If you the holidays imbibe you with the urge to get crafty and build some unique home holiday decorations here’s a project for you: the amazing sparkle balls… And yes. They are as amazing as they sound. But the best part is that they are easy to make and the materials are highly accessible to just about anyone. You probably have most of the in your house. You will need:
- A package of clear, soft, 9 oz. Solo brand cups.
- A string of 50 Christmas lights.
- A power drill.
- A drill bit of the same diameter as your Christmas lights.
- A heavy-duty stapler with a deep gap, ideally deep enough for the stapler’s “mouth” to reach the bottom of your cups.
- Clothespins
Plug your lights in before you start this project in order to ensure that the lights are all functional and to spare yourself a lot of wasted time in the event that one or more of them has an issue. Once you’ve collected all of your components, begin by drilling holes into the flat centers of your cups, place your cups in inverted stacks of eight to ten and drill down through multiples in once go. After you’ve drilled all of the cups, arrange them in three stacks: one stack of 12, a second stack of nine and a third stack of four; while that obviously totals out to 25, 25 is the number of cups necessary to complete one half of your sparkle ball.
After you’ve divvied up your cups, break out your stapler and staple the cups in your stack of 12, getting as deep into the cup as possible and arranging them so that they become a ring; repeat this process for the stacks of nine. Use the clothespins to temporarily hold each ring of cups into position so that you can then staple every other cup together. Remove the clothespins after you’ve stapled together one half of your ball. The four-cup stack can simply be positioned and stapled however you need, rather than first ringing them together with staples.
Once you’ve positioned all of the cups for one half of your sparkle ball, give it a final look-over to make sure that every cup is anchored to at least one other cup. Repeat the entire construction process to create the second half of your sparkle ball. The last step in crafting your sparkle ball is to thread the lights through the drilled holes you made back at the start of this project. Make sure to begin threading from the twelve-cup ring, rather than the four-cup ring, or you will run out of lighting cord to thread with. Once you’ve threaded both ends, use clothespins to position them for the last round of stapling.
After you’ve joined both halves, simply place your sparkle ball in around your holiday decorations. The end result is a fascinating ball of light that wonderfully conveys images of snowballs, sunlight shining through ice and the North Star that served as a guiding beacon to the Three Magi.