DIY Rope balls – Joining the Young House Love Pinterest challenge

DIY rope balls

You might remember a little while ago I shared how much I love Pinterest. I am a serious addict. I have way too many boards and probably more ideas pinned than I could re-create in a lifetime. My love for Pinterest is so strong that my Pinterest comes to life post last year was even featured on the Pinterest blog which was seriously exciting!

Young House Love is yet another site that I am addicted to. If you’ve never visited, it’s a blog by young couple John and Sherry (who now have a gorgeous daughter) who share their reno/DIY story. I will warn you, if you’ve never stopped by put aside at least a day to do so. The first time I visited Young House Love I spent hours flicking through their past posts. They are budget DIY geniuses!

DIY rope balls

Sherry along with friend Katie, also happens to be a self-confessed Pinterest addict and together they launched the Pinterest Challenge (no affiliation with Pinterest). It’s a combination of two of my online addictions. How could I not get involved? The mission should you chose to accept, is to select one pin (or several) and recreate your own version.

My Pinterest inspiration

Here’s the original item that I ‘pinned.’ It’s from V and Co, a great blog I found with lots of crafty ideas. I’ve been eying these decorative balls off for quite a while so on Saturday, spurred on by the challenge and equipped with my glue gun I set to work.

The 'ingredients'

To make rope balls, you will need styrofoam balls of whichever size you like, brown twine (I get mine for $2 for a 2-pack at the junk shop) and a hot glue gun. In the original post, the ‘rope’ is spray painted first. I wanted mine to be a natural colour but I imagine you could spray them after they’ve been roped up rather than spraying the rope on it’s own. It sounds like a much easier option to me.

Starting off

This should come with a little warning that says you will get glue on your fingers and it will be hot. I didn’t suffer any major injuries but there might have been a few harsh words muttered under my breath.

To start it off, place a blob of glue on the end (ok I know spheres don’t have ends but you know what I mean) of the ball and stick down the end of the twine then quickly start to curl it around itself so it begins a spiral shape.

Round and round

Keep going around and around placing little blobs of glue as you go.

For all you very observant people, no my thumb nail is not yellow from a disgusting smoking habit. I was removing the orange bits from some lilies and as always, got it all over me. That stuff really stains!

Method one - all the way around in one go

I tried out two different methods for wrapping the ball. The first time I started at one end and wrapped it all the way around until I got to the other end. It was perfect as the ball got fatter but as it went back in again towards the end, it was very hard to get the rows to stay nice and close.

Method two - start from both ends

The next time, I thought I’d eliminate that problem and cover it in two parts starting from either end. That way worked much better in terms of coverage but it was a bit tricky to get the ends to meet up in exactly the same spot. It’s a bit of trial and error.

All finished

About 20 minutes later my three balls were all finished and ready to go to their new home. I’ve been doing a bit of decorating lately and I had just the spot for them.

DIY rope balls

Into my Bison dishes they went. Don’t they look pretty?

The best part was that this project cost me a grand total of $0! Yes I’m the kind of person who just happens to have styrofoam balls and twine lying around the house.

So what about you? Do you use Pinterest? What do you use it for?

DIY rope balls