https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/victorian-kissing-ball-aka-pomander-ball-or-flower-ball • Posted by Solari
I looked at pictures of Victorian Kissing Balls for my wedding and said to myself, "I can so make that!". I didn't follow anyone's tutorial. That said, there is a ton of inspiration out there. I found the perfect flowers in the Halloween section at Michaels. Glittery black roses are so perfect! This is a piece of cake to make. Please feel free to modify anything you don't like and make this project your own!
I looked at pictures of Victorian Kissing Balls for my wedding and said to myself, "I can so make that!". I didn't follow anyone's tutorial. That said, there is a ton of inspiration out there. I found the perfect flowers in the Halloween section at Michaels. Glittery black roses are so perfect! This is a piece of cake to make. Please feel free to modify anything you don't like and make this project your own!
Gather your supplies. It took about 5 1/2 bunches of flowers with 6 flowers each to make one ball.
Remove the plastic wrapping from the styrofoam ball. Skewer the ball with the "stick", I used one of my glass bead making mandrels, but you can use the handle of a paintbrush or even a stick from outside. This just allows you to paint the entire ball easily. Spray paint the ball with light coats of paint. I found that the cheaper spray paint dissolved less of the foam than my expensive spray paint. Good ol' Walmart brand spray paint worked best. Let it dry for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, get out your wire cutters and snip each flower off of the bunch about 2 inches down from the base of the flower.
You should have a flower that looks like this and plenty of bald stems with just leaves on it.
If you want to use the leaves on your ball, pull them off of the stems. Remove the plastic piece between the leaves. It should pop right out with just a little tugging.
Slide the flower stem into the hole on the leaves. You can glue this in place, if you like. It's not necessary.
You should have a pile of flowers. I used 33 individual flowers for my ball.
Retrieve the ball on a stick when it is dry. Remove the stick carefully.
Take one flower at a time and poke the stem into the foam. If it goes in too easy, check to be sure that the stem isn't poking up through the middle of the flower. If it is, just push it back down through the flower into the ball.
Make sure that it is in all of the way to the base of the flower.
Add a ring of flowers around the first one, it usually takes about 6 flowers to do so.
Keep adding flowers in a ring around the previous ring or where needed until the entire ball is covered. You can stop here and use the ball as it is or continue and make it a hanging ball.
If you choose to make your Victorian Kissing Ball a hanging ball, get the optional ribbon, scissors and nail ready. Trim the ribbon to about 7 inches long or longer if you want a longer hanging ribbon. Poke the nail through each end of the ribbon about a half inch in from the end.
Push the nail into the ball between the flowers, all the way to the head of the nail.
Test the strength of the ribbon by picking it up and gently jiggling the whole thing. If it comes loose, glue it into place. Make sure you let the glue dry before picking it up again.
Enjoy your new Victorian Kissing Ball!