Ladybug Yard Decor from Croquet Balls

So while I was in California for my Grandpa's surgery I introduced my mom to the world of Pinterest. She immediately was hooked! And one night while we were up browsing fun ideas we came across a super cute yard decoration idea for painting bowling balls into ladybugs! What a darling idea! .. But we didn't have any bowling balls lying around. The next day though, we bumped into some ancient croquet balls while looking for something in my Grandpa's shed (he's living with my parents now). He said, "Hey, use those for your ladybug project!" So we did! 

After giving them a good wipe down we spray painted them all red with what spray paint my mom had in her cupboard.. it's more like a burdundy, but it worked fine for a base coat to cover up the colors because we ended up buying some acrylic craft paints at Walmart and painting over them with red.

After painting them red, we painted little faces and dots on them. That was kind of hard because of the ridges on the sides of the balls. But I actually figured out that Q-tips worked great for working with the ridges! Just kind of dabbing the paint on. My mom used to paint really cute faces on wooden animals my Grandpa used to make. She likes painting faces on rocks around her property : ) She's so cute, I love her!

Mom sprayed a clear protective spray over them once they all had faces and dots.

Now they needed antenna... 

My Grandpa went rummaging through his shed and came out with these little prong stick looking things. He wasn't sure what they were, but he had a whole bunch of them and said we could use them for the antenna. They're so perfect!

So he brought out his drill gun and then this nifty little tool that punctures a dent on the spot you want to drill a hole. Super cool! I want one of these things! 

Of course I wanted to do the drill by myself!..  and grunting like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement, "More Power! Oohhhoooo Owoooohoo!" ... ehem, something like that anyway.. 

And then I hammered in the little spikey things

.. but that didn't secure them in well enough, so my mom had some super glue and we used a couple drops down the holes and pressed the spikes back in. So much better. 

And here are all the "ladies" to model for you!

(#2 looks like Bob the tomato from Veggie Tales! ha! ha!)

This is the ladybug I brought home with me. It was the first one I started painting on and loved it! {Mom just had to paint a nose onto hers! Isn't it sweet?!}

When I was packing my little ladybug into my luggage before going home, I thought, "Oh no, I wonder if at the airport they will see my ladybug through the x-ray scanner and think it's a bomb and take it out of my bag and throw it away!..?" .. Then when I got home, I opened my luggage to show my Hubby the ladybug and it wasn't in the spot I put it! I said, "NO, they took it!" .. I was so sad. But then I found it. It had shifted to another spot when I took something else out earlier!! So then I explained to my husband the bomb thought I had and he basically said, "You weirdo, bombs don't really look like that!" ... I guess I've watched too many cartoons in my life.. 

My little ladybug is enjoying herself in the shade of my cherry tomato plants, which grew like CRAZY while I was away! There are so many little baby tomato balls.. and couple are now starting to turn orange!

I just love it! It was so much fun doing this project with my mom and my Grandpa. We needed a fun little time like that with all the stress and busyness we all had been through before and after my Grandpa's surgery. 

I'd still love to try a bowling ball next .. but I'll save that for when I have a yard someday!