Sparkleball (no-melt) for the Holidays!

A sparkleball is a magical ornament handmade from plastic cups and mini-lights; usually displayed at Christmas or holiday time.

You'll need 50 soft 9 oz. tumbler-style plastic cups, a hole-puncher, a drill with a 1/2" bit, a string of mini-lights (100-150), and 200 small zip-ties. (recycled clean cups will work perfectly as will an old string of mini-lights.)

Step 1: Drill the Cup Bottoms

Drill the cup bottoms of all 50 plastic cups. You can stack and drill 2-3 at a time. The holes should be about 1/4 to 1/2" wide, or large enough to insert one or two mini lights.

Comments

[monkeymays]

Great project for Christmas, and ever so pretty! My mom made me one in the late 80's and I had that thing for years. She used the multi-funtion light set but after several years use eventually only one color of lights were left working.
She used hot glue to secure hers, but I sure like the one pictured that had beads strung in with the zip ties.
Thanks for the great tut!

[FrozenStar]

Pretty cool concept.
It would be awesome if you hooked some of these up into a sequencer so they could flash in a pattern.

[sparkleball_lady]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Ku3tmXg-4&feature=related

[GroggDog]

I don't recomment this for people where it's cold in the winter lol. Tried this last year and after the christmas when I were going to take in back in it collapsed and all the cups cracked and all. If you wan't to do this where's cold then wait untill the summer or something

[sparkleball_lady]

Interesting. I know there are people who use them where it snows alot and in places like MN. Maybe it's the kind of cups or the method of putting it together you used? I've heard HotGlue won't hold in cold weather. But this is the first word I've heard of the cups shattering. :-(

[Treasure Tabby]

Sparktacular! Love the idea, :)

[Dr.Bill]

Well its December 10 and I am goimg to RAID the christmas light stores in a few weeks for the cheap lights. I like to use LED kine lights for long lasting display.

[AntzyP]

The SparkleBall me and my sis made for an Indian festival of lights called Diwali...

[sparkleball_lady]

Dear AntzyP,

May I post your photos on www.sparkleball.com ? They are wonderful and would be the first made for Diwali! Will you email me at [e-mail] or here and let me know. I didn't want to download without your permission. If yes, tell me your first name and where you live so I can put you on the sparkleball map.

Thanks again!

Alex

[AntzyP]

I wouldn't mind at all, you can go ahead and you can download it. It will be awsome! :)
I'll mail them to you as well.

Thanks for the great instructable. Had a lot of fun making it and got a lot of compliments too...

Antzy
New Delhi, India

[sparkleball_lady]

NEW DELHI, INDIA! Antzy, that is so cool. I can't wait to put you on the sparkleball map. You will be the first marker in Asia. If I have any trouble downloading, I'll contact you again. Best wishes to you and your sister!

Alex
Sonoma CA

[AntzyP]

Thats great! I've mailed you the images in case you have any trouble...
-Antzy

[Kryptonite]

I believe that you could make one of these out of plastic clear shot glasses, so you get a really small one. Could you? regards, Kryptonite

[sparkleball_lady]

Dear K, I've made a mini-ball out of condiment cups (like you get ketchup in at hamburger places.) But a man in Australia built a really beautiful smaller ball made out of red shot glasses. Not sure how he did it but you can see photos of his mini and mine at [http://http:..www.sparkleball.com/intro.htm sparkleball.com]. Alex

[twighahn]

one coudl use thimbles too

[koda1]

Where do you get the ties from? Can you buy them separately? Thank you.

[sparkleball_lady]

Koda, You can buy them at any hardware store or Home Depot. My husband introduced me to them, and they come in very handy for a variety of uses. I can't live without them now.

[Kryptonite]

Hey Yeah, that dude in Australia did what I'm thinking about, which is good cause I live in aus too so I can probably get all the stuff. Thanks for the reply, Kryptonite

[sparkleball_lady]

Well, Aussie Kryptonite, if you do make a shot-glass sparkleball, I'd love to see how you do it. So I hope you post it here and let me know. The one Rob made is one of the prettiest ever. I know he used like 100 cups, but the trick is always making the ball come out round and it's harder when the cups have straight sides. . .

