Styrofoam Ball Ornaments

I meant to do a seperate post for each of the ornaments we made this year, but somehow I managed to fritter away most of my time already. Geez, where in the world has this month gone anyway? So here are general directions on how to make an ornament out of styrofoam.



You can use styrofoam of any type. There is the porous kind and the smooth type. Either works with the tissue paper technique we used. I had quite a large collection of styrofoam balls since I used to frequent both Goodwill and Salvation Army to stock up on Sunday School craft supplies.



Once you have your plan of action in place, it's time for the glue. We used elmer's glue and a paint brush for even coverage.

Put just a little bit of glue at a time onto your styrofoam. Place your tissue paper pieces on the glue, pressing the tissue firmly onto the glue. It is best to use smaller pieces of tissue to avoid large folds in your project.

The first piece may be a bit tricky to work with, but the tissue paper pieces stick to each other quite well once you get a good start. I decided that white tissue paper would be a good color for a snowman, but any color will work. The brighter colors may bleed a little bit, so make sure to use a protective surface.

To do more than one ball, simply coat a toothpick thickly with glue first one end and then the other. Tacky glue worked best for this part of the project. Usually I prefer hot glue for most crafts but it tends to melt the stryofoam. Poke the toothpick into one ball and then the other allowing then to dry just a bit.



I save any tissue paper we get for future use. We have quite an interesting collection to choose from. These selections come from Valentine presents, birthday gifts, Christmas,... you name it I saved it! Cheesehead complains that I'm a pack rat, but why waste something just because it has a few wrinkles in it?



Once all of the tissue squares were in place, I put another layer of glue over the top of the tissue pieces. This will help all of pieces stuck firmly to the ball. To add a sparkly snow like effect, I used white glitter on top of the glue.

Pipe cleaners work well for ornament hangers on the porous type styrofoam, but not so well for the dense smooth ones.



The most fun part is embellishing. We used straight pins to secure the seed beads, sequins, and felt.

Two other great things to do with styrofoam includes making quilted look ornaments with assorted fabric poked into the foam with a pair of scissors or cover the ball with fabric or ribbon for an elegant look embellished with sequins to tack the fabric in place. I may make these sometime in the future.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy