Create GINORMOUS Outdoor Christmas Decor!

I have had the idea of how to make huge Christmas ornaments for over a year now. But, every time I worked on actually MAKING these bad boys, something would go wrong. The project seemed to have a devilish side. I tried for hours, and after several project FAILS, the project turned out soooo cute. (At least I think so!) I started with a yoga ball that I found on clearance at Target. It only cost $7.98. I got the BIGGEST one I could find because I wanted the Christmas ornaments to be as large as possible. But, before I tell you what actually worked, let me give you some tips on what to avoid. HA!!

The first thing I learned is that SPRAY PAINT does NOT work on rubber-type materials. Take my advice. DON’T try it. I was so excited because I wanted to make a few of the ornaments to be a shimmery red or green color. So, like always, I primed it with KILZ spray paint. I set the yoga ball on an old mixing bowl to prop it up while I painted it, and then I waited….and waited….and waited. I thought that the weather may have been preventing it from drying. So, I went to bed and checked it again the next day. It was still so sticky that it felt like I had JUST sprayed it. The paint was not adhering to the yoga ball. 
After I learned that spray paint didn’t work on the yoga ball, I tried to use spray glitter. That failed too. It was just dandy.
So, instead of giving up, I tried plan C. (I had to come up with plan C first, HA!) I had some burlap on hand, and why not try it, right?!? So, I cut the burlap into strips and started gluing them onto the yoga ball. I used hot glue, and it wasn’t easy, and I found that overlapping the burlap was the easiest way. I overlapped the burlap gradually as I went around the ball.
Random sidenote: I love these pictures of Creed (my youngest son) hanging out with me in the garage while I did this project.  He loved pushing around the water bottle while glued on burlap for hours. This picture cracks me up because I am concentrating so hard! HA ha. Don’t judge me for the dirty garage in the background. I overlapped the burlap on the top and bottom as I went. I did each quarter of the ball at a time so that the burlap was overlapping in the same way throughout the entire project.
After the burlap was all glued on, I decided to paint some fun design on the ball. After changing my mind a ba-dillion times, I had decided to do a large turquoise stripe across the middle of the ornament. I know, I know, you are not surprised by the turquoise. But, as I shook the paint, the lid came off of the craft paint. It was like slow motion. The lid came off, and I could see the paint spitting a million little splatters all over my perfectly glued burlap ornament.
I. Was. DEVASTATED. Mind you, I had already spent at least six hours on this project at this point. You wouldn’t know it by what I had as a result. At this point, I had two yoga balls that were sticky with paint and glitter paint that were ruined, and now I had a burlap ornament that had TERRIBLE splats of turquoise paint COVERING IT. It was bad. It looked horrid.
I wanted to cry because 1. I had an event that I need to decorate for in two hours that I was intending on using these huge Christmas ornaments a the focal paint, and 2. I had already spent too much time on this project to give up now.
I did what any crafting maniac would have done. I turned them into POLKA DOTS. It was a miracle. It worked.
Then I created the top of the ornaments with cool whip and sour cream containers. I cleaned them out, dried them, and painted them gold with metallic craft paint. After it was dry, I hooked it onto the ornament with string. (You could glue them on too). I already had the red ornament in my storage bins from a few years ago. After I bought it, I had thought, I bet I could make something like this for pretty cheap. Little did I know that the project would take four days of hell. Ha! The teal ornament is a vase that I bought at Homegoods that I stuck a painted container on the top to make it look like an ornament too.
Although I planned to have four done in the time I made one, I was still pretty excited with the result. I wish you could tell how big these bad boys are.

The burlap adds that fun grassy texture, and I love that the edges are fraying. That is exactly what I wanted it to do. Think of all the colors, patterns, and endless possibilities!! Just make sure to take my advice so that your experience goes a little better than mine did! xoxo.