Baseball Flowers

Baseballs aren't just for playing with anymore.  How about creating some potted flowers with bits and pieces of old treasures and a few well used baseballs?

These baseball flowers from Flea Market Style Magazine immediately caught my attention, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them after putting them together.

I tore out the tutorial, so I'm not sure which issue it came from. You can see from the wrinkled page that it's been sitting around on my to do list waiting for enough old baseballs.  It takes three baseballs to make two flowers.

A utility knife was much easier than trying to cut the stitching with scissors.

All stripped down.  I kind of like the texture on the cores; maybe a bunch of them would look good in a bowl.  As hard as I tried, baseballs just don't want to clean up.  Oh well, even the ones in the magazine have ground in dirt patina.

Look at this six-pack I found a few weeks ago; someone had good intentions and gave up.  Great, now I have enough for a small garden.  The branches are from a tree in our front yard.

A nail goes right through all three layers with a couple of hits of the hammer.

Instead of using heavy thread or hemp as suggested in the tutorial, I used 20 gauge wire so I could wrap it around the back to help hold the stick in place.  I cut two 10" pieces and threaded it through all three layers and then twisted it together in the back.

For extra hold, I added a little E6000 glue to the branch before wrapping the wire around it.

I painted some terracotta pots, filled them with Plaster of Paris that I already had (you could just use rocks or dirt), and then topped them off with some packaged moss from Michaels.  

The decorative centers were glued on with E6000.

Doily, pocket watch face, vintage clip-on earring.

Doily and pendant from an old necklace.

Rosette, brass filigree, mother of pearl button, and a rhinestone button.

I hope they thrive!

I'm partying with:
Debbiedoo's for the monthly Magazine Copy Cat Challenge

Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

Between Naps on The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday

My 1929 Charmer for Sunday's Best
Under the Table and Dreaming for Sunday Showcase Party
Twig Studios for Sunday Showoff
Pretty Shabby UK for Waste Not Want Not
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tuesday