Flower Ball

This is a project I did for my friend's baby shower. I had seen a picture of a flower ball online somewhere but then sort of made up the steps as I went along. I did something right, because they turned out really good. My friend ended up keeping the balls to put in her son's nursery. You could say I am a proud auntie :) Again, I completed this project before I made my blog so I don't have many step-by-step pictures! Sorry.

Supplies:

ALOT of ribbon (I used maybe 13 rolls for 5 flowers)
different sized foam balls
wooden dowels
pins
vases
sand
decorations for in the sand

1. First, cut up all the ribbon into about 1 1/2 inch strips. Roll each piece into a circle and then use one pin where the ends of the ribbon meet to stick it into the styrofoam. I put the pieces all different ways to create a more random look, but you could put them in rows all the same way if that's what you prefer. This takes a very long time. About an hour and half for each ball! I turned the TV on, and sat down on my couch to do it. It can get pretty tedious.

2. Once the styrofoam ball is covered with ribbon, it is time to stick the wooden dowel into it. I painted my dowels a baby blue to match the theme. Then just stuck the end into a tiny blank spot I left on the ball. This creates the 'stem' of the flower. I had to use a dowel because the balls end up to be a little bit heavy and they needed something sturdy to hold them up. At Micheal's, they had small wooden dowels already cut to about 12" long which was perfect for this project. I suppose if you had to, you could buy a long dowel and cut it into the size you needed. I don't own a saw, so the precut version was much better for me.

3. I borrowed 5 clear glass vases and filled them about three quarters of the way with decorative sand. I stuck the dowel down into the sand until it stayed upright. I had gotten some small pacifiers and diaper clips to drop down onto the sand, again going with the theme for the baby boy shower. I tied a ribbon around the vase and voila! Done.

We placed them in different parts of the house for the shower. Two were centerpieces on a picnic table, one was on the dessert table, and two are shown above on the mantle of the fireplace.