Ok, we’ll be the first to admit that this is not the most eco-friendly project. Any environmentalists who might be reading this take note: the amount of plastic wrap used in this project for purely aesthetic purposes will make you squeamish.
It was 69 degrees in Charlotte today, so we had to take matters into our own hands and make our own wintery wonderland! Setting aside the fact that these would survive for at least a thousand years in a landfill, aren’t these glistening silvery opalescent snowballs just dreamy? They look like giant South Sea pearls! These were inspired by my obsession with Anthropologie holiday window displays and a general dislike of cheesy crafty stuff like big white styrofoam balls (which by the way start at $8 or something crazy at the craft store!! …for a small one!!).
You Need:
1. Paper ready for recycling. Newspaper works great, or any odds and ends. You won’t really be able to see the paper but the color of the paper will show through the snowball a bit so you can conduct some creative experimentation with different wintery colors like purples and blues.
2. Plastic wrap. One 200 square foot roll will make about 8-10 eight inch snowballs.
3. Scotch tape.
How to Do It:
1. Wad the paper in a very loose ball. There is no need to pack it tightly as that will require too much paper and just make your snowball really small!
2. With the plastic wrap is still on the roll, gently start to wrap it around the paper ball. If you pull too tightly on the plastic wrap in this step, your snowball will shrink substantially.
3. Using a flat surface like a table, continue to wrap the plastic around the ball, gently rolling the ball on the table as you turn it in the plastic wrap. This will help it keep its round shape. You should rotate the ball in the pastil wrap as you roll it so that the wrap is going in different directions every cycle around the ball.
4. Continue to turn the ball and wrap with plastic until there are approximately 10 layers of plastic wrap, or until it is fairly opaque and you can lo longer easily see through it. You should have a nice glistening sheen at this point.
5. To prevent the ball from unraveling, secure the ends of the plastic wrap with scotch tape if necessary. As an option you can also apply a little heat from a blow dryer or heat gun to soften the plastic so it adheres to the layers underneath and forms a seal.
