Spare Thyme Ink: Kissing Ball Topiaries

The following is a tutorial for a Pinterest inspired, kissing ball topiary. It is photo heavy to hopefully make it thorough.

A couple disclaimers to start off...

My finger nails were not polished, filed or pampered in anyway before taking pictures...please ignore them.
Although ,my desk was cleared off at the beginning of the project, most photos are in real time and the working mess is there for all to see.
I thoroughly torched my finger with hot glue and the bandage on my right ring finger makes typing a hunt and peck adventure...my backspace key is getting quite a workout!
My hot glue gun says to wear eye protection...nothing was mentioned about hands.
The inspiration for this project was pinned on Pinterest from these sites: Pepper Design Blog, LW Design, and Today's Fabulous Finds.

1.Cut zillions of 1 foot length strips of crepe paper streamers. (I bought mine in a two pack at the dollar store.) To speed up the process, I used a 24" ruler for a rotary cutter and wrapped the crepe paper around it 'til I finished the roll. I then cut the top and bottom. I folded the pieces in half (all at once) and cut those too, to get my 12" pieces. (Approximate measurements are okay for this project!) I used a few rolls.

See? Zillions of crepe paper strips :)

2. Layer two pieces of crepe paper together. With sewing machine tension loose and stitch length as long as possible, sew a straight line down the center-ish of the crepe paper.

3. When finished with one, just sew right off the edge and start the next one. No need to clip threads at this point.

I try to do a chain of about 5-7 strips before I leave a thread tail and clip it. Here's the next pile.

4. Pull the bobbin thread to gather the paper. Leaving the strips connected for this step helps with keeping track of the thread. After they are gathered, go ahead and snip them apart.

5. Fold a strip in half, keeping the gathers the best you can. Lost threads can be fake gathered as it's folded.

6. Roll up flower.

7. Generously glob hot glue on the bottom of the flower.

8. Stick it to the Styrofoam ball. (The ball I used is 6" and was the most expensive part of the project.) Styrofoam can handle the hot glue much better than fingers!

Notice the top of the line stand for the ball.

9. Repeat...placing flowers near each other...some visible space can be covered as you fluff the flowers.

10. Before filling the last bit in, hot glue a candlestick (also from the dollar store) onto the bottom of the ball. And then fill in the rest around it.