Ball #96

Another ball from my friend's son, this time a dark red sparkle. I covered it with 3 shades of red, white stars, and opaque white & black rounds.

Ball #95

This ball came from my friend's son and was black. I painted it nickel shimmer and covered it with opaque mocha and chocolate brown, as well as translucent amber. It is accented with large clear translucent rounds and 3 amber butterflies.

Ball #94

This ball came from one of Dad's Rotarians in July 2010. It was black and I painted it yellow. It is decorated in concentric rows of clear with yellow cat eye and translucent cornflower blue. It was given back to the donor in thanks, since he had given me several other balls a few years ago. May 16, 2011 update: Given to a Rotarian for his neighbor, who gave me 5 balls.

Ball #93

This ball came from a church rummage sale. It was deep green and I decorated it in "daisy" flower power. The daisies are opaque white with opaque yellow centers. The background fill is various shades of green. There are occasional highlights of bottle glass with a green cat eye. This ball went to a church bazaar and was purchased by Mom for her garden in July 2010.

Ball #92

This ball came from a church rummage sale. It was black and I painted it navy. It is decorated with cobalt stars, large cobalt rounds, opaque periwinkle and clear with a periwinkle cat eye. I sold it at a church craft bazaar in July 2010.

Ball #91

This ball was given to me by a friend from church. It was black or dark maroon with no gloss at all on its surface. I painted it flat hunter green and decorated it with marine mixture. It is accented with glass seahorses and shells that I purchased at The Christmas Tree Shop and was given to a friend in exchange for helping me pull out old fences and a stump.

Ball #90

This was a pink swirly ball found by a friend in a house she is re-habbing. I covered it with expanded flower power (flower power with concentric circles) in light, medium and dark purple. Also mini-purple, pink, clear and clear with white cat-eye. It was purchased by Dad and given to a Rotary friend.

Ball #89

This was a green swirl ball that I bought at the Catholic Church's rummage sale in May 2010. I decorated it with dragonflies made of opaque green bodies with white or black wings. The background was filled in with various shades of translucent green, some of them iridescent. This ball was given to my nephew and his family at Christmas 2010.

Ball #88

This ball came from the April 2010 Lutheran Church rummage sale. It was black and I painted it cream. The paint was running and not adhering well, so I then did a splatter coat of nickel shimmer. I covered it with the dragonfly pattern in opaque aqua and lime green and filled in the background with clear with aqua or lime cat eye.

Ball #87

I bought this ball from the Lutheran Church rummage sale. It was green swirl and I covered it with flower power in white, opaque green and black. The background is filled in with translucent green. (Thanks to finding them half price at Walmart.) Update 5-15-11 - donated to a fundraiser.

Ball #86

Here is ball three of three. This one is covered with concentric circles in a repeating pattern using clear, clear with white cat-eye, white, translucent red and black.

Ball #85

Here is the second of three red/maroon balls from my sister's friend. I used red hearts, small round red, white, clear, clear with white cat-eye and beach glass in concentric circles of a repeating pattern.

Ball #84

This was one of three balls given to me by my sister's friend. All three were red/maroon swirl, so I worked with that color instead of painting them. This one has a dragonfly pattern of black iridescent body and white wings. The background is filled in with clear and clear with white cat-eye. This ball was given back to my sister's friend in August, 2010.

Ball #83

The final Craiglist ball. This one was a funky purple, aqua and white swirl pattern. I covered it with purple iridescent, dark purple, light purple, mini purple and translucent aqua in concentric circles. It has a large aqua at the north pole. The mini purples are at the equator and approximately at the tropics of cancer and capricorn. The repeating pattern of aqua and purple changes between each mini row. In my imagination I was going for an ombre effect. It's still only in my imagination!

I donated this ball to a fundraiser and it brought about $40.00 in a chinese auction.

Ball #82

Another ball from the Craigslist haul. This one was a brown swirl. I covered it with clear with a gold iridescence and cream opaque. There is a large clear round at the north pole and 3 amber butterflies.

Ball #81

This ball came from Craigslist. It was black and I painted it navy and decorated it in red, white & blue. It has a large cobalt at the north pole, and then has concentric circles of clear, clear with white cat eye, translucent red and translucent cobalt. It also has some opaque white and cobalt stars.
7-09-11 update - This ball was given to a friend who is a master gardener. He said he is going to tell his grandchildren it came from outer space!

Ball #80

Here is the next Craigslist ball. It was black and I painted it periwinkle blue. Across the top is a dragonfly made with large cobalt for the body and opaque white for the wings. On each side is a dragonfly with a white opaque body and small cobalt wings. The rest is filled in with opaque periwinkle and clear with a periwinkle cat eye. Dad bought this ball to give to one of the ladies in his Rotary Club.

Ball #79

I bought 5 balls off Craigslist a few weeks ago and this is one of them. It was dark green swirl and I decorated it with dragonflies with turquoise opaque bodies and lime green opaque wings. The rest of the ball was filled with translucent dark, medium, and light green.

Cat Proof Wastebasket

Clovis is a busy little cat, and one of his penchants is raiding the bathroom waste basket. In an attempt to keep him from dragging garbage out and leaving it around the house, I decorated this former litter bucket. (Someday maybe I'll do a post on my other blog [www.littlemanslittleblog.blogspot.com] about the various uses I've found for the hundreds of litter buckets that have passed through my life in the past 15 years or so. Very handy items!) Clovis still gets into things, but at least one little spot in the house is cat-proofed.

Bowling Ball Decoration Part 4 - Marbles

Finally - it's time for the marbles. I use GEII silicone as the adhesive. Be warned - check the expiration date on the tube!!! It's very small and hard to see, but I have learned from experience that it does not have an eternal shelf life. One batch was so hard I couldn't squeeze it out of the tube. The other bad batch was grainy and never hardened. If it is good, it should be smooth and should tack up in about 30 minutes. Give it 24 hours or so to completely cure. You can buy the GEII at Lowe's, Home Depot or Walmart. It also comes in caulk tubes, but the caulk gun is hard on the hands and the opening is larger, making it hard to control how much comes out.

Marbles? - I'm always looking for them. For some reason, they are considered a floral item, so will be found with the flower arranging materials at most stores. Michael's has a great selection. Then AC Moore, Joanne's and Hobby Lobby. Walmart has larger sized bags and changes their color selection frequently. Also check the craft area of Dollar Tree. Finally, independent dollar stores tend to have unusual items, but the bag size is smaller. A few years ago Dollar General had some interesting shapes (flowers, butterflies, shells) but I haven't seen them since. Moral of that story - if you see something you like, grab it!!!

Pick your starting spot and have a go! Most of the time I try for the north pole, assuming the thumb hole is the south pole. Concentric circles take a while because you can only put on 6 - 10 marbles at a time, let them tack up, and then turn the ball. Flower power and dragonfly go a little quicker because you can fill in large areas at a time. For the penny balls, I did two layers, using the second to fill in spaces between the first layer. I also used the same side of the pennies showing for each layer, except for the "renegade" ones. I lay out the marbles or pennies face down, load them with the adhesive, and then stick them on.