The Second "R" meets Green Friday

I'm new to the blogging world, but I've found a few that I like to read - one of those being Mt. Hope Chronicles which I found through a friend of a friend (sounds very convoluted doesn't it?). Somewhat recently she posted an item about starting a "green Friday" tradition of getting out. I was in the middle of a copy edit at the time and I thought, "YES!" The sun was shining and the weather was pretty mild considering it was almost December. So I went out (not on a Friday, but that's beside the point) to just get up and out and look at nature and not a computer screen.

I gathered tons of stuff: mini sunflower heads, rose hips, acorn caps, cedar berries (or cones, whatever they are called) spruce cones, birch twigs, pine needles and loads and loads of moss in two colors. Everything I gathered I spread on newspaper in the shop so they could really dry out and hopefully all the spiders would crawl away. Since I had already decided to make all my Christmas gifts, I knew I'd find a use for everything; the following project is just one example.

Scented mossy...orbs...

[I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality - I was rushing since I was about to have a house full of guests.]

You've seen those balls or orbs all over stores and in magazines. They just kinda...sit there and are supposed to add some texture or shape to your decor. I thought it would be fun to make some mossy ones - talk about texture! Problem was, I didn't have the styrofoam balls that would just make this project so easy. And I wasn't about to buy them because I am not allowed to buy anything (a challenge issued to myself)- I have to make what I have work. (See my previous post). So how to make a round when you don't have any?

I started by finding a broken down moving box and digging out my set of graduated circle cookie cutters (biscuit cutters or even a drawing compass would work) and tracing and cutting those.

As you can see I cut four of each size.

I dabbed tacky glue around the edges and coated them with pumpkin pie spice just to add a yummy little scent to them.

Then hot glued them together in two's so that when I was finished I had two little stacks that look like mini layered cakes. Remember that you have four of each shape so there should be two of each size in each of your stacks.

If your carboard has wording on one side, glue the sides with wording face to face so that you just have plain cardboard showing when you are done. Now you can hot glue the two largest sides back to back to get a vaguely round shape. But don't worry that it's not actually round, you'll fill it in with moss and you won't even be able to tell!

Before I applied any glue, I made sure to pick through my pile of moss and choose a piece and eyeball where it would go. Then I applied hot glue to a small area and held the moss there, pressing not too firmly (so as not to squish the moss down) until the glue had a chance to dry a bit. Repeat that step until all the cardboard is hidden. You may have little gaps you have to fill in, just keep adding moss until it looks nice and full.

See the before and after:

(you're right, they aren't the same size - I made only one large and two slightly smaller orbs by simply leaving out the largest circle size)

And no, you didn't miss a step, those twigs in the photo are leftovers from the Pretty Ditty woodland snowflake project from the last post.

I made three since I like groupings in odd numbers and I also made one of them with a different color moss just to mix it up a little. Now I have a yummy-smelling bit of textural decor to give as a gift with no cost involved since I used all found materials and supplies I already had.

Just think what you'd have to pay for something like that in a store? But better than any store these are made with love!