Unbreakable Gazing Balls
7 Materials
Tired of replacing gazing balls but still want to add beauty to your yard? That's where I was at. I was tired of being at the mercy of the wind or trying to place the gazing balls where the ground was the softest, but nothing worked for too long as eventually I would lose one. Then I saw this on how to make bowling balls into gazing balls/garden balls. So I had to try. I found three bowling balls on my first attempt, and decided to try three different ways to decorate them.
First find something to set the bowling ball on where it doesn't roll off. I had a pile of landscaping blocks and used it which worked great. After you have wiped down good and is dry you are ready to paint. You are going to want a metallic or mirrored finish paint to achieve the gazing ball look. Next, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you spend the extra few bucks, get a hand held spray paint gun. You just slide on to any can of spray paint. You use less paint per project, plus you get a more even and professional look. You can't paint entire ball in one shot, so once dry turn paint and repeat until you get the look you want.
Once you get the coverage and color you want, you can stop there. I decided to keep one simple and add nothing. I thought it best to keep the new "gazing ball" low to the ground since I have young grandkids running around and didn't want them to knock off onto each other. Also wasn't sure what to do for a stand. I decided to go with a clay pot. I came up with this idea when I was trying to figure out how to keep the bowling ball still while working on them with the other material. I made sure the pot was smaller but not too small. I just painted with the same metallic paint I used for the ball.
The next one I used marbles. You can use any color you want but make sure that one side is FLAT. You will see what I am talking about, I think that Dollar Tree sells them, but you need a decent amount so I would think that Walmart has the better deal, but I didn't take the time to look. I just grabbed a few bags of what I needed when I was at Walmart.
Load your adhesive into the caulk gun and glue the marbles on to the ball. You can place where you can see the base( clay pot) or not. Up to you.
My last option was to break up CDs and glue them on to the ball. I used a white glue here to give the appearance of it being grouted. Be careful breaking up the CDs as they will be razor sharp.
I hope that this inspires you to come up with creative garden decor for your yard.
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3 of 92 comments
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Thanks so much! Send me a pic of your creation!
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gluing pennies on is also a fun thing and is suppose to keep the snails and slugs out of your garden, takes about $4.40 worth of pennies to do one ball, you can clean the pennies in vinegar and salt to make them shiny.
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What kind of glue did you use to glue the pennies on? I've read that alot of glues do not hold the pennies on, especially in the heat of the Arizona desert.
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
How did you break up CD's? I've tried scissors and a hammer without much success. Thanks, these are beautiful!
Can I have the cd parts painted? In that case, what kind of painting, please.
I have in mind use the cd parts glued to an old glass.
What a stunning idea. You suggested getting a hand held spray paint gun. Do you have any suggestions what is a good one to get?