DIY Twine Balls with Lights

We created these twine balls by accident. Okay, we intentionally made them, but they were supposed to be light balls that we hung outside in our trees. It seemed like a great idea until we finished the project. We had the balls ready to be hung outside, but it was raining.

That’s when it hit us. These balls can’t go outside. The rain will “melt” the glue and turn them into a sloppy mess! We threw them under the Christmas tree without thinking, but once we saw it, we knew that’s exactly where they belonged.

This DIY fail turned into my favorite piece of Christmas decor. If you’re looking to add a little more light to your life, these twine balls are a great addition to your home decor!

(p.s. we did end up making some outdoor friendly ones too. Check out our full tutorial on outdoor hanging light balls)

Alright, let’s start DIYing!

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How to Make Twine Light Balls With Lights

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Step 1: blow up your balloons

Blow up your balloons. The larger you make them, the more balloon shaped and less circular your twine balls will be.

Note: If you have a ring on the hand that you’re wrapping your yarn around, I’d suggest you take it off so that your yarn doesn’t get caught on the ring.

Step 2: prep your balloon

Wrap your balloon in cling wrap or spray it with cooking spray. We ended up spraying ours with cooking spray–boy did it make it more difficult to get the string to stick to the balloon. If you choose cooking spray, you will also have a lot of glue stuck between the holes of your balls, which you can see in the picture below. We liked it because it ended up looking like snowflakes. If you didn’t want the excess glue, you can wrap your balloon with cling wrap and it should come off cleaner.

STEP 3: make a place to hang

 Create a place to hang your balloons once they are wrapped in twine. You will want to hang them to avoid the glue drying and sticking to whatever surface they were sitting on. We created a place to hang them by placing a spare wood board between two chairs.

Step 4: make your glue mixture

Mix together equal parts cornstarch and glue. Then add water until you have the consistency that is slightly runnier than normal glue. This doesn’t have to be exact, so just eyeball it! We ended up using an entire bottle of Elmer’s glue for 3 twine balls and 3 mini Christmas trees.

step 7: wrap your balloon

Dip your twine in the glue mixture and then run it through your fingers to remove any excess. Don’t squeeze too hard–you just want to remove some of the excess, not all of it!

Wrap your balloon once and tie the twine in a knot. This will help prevent it from slipping around too much.

Continue wrapping the balloon in twine, alternating angles often to cover your balloon with a random pattern. We found that it was significantly easier to have one person prepping the twine (dipping it in glue and running it through their fingers) and to have another person wrapping the balloon in twine. When wrapping, leave a little bit of a gap at the top so that you can easily place your lights into the ball.

Step 8: finishing your twine balls

Once you are content with the amount of twine your balloon has on it, cut your twine and loop the end of the string underneath another piece of twine on the balloon to secure it.

Tie a piece of twine to the top of the balloon. Tie the balloon to the place you determined in Step 3.

Let the balls dry for 24hrs.

Once dry, pop the balloon and remove the balloon (and cling wrap if applicable) from the twine balls.

Place your lights in your twine balls and plop them under the Christmas tree (or anywhere your heart desires)!

There you have it! Getting into a groove with stringing the balloon is definitely the hardest part. Once you figure out what works best for you, it’s smooth sailing!

If you ended up loving your twine balls, learn how to make some outdoor-friendly light balls to hang in your trees!