Crafty Lighted Grapevine...Eh, Em...Balls

I LOVE being a blogger! And I LOVE the blogging world for so many reasons, but especially because somehow it cosmically connects me with the most amazing people from all around the world, people I’d never have the incredible fortune of meeting if it weren’t for this blog and the wonderful Inter-Webbed place in which it lives.

Case in point, the AH-MAZING designer/blogger who sent me today’s DIY. Lynne Knowlton is a designer who lives outside of Toronto, Canada. She also runs a popular blog called Design The Life You Want To Live, which you HAVE to go visit because she’ll have you in stitches laughing on the floor in no time at all. I love funny people!

I feel like Lynne and I connected instantly and I just knew we’d be friends, “The way you know about a good melon.”

Super big bonus points if you can name the movie that line came from.

Anyhow, Lynne was kind enough to share this awesome DIY with me so I can share it with you. But be sure to go see it on her site as well. Be warned though, you might pee your pants from laughter 🙂

Here’s an image of the completed eh, em…balls. Such a funny word…I give you permission to laugh each time that word appears. Okay…que laughter 😉

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1. Grapevine. You can find grapevine growing everywhere or you can buy grapevine wreaths from Hobby Lobby or Michael’s Crafts Supply or many other online places, just enter grapevine wreaths into a Google search and voila!

2. Wire to cut into small pre-cut pieces. About 30 pre-cut pieces. This wire will be used to secure the grapevine together as you are wrapping the beach ball. Pick a gauge like what you see in the photographs below. It doesn’t have to be an exact number…there are no rules. Just make sure it’s something you can work with that will have a strong enough hold.

Image via Etsy

3. Wire cutters

4. Beach balls (que laughter) Be sure to choose a few different sizes.

And in case we didn’t know, Zooey Deschanel is here to help show us how much fun we can have with a beach ball as well… 😉

Image via Wreck The Tape Deck

Ahh…but we’re not on the beach right now, so as much fun as it would be to bounce around in the sand and look as cute as Zooey does in her vintage swim wear and sunglasses, alas we must get back to the tutorial 😉

By using different size beach balls, you will finish with a variety of completed sizes of grapevine balls.

Oh yes…and make sure to buy the kind of beach balls that you can deflate. I especially like how Lynne describes why it’s necessary to buy a deflatable beach ball.

Why buy a deflatable beach ball?

a) you can play with it later

b) If you can’t deflate the ball, you will need to beat the heck out of it, to remove it from your grapevine. Trust me on this one. Buy a deflatable ball. No need to murder a beach ball. No balls need to die in this experiment.

She cracks me up!!!

5. Twinkle lights, white lights, Christmas lights…whatever you want to call them. Use green if you’re going to leave your grapevine Balls, (again…que the laughter), natural, use white if you want to experiment and paint the balls (hehe) white, which would probably look really cool too!

Image via Dust Jacket

6. Chain, twine, rope &/or extension cord to hang the balls from the trees. You will not need this chain or rope if you are placing the grapevine balls in the garden or sitting anywhere au natural 😉

HOW TO CREATE YOUR GRAPEVINE BALLS…HAHA, STILL FUNNY!

1. Gather up your grapevine, strip it of the grapes and leaves. Pick the grapevine when it is still growing, soft, and pliable. If you pick it, and let it dry out, it will crack and be too dried out to really work with it. It can be done, but only if you want to do things the hard way.

2. After you have stripped the grapevine, you are left with the stem the brown woody part that you see in this picture. Wear gloves and begin to wrap the grapevine stem around a beach ball. As soon as your grapevine ball begins to take shape, deflate the beach ball and pull it out while you still have room. Do NOT wait until you’ve finished the grapevine ball or your beach ball will most likely be staying in there…FOREVAH…

3. Have your wire and wire cutters handy. Prep a bunch of pre-cut wire, so you are not wrangling with the wire cutters, wire, ball, and grapevine all at once.

4. As you wrap the beach ball with the grapevine, secure it with your pre cut wire to ensure a solid hold. It will seem tricky at first, sort of like rolling a mammoth ball of out of control wool. Once the ball gets going though, it gets easier.

5. After the grapevine ball starts to take shape, you can now deflate your beach ball and continue working on building up more grapevine. Just keep adding the grapevine, in circles around the ball until you get to a point where you like the look.

6. When you are finished, it is absolutely necessary for you to stand back and admire your work.

7. Wrap the mini lights around the balls in whatever fashion you like.

8. Now you can add a chain to hang your balls. Or you can use anything else to hang them that might strike your fancy. Some other ideas to try:

Rope, twine, braided burlap fabric, wire, etc. You can pretty much use whatever…

Note…if you’re going to hang your balls (I don’t need to say it at this point, do I?), outside, use some electrical tape to secure the mini light plug to an extension cord to keep it free of rain and creepy critters.

PS…you can also make a grapevine tree, look at how cute this one that Lynne made is. So creative!