The nails!!!! I love that, thanks for sharing.
I just know I have a buncha nails around here somewhere.

dirtpig nice to see someone who likes covering balls as much as I do. Love yours. I covered a Styrofoam ball with pennies but used the wrong adhesive and the penny's fall off.

Dirtpig, those are pretty nice. Love the one with nails - very original! I see you're zone 4 Wisconsin - me too. Glad to have you here.

dirtpig, they are all nice..

Thank you all,your all to kind.

I'm thinking of doing one more nail ball with tacks.
Just have to figure out where to put it.

dirtpig, your BB are great! Love the colors....but that nail BB is fantastic!!!!!

We're happy you joined us her on Garden Art.

dirtpig your BBs are beautious I don't think I could have a nail one though; I don't have enough Jiminy Cricket band aids for that

Oh my! I just discovered the old threads with tutorials! I'd never seen them before! I love all of the bowling balls you all have made, and hope they are all still in your gardens after all these years!

This is the only one I've made, but if I can find more thrift shop bowling balls, I'll make more.


I used lots of plain glass tiles, glitter tiles, tumbled glass and glass gems. It's been outside near my front door for almost 10 years now. I've only had to replace one tile that fell off one winter when it was freezing a lot.

That is gorgeous Karen

Karen, I love it, that is so pretty with the glass!

I made one for the garden a number of years ago; decoupaged all over with photos from Birds & Blooms Magazine. It was really pretty for awhile but after about 2 years in the Florida sun, it was extremely faded. I was going to re-do it but I don't recall what ever happened to it; probably went by the wayside when we moved. A friend who relocated to California recently gave me 2 bowling balls that had been in her garage for years but they were extremely heavy (I couldn't even lift them) so hubby took them to the thrift store. I always thought I'd like to cover one with sea glass or in a colored glass mosaic pattern but alas, I have such a short attention span in my old age, I'd probably start the project and get sidetracked with something else.

You should do it anyway, Lin. You can do it in very short amounts of time, and before you know it the project is finished! Seaglass would be perfect! Stained glass shards would be perfect too. Another neat thing is to collect old china from the thrift stores and break it into small pieces. For a long time I collected plates with blue and white china designs. I think I still have some of them I should use.