Christmas Ball Arts & Crafts Activity

It's the final countdown to Christmas! Only 7 days left before Santa comes to visit! Most of us are busy finishing up last minute shopping, preparing some Holiday goodies, wrapping up those piles of gifts, or maybe even getting the house ready for relatives or guests who will be crashing over. As for myself, I am busy pulling out all the stops to bring you some do-it-yourself project ideas to give you a hand with all your last-minute preparations.

This arts and crafts is fairly quick to make and no mess involved. Which I am sure you will greatly appreciate! Make as many as you wish, which you can then use to create a sublime centrepiece or decorate the Christmas tree. Give your ball the desired look by choosing the  type of fabrics and patterns that fit your style, such as sequence fabric, velvet fabric, silk fabric, shimmery fabric, etc. Your imagination is the limit!

The necessary

• A big white styrofoam/polystyrene ball 
• Two fabrics with different patterns
• Wavy ribbon
• Cutter knife or X-Acto knife
• Parchment paper
• Pen
• Pin

The how-to

• With the cutter, draw a line to mark the equator on the ball, making sure you cut it a couple of millimetres deep. You will now have a North hemisphere and a South hemisphere.
• Divide the North hemisphere in four even quarts. Repeat the same procedure for the South hemisphere by being careful that the quarts in both hemisphere join together.
• Your ball should now be divided into eight quarts, each of them being relatively equal.
• Take your parchment paper and put it against one of the quarts.
• Draw the contour of the quart onto the parchment paper with your pen and cut it out.
• Take that cutout and place it on your fabric. Draw the cutout four times onto each fabric, making sure you leave half a centimetre (or even a little more) all around. You should now have eight drawn quarts, four on each fabric.
• Cut all eight fabric quarts.
• Position the first piece of fabric onto one of the North hemisphere's quarts and with the cutter, push the fabric's extremities into the slits of the ball with the tip of the cutter.
• Proceed with the same method with all the other pieces of fabric, always ensuring you alternate the fabrics according to their pattern.
• Finally, cut a six inch piece of ribbon, bring both ends together to form a loop and pin the ends to the top of your ball.
• TA-DA! A beautiful homemade Christmas ball that you can now display proudly in your home! 

Happy Holidays!