Decorating on a Budget

Slowly but surely, we're pulling our belongings out of storage. A couple of weeks ago we got out most of our home decor items and went to work decorating the house.

One of my favorite decorative items are these apothecary jars. My lovely husband purchased the biggest two for me on a preaching trip a while back. I picked up the medium-sized one at Old Time Pottery and the small one was here at Grandma's house.


I kind of liked the way they looked empty on top of the TV, but Chris thought they were too boring. We've had them filled with fruit, pine cones, Christmas ornaments, acorns, and other various decorative items according to the season. However, I wanted to try something new.

I headed to my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and Michaels and gathered the necessary materials. For less than $20, we now have filled jars!

The little jar has sea shells that I bought at Dollar General for $1 for a big bag. The medium jar is some moss and painted eggs. I bought the moss at Dollar General for $1 and the eggs came from Hobby Lobby for 3 for $1. I'm not entirely happy with the way the eggs turned out. The paint color I chose was a little off and the eggs were a bit bigger than I wanted, but I might change them out in the future. The other medium/large jar has plastic pears. These were on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $5 (I lost my receipt and can't remember exactly.)

The biggest jar is filled with paper-covered balls that I made. I recently made some and sent to a friend for her birthday. After a vague and apparently intriguing post, some have asked about how I made them.

Paper-Covered Ball Tutorial

First, you need a ball for the base. I found these raffia balls at Dollar Tree (8 for $1), but you could also use Styrofoam balls.

Next, you need some scrapbook paper cut in strips. I used 4 strips that were 1 1/2" x 5" and 4 strips that were 1" x 5". (Note: Mine are different lengths in this picture because I was using scraps.)

Start gluing the paper onto the ball, starting with the 1 1/2" strips. Using hot glue on one end of the strip, stick in the center of the top of the ball.
Glue another 1 1/2" strip touching it.
Wrap the strips around to the bottom of the ball and glue both ends.
Repeat with the other two 1 1/2" strips going the opposite direction.

Now you will have little gaps between the strips.

(Sorry for the blurry picture. I was trying to move quickly.)

This is when you use the 1" strips, following the same procedure.
Sometimes the gaps are wider than the paper. If this happens, you just have to get over your OCD tendencies and embrace the uniqueness.
Once you are finished, you will have a pretty paper-covered ball (and probably a few burn marks from the hot glue)!

Just to sum it all up and emphasize how easy this project is, these are the only materials you will need for this project!


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