[Kryptonite]

Rightio then! I may or may not make this, I'm a bit busy with school at the moment. Although, for the good instructable, nice attitude and quick replies I'll give you a 4.5/5. Thanks for posting! Kryptonite

[jmahurin40]

I've been making these for years.
I have gave gobs away for gifts and sold alot of them.
I usally use the 16 function lights from walmarts.
I've sprayed some with snow that comes in the can and used the plain colorful twinkling lights and they were pretty hung outside.
I use a sodiering iron to make my holes in the my solo cups for the lights and and then use a small high temp. glue gun to melt the cups together.
No hot glue used just the hot glue gun tip.
I had 2 use the sodiering gun to melt off the built-in  stand on the glue gun to fit it into my cups.
They are nice to use on floats in parades if people have a way 2 hook up to electric.
I've made some with plastic medicine cups.They were kinda hard 2 make exactly round and were very tedious but were cute.Some came out in an egg shape but were nice for easter.lol

[twighahn]

one could use staples to hold them together too

[sparkleball_lady]

I'd LOVE love love to see any photos you have.  What great ideas!  If you get in the sharing mood,  I'd love to show your sparkleballs off on www.sparkleball.com   It's a totally free, just for fun, sharing website.  If you're interested lemme know.  Or you can go to the "contact" page.  I'd especially love to see the snowflake ones.  Never seen that before.  Happy Holidays!  (OR just post your photos here?  Easy to do with the "Add Images" button.)

[twighahn]

this would go well with the tree made of 7-up bottles

[grooooovy]

This is cool- I've never heard of these before!

[nomij]

Though I've seen these before, this is the best "How To" I've seen so far! Excellent instrucable! I followed the link also, and they look beautiful outside! I just wonder if they are safe to hang outdoors? I guess they make outdoor friendly fairy lights! Thanks for sharing!

[vwluvrs]

Absolutely safe to use outdoors! We have some that are a few years old, and have never had an issue with the electricity. Just make  sure you use the light strings rated for out door use (it'll tell you on the box).

If they get wet, damaged, snowed or rained on, they are still as safe as any other outside light string.

Hint: At the end of the season (or when you do bring it inside) spray it liberally with some foaming glass cleaner, let it sit for a while, then spray it off gently with your water hose. After it dries, you can store it and it will be clean and ready for its next debut.

[mchumchal]

Very helpfull!  I made one with my soldering iron and it ended up taking about 92 cups and hours to make.  This method is flawless!  Thanks!

[sparkleball_lady]

did it turn out similar to the Godzilla sparkleball?  love to see a photo!

[knowonesreal]

thats off the hook 4 real....... ima do 1 ...but im goin to sand the plastic cups so they look frosted...the the light will transfer different threw them

[vwluvrs]

Instead of sanding them, simply do a light spray with white paint...

[Zem]

Or you could spray with glass frosting spray? Don't know how well it would stick to the cups though 

[sparkleball_lady]

Check this out.  A sparkleballer used spray glitter in his cups.  Really great!
www.sparkleball.com/glitter.htm

[Zem]

Now THATS a sparkly sparkleball! 

[lilpepsikraker]

GEEK. IS. GOING. TO. EXPLODE! WOW that's awesome!

[Audey]

<a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Disco-Ball/">http://www.instructables.com/id/Christmas-Disco-Ball/</a> has been arouns for a year longer... who's idea was this?<br/>

[sparkleball_lady]

Nobody knows whose idea this was. It's an American folk craft I've never been able to trace the origin of. That's why I built a website celebrating sparkleballs. I'm still waiting for someone to tell me who invented the first one. . .

[Audey]

which came first; the sparkleball or the cup? I guess it's possible this is an ancient way of making balls, and they got they idea of cups out of it. i'm tired.

[sparkleball_lady]

I always thought maybe it was somebody sitting around drinking who thought it up-- I mean really! Plastic cups and Christmas lights? How bizarre a combo is that? I really would love to know. I bought my first one by the side of a Texas highway over 25 years ago.

[karen608]

ooh i should have known you'd be on instructables.... every great homemade item is here! Now i am dying to make one by next late Novemberrrrr. : )