Sparkling Snowballs to Hang

 What with all the holidays over and Winter still hanging around, we wanted some more decorations to add some shine to our home. We made these shimmering string balls, (or "snowballs",) to hang from the light over our dining table.

 

You will need:

• Kitchen Twine (or yarn, or even string...)
• White Glue
• Balloons
• Glitter
• Covered Work Surface (This gets pretty messy with a little one)
• Tub for Glue (like an old margarine tub or tupperware)
• Tray for glitter (paper plate, lid, etc...)
• Thread to Hang With

Gather your supplies and blow up some balloons. I only blew ours up part way so that they stayed as round as possible, and tied the knot far back on the balloon to eliminate most of its taper. In a tub, mix the white glue with water and blend well. We went about half and half.

Cut lengths of twine and dip them in the watered down glue.

Start wrapping the gluey twine around your balloons. Criss-cross and go all the way around. It should be tacky enough that it is easy to pin down your ends by wrapping over the start and tucking in the last of the twine. Your twine should stay where you put it relatively easily. If you find you're having a lot of trouble, add more glue to your mixture and dunk the twine again.

We tried at first to sprinkle the glitter over the balloon on the tray, but ended up dumping the glitter in and rolling the balloon in it. That worked much better.

Let dry at least a day, or until the glue has completely hardened. Then *pop* the balloons! This is always Kaia's favourite part. They peeled away slowly from the glue in a way that Kaia found absolutely fascinating. They looked really pretty with the balloons still in, too. I very nearly kept them that way to see how long they would last. :)

Tie your thread on and hang where you please!