New Use For a Christmas Ornament

I’ve been slowly but surely adding some greenery around the condo to add some life and hopefully freshen up the air a bit. I pinned this little goodie a few months ago because it seemed like a really cool, easy way to bring some plants into our home.

Pinned here

You just stuff some small greenery into a Christmas bulb. Easy enough! And no, there is no sarcasm here, for once. Ok there was your sarcasm but no sarcasm in regards to this project. It really is easy to do.

I had picked up some silver Christmas balls from Wal-Mart for 75% off.

Grand total was $1.25

I bought these in January so I’m still sticking to my Free Project February goal. I just couldn’t buy anything else for this, meaning plants or dirt. I had originally planned on buying some long grass or something like that but, there’s no spending allowed. As it turns out, my forced resourcefulness came out better I think!

I have nice airplane plant on our patio that is still alive, despite my lack of a green thumb.

The great thing about this plant is that it is really hard to kill, which bodes well for me. Airplane plants also get these little off shoots which are perfect for this project.  I snipped off a few of the little baby airplane plants.

I scooped out some dirt from an empty pot on our patio and gathered my balls (heh) and baby plants. I took out the ornament hook so I was left with a cool new vase. Then, I scooped some dirt into the ball with a plastic spoon. Once I had filled the ball about halfway or so with dirt, I added a little bit of water and just slipped the plant into the ball.

Now, I was worried that the round ball would be too rolley (is that a word?) to be considered a good idea. I could just picture one hip bump to the table and I would suddenly have dirt and broken glass all over my floor. Then, of course, Ty and/or True would have to investigate or eat it, get dirt on their paws, and then go take a nap on our cream colored comforter. Yeah, I thought this through. So, I needed a way to keep the ball from rolling around but I wanted to stay true to my no-spend promise. That’s when the light bulb went off.

Hot glue! No, I wasn’t going to hot glue the ball to my table. I change my mind way too much for that kind of commitment. But, the hot glue could make a nice little no slip foot for the ball to rest on. I gobbed some hot glue on the silicone pad that came with my hot glue gun. Then, I quickly stuck my new planter onto the glue at whatever angle tickled my fancy.

Once the glue is completely cool and dry, I carefully peeled the glue off of the silicone pad and made sure it stayed on the bulb. Since the pad is made for this, it was no problem. The rubber like consistency of the dried glue keeps the Christmas balls in place.

I’ve had three of these in various places in our home and not a single one has rolled away! Knock on wood, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself!

From start to finish, these 3 modern plant holders only cost me $1.25 and I still have 5 left to use how I see fit! Total time to make these was about 15-20 minutes for all three. And, I get to pat myself on the back for finishing a project without spending any more cash. Victory!