GOLF BALL Garden Decorations

This is an Instructable for golf ball garden decorations! Why golf ball decorations you ask?

My story as to why I chose to make these decorations is the following:

1) my Nannie (grandmother) LOVES flowers and gardens
2) when I was younger my grandparents had a house in bodega bay. It was right on a golf course. My Popup (grandfather) would put golf balls in the backyard and tell us "for every golf ball you find in the backyard, I will give you a dollar". Me and my sister didn't know HE was putting them out for us. We simply thought the golfers on that course were AWFUL. So we loved helping our Popup clean up the golf balls! Sometimes we were too eager to do so. On some days we would tell him that we wanted to go get him golf balls and he would say "I don't think the golfers have been out today" aka he hadn't put them out yet! Haha this is one of my most fond memories with my Popup.

My Nannie and Popup will be married for over 50 years this August. I will be giving them these decorations as their anniversary present because it is a little of each of them... Flowers/gardens and golf balls on the ground (haha!)

I hope you enjoy this instructable!

Please vote for it!

Thank you :)

-Elana

Steps 2-7 are for flowers as the one pictured above

Steps 8-11 are for the ladybugs

Steps 12-15 are for the bees

FLOWERS:
--6 golf balls for every flower you want to make
--2 different paint colors. One for the middle of the flower and one for the "petals"
--2 goggly eyes (or a sharpie to draw them)
--sharpie to draw the mouths on the flowers (not pictured)
--fake leaves
--hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
--Crystal clear acrylic spray
--wire cutters (or scissors. For cutting fake leaf stems)
--paint brush
--cup of water (not pictured)
--workspace covered with newspaper

LADYBUGS:
--golf balls (1 golf ball makes one ladybug)
--red paint (for body of ladybug)
--black paint (for ladybug spots and face)
--2 googly eyes
--paint brush
--cup of water (not pictured)
--Crystal clear acrylic spray
--workspace covered with newspaper
--paper plate to paint golf balls on (keeps them from rolling around)

BEES:
-- golf balls (1 golf ball makes one bee)
--yellow paint
--black paint
--2 googly eyes
--Crystal clear acrylic spray
--paint brush
--pipe cleaners
--wire cutters
--hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
--cup of water (not pictured)
--workspace covered with newspaper
--paper plate to paint golf balls on (keeps them from rolling around)

Use sharpie to draw a circle around the golf ball. This will be the middle golf ball of the flower and the line will help make sure you glue the "petal golf balls" on evenly

Use hot glue to attach the petal golf balls on the line of the middle golf ball. Be sure to make them evenly spaced.

Paint the middle golf ball!

Place that brush in the cup of water so the paint doesn't dry on the brush and ruin it. If you are going to use the same brush for the petal golf balls, wash your brush!

Once the middle golf ball is dry, paint the petal golf balls.

I made 3 flowers at once and so painted all the middle golf balls first then all of the petal golf balls.

Let dry completely.

Draw a smile or whatever facial expression you'd like onto your flower. Then glue two googly eyes above the flowers mouth.

Spray the flowers with the acrylic spray (wipe off googly eyes to make sure they remain clear). I also sprayed the leaves with the acrylic spray for extra protection.

Let dry.

Next, use the hot glue gun to glue the leaves to the back of the flower. Let the flower dry face down so it doesn't stick to your newspaper covered surface.

Paint the golf balls for the ladybugs red. You may need to do this in 2 rounds. One to paint the majority of the golf balls and the second round to paint the part that you couldn't reach before because of the paper plate.

Paint a black circle on your golf ball. This will be the ladybugs face.

Paint a line from the top of the circle around the ball to the back. This line will create the effect of the ladybug having wings.

Paint black dots on the body of the ladybug

Let dry completely!

Hot glue the eyes onto the ladybugs face.

Spray the ladybugs with acrylic spray. Wipe off the eyes before the spray dries. This will ensure that the eyes remain clear and don't become foggy (because of the spray residue).

Paint your golf balls yellow!

It is easier to paint black stripes onto yellow than it is to paint yellow stripes onto black.

You may need to do this in 2 rounds. The first, to paint the majority of the golf balls and the second to get the place on the golf ball that was on the paper plate.

Paint a black circle on the golf ball and fill in with black paint. This is the bee's face.

Next, paint stripes onto the body of the bee. They can be thin or thicker.. Whatever your heart desires.

Hot glue the eyes onto your bee.

Make a small "U" shaped pipe cleaner in the size you want the wings to be. Make two of these. Make a small bend on each of the ends of both pipe cleaners. This is where we will put the hot glue to attach the pipe cleaners to the bees.

Put a dab of hot glue on the bends onto both ends of one of the pipe cleaner.

Attach this pipe cleaner to the place you want one of the wings.

Next put glue on each ends of the second pipe cleaner.

Attach this pipe cleaner to the other side of the bee.

Once the wings are firmly attached to the bee you can bend the wings to make them be at any angle!

Be sure to not burn yourself please!

Spray the bee(s) with acrylic spray

Wipe off googly eyes before the spray dries. This will ensure that the eyes do not become foggy with spray residue.

Go outside and find places for your creations!

You can also put these inside!

I can't wait to give these to my grandparents!

Hope you enjoyed this Instructable!

Please vote for it !

Best,

Elana