How To Make Garden Ornaments

Garden ornaments are a great way to add some flair and personality to your outdoor space. These are easy to make at home, which is a great alternative to purchasing them from stores. Lawn ornaments do not have to conform to any particular shape; you can allow your creativity to flow while making garden decor ranging from sand cast statues and water fountains to simpler things like shiny balls and colorful scarecrows.

Learn how to make simple gazing balls to jazz up any bare spot in your garden.

Purchase Balls

Purchase styrofoam balls of varying dimensions at a craft store, or collect your children's spare light plastic toy balls. Make sure you clean them thoroughly.

Apply a Coat of Glue

After cleaning and drying the ball, coat each with liquid glue, covering it completely. You may want to coat half of itl with glue first, holding the dry part with your hand.

Apply Glitter

Pour your packets of glitter into different bowls, making sure you have a few complementing colors of glitter. Dip the glued half in a bowl of glitter and set aside to let it dry. Take another ball, glue it and dip half into another bowl of a different-colored glitter. Do this with each ball.

Allow to Dry

Once the glitter sets and the balls are completely dry, hold the glittered half of each ball in turn and dip the remaining dry-half first into the glue, and then into the bowl of glitter the same color as the other half. Set them aside to dry.

Final Steps

Once the balls are completely dry, apply a coat of weatherproof sealant and leave them to harden. Wrap each finished ball with wire and hang them from trees at varying lengths. Decide whether you want to hang them closer together or on different trees that are in close proximity to each other. Adding string lights next to your ball art will enhance the impact of your garden ornaments.

You can also cover a few balls with pieces of colored glass or mirrors for greater visual impact. Use a small, power cutting tool to file all the sharp edges of the glass pieces—found easily at craft stores—and then repeat the same procedure for gluing these on the balls as with glitter. Before hanging these from your trees, make sure you grout them in order to cover all the cracks and clean them with a sponge. For best results, allow them to dry overnight before putting up.