as the balloons lost air.
But it was easy to reshape them when I got the balloons out so don’t worry if you try and they look funny as they are drying.
Also, they made weird noises as they deflated– so don’t spend forever trying to figure out what that “strange sound” is when your kids come running to you about it.
I finished my lights by adding them to a strand of mini Christmas lights.
I put the lights inside the ribbon balls in an area where the ribbon was very close together.
Most of them stayed without help, but I did need to add a little hot glue to one or two to make sure they stayed when I hang them.
TA-DAH!
(Yes, feel free to be amazed and wowed at my amazing picture.)
But seriously, I wish you could see how cute they really turned out.
I plan to put these above my dessert table at the party. I think they will be just the touch of whimsy that I’ll need to tie it in with the rest of the party.
Don’t they look fabulous? Thank you Kim and why not check out her blog Kims Kandy Kreations for a little peak?