DIY Vase Filler

**Edit 7/28/11: Thanks to The DIY Showoff for highlighting this project! :) :)




First of all, today's post is dedicated to my sweet life-long friend, Rachel Kavanagh because today is her birthday! Having friends live so far away is no good, but having friends that you can always pick right back up where you left off is great, and she is for sure one of those friends.  Love you, Rachel Holiday Inn! SLVRM! :) :)

Sweet Rachel (and Baby Clare!) on my wedding day. She made pregnant look GOOD!

And now for the crafty craft...

I know you've seen the decorative vase fillers in the home decor section of lots of stores, and you've likely noticed that they can be ex-pens-ive.  I have lots of vases and hurricanes stored away to decorate with, but some of them are really too big for your average flower arrangement so I needed some decorative filler and did not want to buy it if I could make it! And I can! Plus, I have the cutest blue bowl sitting on my kitchen table just waiting to be filled with loveliness.

I got the idea from Landee See, Landee Do and knew it was a simple project I could take on while catching up on my DVR recordings. All you'll need is:

• styrofoam balls (make sure they're not dented because the thumbtacks won't line up right). You can see in the picture above that the first ball I used was one of the green floral balls.  If you can find the harder, white styrofoam, use it.  The thumbtacks stick better.
• thumbtacks. I originally bought packs of 70 at Suck-Mart and then realized I could pay the same amount and get 300 at Dollar Tree. You do the math. You're going to need wwaayyy more thumbtacks than you think you need, but at least they're cheap!
• spray paint (optional)

Insert the thumbtacks into the ball, overlapping a bit as you go.  I started with a circle around the middle and then worked my way up.

At this point I has used 280 thumbtacks, but it only took maybe 10-15 minutes. 

Just keeping doing this until you've got the ball covered AND you never want to see another thumbtack again.  I covered one large and two smaller ball (the smaller two are the white styrofoam and the thumbtacks stay in MUCH better).

I used a combination of silver and gold thumbtacks, because that's what they had at my Dollar Tree.  I really liked the look of the metallic surface, but in some spots you could see the styrofoam and I just couldn't deal with it. I want it all the same color! So... spray paint.  Here are my new little cuties painted in ivory.  I wish the paint was glossy, but oh well! They don't quite fit in the pretty blue bowl I had envisioned them in, but you get the idea :)

Pretty cute addition to the kitchen table!

Delicately Constructed Friday