Ball #100

And now for something completely different.....

It was my intention to stop after #100, until one of Dad's Rotary friends showed up with 5 more balls for me! Here is the first one. It was black. I had some bright lime colored marbles that I bought thinking I could do a smiley face with them. I tried various patterns but it never looked quite right so I gave up. Since then I had acquired a large amount of shiny black marbles, so I decided to do lime & orange dragonflies with black filler. It ain't subtle, that's for sure!  Update - May 2012 - I donated this ball to The Rotary as a door prize for their Golf Tournament, which will be held in August.

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 #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 #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.

Ball #78

This ball marks a new direction in my decorating! My youngest sister's friend sent me her old black ball in January 2010 and wanted it decorated with dragonflies. I was mulling over a variety of ways that might be accomplished and I searched through the garden junk site on gardenweb. (A WONDERFUL forum - the people there are amazingly creative.) Someone on that site had posted a picture of a ball she made that had a dragonfly made with marbles on one side. I never would have come up with that on my own, but I'm thrilled with the end result. I painted the ball satin dark green by Krylon. The dragonflies are various combinations of opaque aqua, lime green and yellow. The background is dark translucent green (from Walmart). My sister's friend was happy with the ball also, so I have a paying customer! I completed it in February of 2010. I definitely plan to use this idea in various ways in the future. Yesterday, Little Man's father picked up 5 balls for me that I found on Craigslist, so I'm ready for big things!