Up-cycle your old plastic balls into beautiful rope balls. Use inexpensive clothesline and Rit Dye to transform this project into an accent piece! I made these Red, White, and Blue for America’s summer festivities – Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day! Here’s how you can make these super easy and inexpensive, but beautiful rope balls!:
You’ll Need:
- Clothesline or similar white rope – I think I found mine at the Dollar General (Get a couple of them)
- Rit Dye – I used red and blue
- Various balls to cover – I used the balls from our old ball pit and Styrofoam balls
- Warm Glue Gun and glue sticks
Now, on to the rope balls!:
- Leave some of the clothesline white. With the rest, divide it into bowls and using your Rit dye – color the water with whatever colors you’ve chosen – like the red and blue you see, here. I used about 1/2 of the Rit dye packet, and the rope is in about 4 cups of water.
- Push the rope down to immerse it in the colored water
- Leave it somewhere safe to absorb the colorant ( at least a couple of hours).
- Once it’s soaked up enough color – hang the rope somewhere to dry
- Once dry, use your warm glue gun to wrap the rope around the balls
- Start by placing a dot of glue somewhere on the ball, and making a tight loop with the rope
- Continue with the glue and rope, looping it around the ball
- When you get to the end, use another dot of glue to make another tight loop
- That’s it! Easy, fun and beautiful!
~Melissa – KidFriendlyThingsToDo.com