Finally a craft post! Can you believe this used to be a craft blog? Heck, it used to be a scrapbooking blog but we won't go there today. As I mentioned previously a couple girlfriends threw me a baby shower recently. We had it at my house since I have a lot of space by NYC standards and the guest list was a little on the big side. I offered to handle all the decorations mainly because I had wanted to try making these pom pom balls I had seen in Martha Stewart Living (January issue I believe). I thought I could use them for the party and then move them into the nursery when the party was over. I have been a fan of Martha's tissue paper pom pom balls for a long time. I made them for this previous shower and loved the effect.
So when I saw this new version of the pom pom I thought they looked just as easy and cool so I thought I would give them a try. First I got out my materials.
They have a foam ball center, some ribbon to hang the ball by, and the rest is made from cupcake liners you can buy at any grocery store or cake decorating supply shop. I got all my supplies at Michael's. I found pink Wilton's cupcake liners with green stripes (my color scheme for Koobie's room). You also need hot glue and some kind of stick, pencil or implement to attache the cupcake liners with. I ended up using a couple bowls too which I will show you. First thing I did was make a hole in the top of my foam ball and glue one end of my ribbon into it. Then I was ready to start. You basically take a cupcake liner and smoosh it over the end of a pencil erasor or dowl.
I used a folding tool with a blunt end (the green stick). Then you apply some hot glue to the smooshed liner and attach it to the foam ball.
Right away I noticed a problem. The hot glue melts the foam ball so you have to hold the liner in place for a few seconds until the glue cools and sticks to the ball. Otherwise the liner will just fall off. This means the process is a little on the slow side. I made up for that by watching season 1 of the Closer while I worked. Good show! I started adding liners around my attached ribbon and then began working out.
On the first ball I did I just added liners willy nilly very close together. This produced an uneven surface and I actually ran out of liners long before finishing the ball. Not good. So for the next ball I learned my lesson and began working in quadrants.
Counting out liners in the rows so they would be about even and spacing them out a bit so that the surface would look even.
This worked MUCH better and I was able to complete a small ball with just 2 packages of mini cupcake liners (the foam ball was 4" in diameter). I found that placing the foam ball in a small bowl while I worked kept it from rolling around. I also found I could move faster if I smooshed all the liners in advance and tossed them into a big bowl.
Then I could just focus on gluing quickly.
I have to say I love the way the balls turned out. I hung them from the ceiling and a light fixture with a few white paper lanterns for the party.
However there were some other lessons learned. This project is expensive. Tissue paper pom poms cost a couple bucks total. These pom pom balls were about $13 for each big ball (I made 2) and $8 for each small ball (I made 2). My large balls had a 6" core ($5) and it took 4 pkgs of regular liners to cover each one (75 count $2 each). My small balls had a 4" core ($4) and it took 2 pkgs of mini liners to cover each one (100 count $2 each). Not terrible but if you are just using them for a party decoration and throwing them away I think that is a waste of money. They are also time consuming to make. Tissue pom poms are a 30 min project, these balls took me almost 2 days to complete. Again, if you intend them to be disposable I would say that is a waste of time. I am planning to use at least some of mine in the nursery so it was more worth the time and expense. This project reminded me of grade school when we used to twist small tissue paper squares around the end of a pencil, dip them in Elmer's glue and stick them to a piece of paper. Very similar except in grade school I never burned my finger with the glue gun! Ouch! Be careful out there and consider this project. I was thinking on a much smaller scale it could make some cute Christmas ball ornaments for a Christmas tree.
So when I saw this new version of the pom pom I thought they looked just as easy and cool so I thought I would give them a try. First I got out my materials. 
They have a foam ball center, some ribbon to hang the ball by, and the rest is made from cupcake liners you can buy at any grocery store or cake decorating supply shop. I got all my supplies at Michael's. I found pink Wilton's cupcake liners with green stripes (my color scheme for Koobie's room). You also need hot glue and some kind of stick, pencil or implement to attache the cupcake liners with. I ended up using a couple bowls too which I will show you. First thing I did was make a hole in the top of my foam ball and glue one end of my ribbon into it. Then I was ready to start. You basically take a cupcake liner and smoosh it over the end of a pencil erasor or dowl. 
I used a folding tool with a blunt end (the green stick). Then you apply some hot glue to the smooshed liner and attach it to the foam ball. 
Right away I noticed a problem. The hot glue melts the foam ball so you have to hold the liner in place for a few seconds until the glue cools and sticks to the ball. Otherwise the liner will just fall off. This means the process is a little on the slow side. I made up for that by watching season 1 of the Closer while I worked. Good show! I started adding liners around my attached ribbon and then began working out. 
On the first ball I did I just added liners willy nilly very close together. This produced an uneven surface and I actually ran out of liners long before finishing the ball. Not good. So for the next ball I learned my lesson and began working in quadrants. 
Counting out liners in the rows so they would be about even and spacing them out a bit so that the surface would look even.
This worked MUCH better and I was able to complete a small ball with just 2 packages of mini cupcake liners (the foam ball was 4" in diameter). I found that placing the foam ball in a small bowl while I worked kept it from rolling around. I also found I could move faster if I smooshed all the liners in advance and tossed them into a big bowl. 
Then I could just focus on gluing quickly.
I have to say I love the way the balls turned out. I hung them from the ceiling and a light fixture with a few white paper lanterns for the party.
However there were some other lessons learned. This project is expensive. Tissue paper pom poms cost a couple bucks total. These pom pom balls were about $13 for each big ball (I made 2) and $8 for each small ball (I made 2). My large balls had a 6" core ($5) and it took 4 pkgs of regular liners to cover each one (75 count $2 each). My small balls had a 4" core ($4) and it took 2 pkgs of mini liners to cover each one (100 count $2 each). Not terrible but if you are just using them for a party decoration and throwing them away I think that is a waste of money. They are also time consuming to make. Tissue pom poms are a 30 min project, these balls took me almost 2 days to complete. Again, if you intend them to be disposable I would say that is a waste of time. I am planning to use at least some of mine in the nursery so it was more worth the time and expense. This project reminded me of grade school when we used to twist small tissue paper squares around the end of a pencil, dip them in Elmer's glue and stick them to a piece of paper. Very similar except in grade school I never burned my finger with the glue gun! Ouch! Be careful out there and consider this project. I was thinking on a much smaller scale it could make some cute Christmas ball ornaments for a Christmas tree.
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1 comments:
Very cute! I can't wait to see them in the baby's room. See and talk to you soon, I'm off to Yoga.
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