So I ordered some stuff from CleverPatch the other day. They’ve got some amazing stuff for kids, but if you look closely there’s some really cool stuff for adults too. Plus, a lot of their products are environmentally friendly, which is a bonus for the wannabe hippie in me.
This bag of paper balls caught my attention (Tee hee, balls! Ok that’s out of my system now). I bought them without having a solid plan around what I was going to do with them, but they were cheap ($19.69 for a pack of 100 assorted sizes) and hey, there were so many possibilities!!
What I ended up making was an ombre wall hanging/ photo backdrop/ door curtain. It’s great because it’s moveable, light and with the dowel at the top, you can wedge it anywhere! And it was soooooo easy (if a little time consuming, but sometimes it’s great to get into a nice, meaty craft)!
paper balls, assorted sizes (I used 12 in 4 different sizes), food dye (I mixed blue and green to get a nice teal), containers, two wool needles, thread, hot glue gun, 1 metre dowel at least 2cm thick, washi tape, plastic, water, tape measure.
6 hours (I did this craft over 3 days).
Under $50.
Once you have selected your balls, mix your dye. To get the ombre effect you’ll be diluting the dye as you go along, so for the first step keep the dye at top strength. I tested one of the balls and the dye was a bit too green so I put in some more blue.
I was making 5 strings, so I selected the 5 largest balls for the most intense colour. If you want to go the other way, select the smallest balls. Insert the larger wool needle into the hole in the bottom of the ball and roll it around in the dye. You’ll see the paper soaking up the dye and pulling it up to the top. When you get to the smaller balls, switch to the smaller wool needle.
Set the first 5 balls aside to dry. I put them on a plastic bag so the dye didn’t leach out. It’s also a good idea not to let them touch, because they will pull the dye from each other and you’ll end up with patches.
Take the next 5 balls to dye. Before you dip, take the dye and tip out a little into another container, and top up the dye container with some water. It took me a couple of tries to get this right to I had a difference in the dye colour for each ball. Again, a test ball is a great idea. Repeat this step until all the balls are dyed then set them aside to dry.
Once the balls are dry, separate them into their strings. Cut the string to your desired length and tie a knot in the bottom of the string. You’ve got 12 balls, so divide the length of the string by 12 and you’ve got the gap you need between the balls. I wasn’t too worried about getting this completely accurate, the random look worked for me!
Thread the first ball on. You’ll have to punch through the opposite side of the ball and you may have to cut away some paper. If this happens, just pull the needle out, trim and then re-thread the ball. Measure from the bottom of the ball, and tie a knot at the correct distance then thread the next ball. Repeat until you have a complete string.
To make the sting stronger and make sure the balls stayed in place, I put a dab of hot glue at each knot.
Take your dowel, measure the middle and tie the longest string to the centre. Do the same for the other strings. Then use the hot glue gun to glue down the strings and cut any loose bits off. Once this is done, take the washi tape and wind it around the dowel.
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