My Altered Balls !!!

LOL ! Did that get your attention fast enough ? Yes, you read correct, here's a pic. of my altered balls.....Christmas ball decorations that is :) I realised that I don't always show off the art in my home, especially the balls because, well, they only come out once a year ( hmmm, you know I could go somewhere with that lol ! ). Anyhooo, I got the inspiration to make these balls after seeing an Aileens Creative Living show back in the mid 1990s. A lady had sent in a lightbulb transformed into a lovely Victorian-style ornament with feathers, lace,jewels, etc... ---and then my own lightbulb went off ! It was a couple of months to Christmas and I'd heard of a few craft fairs and here was the idea I needed to participate in one woohoo ! Well, I dug out all my ball decorations and even bought a few new ones, out came the Aileens Craft Glue and away I went ( this was also the time when I began to hit the thrift shops with a vengeance, looking for all that junky jewelry, etc...). After a few weeks I had quite the stash of decorated balls. At the craft fair I didn't fully realise how large my table was (!) so ended up spreading out the balls everywhere. I was nervous but didn't show it, there were quite a few people and I did make some sales. I had even made my own boxes for each ball, just regular shoebox cardboard cut into pieces then taped back into smaller boxes and lines with tinfoil, major recycling indeed :)
The whole craft fair thing was def. a learning experience. I just wish I'd taken a pic. and even didn't think to take one of my next fair a couple years later ( which was even more fun because my friend hung out with me and I had a huge assortment of altered goodies from boxes, to fork necklaces, to bread boxes transfromed into jewelry boxes.

I didn't sell all of my balls and actually was quite happy to have some leftover for my own tree. And I soon decided to stop buying the glass ones, broke too easily :P Haven't made anymore since '96, who knows what Christmas goodies will appear next year.

So the pic. shows balls made out of glass and styrofoam, using vintage and 'almost vintage' items, rhinestones,beads,etc...Hope you like them :)