northstory + co.

The Pom Pom Ornament craft that never ends

We make a lot of ornaments every year as the kids have their own Christmas tree that they go to town on and decorate however they want. It usually winds up looking like a giant ball of something two cats had a fight in, but they love it and it makes them happy so we do it. This year we added this pom pom ornament craft to that roster, and don’t say you weren’t warned.

Here’s how this deceptively evil craft got started.

We did our our annual baking soda dough ornaments, so I said let’s do another easy ornament craft for their tree. Because we have about 10 million pom poms from Dollarama hanging around our home, it was like hey!

Let’s make a pom pom ornament.

I remembered originally seeing the Pom Pom ornaments in my Pinterest feed via Meg Duersken and I thought I love this idea! Then I came across a sea Pom Pom and their cousin Felt Ball crafts including Christmas Trees from Target, Felt Ball Coasters by Inspired by Charm, Pom Pom Branches by Wayaiulandia, Pom Pom Wreath by Pickles and Pom Pom Pinecones by Dig This Chick.

So I was like Yes. Perfect. Let’s make the styrofoam balls where we pin or glue Pom Poms to them. Easy right?

Folks I reiterate. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

This is the craft that never ends.

I got out everything. Styrofoam balls. Pins. Pom Poms. And we sat down in the evening for what I thought would be a nice ornament making time. My kids lasted maybe 15 minutes before the “This is taking forever” started. By 30 minutes of pinning pom poms, my older daughter gave up and decided to make a happy face on the styrofoam ball using the pom poms. My younger daughter flat out gave up and said and “Mommy I’m going to make an alien face with just the pins”.

I messaged photos of both to my husband late at night exhausted from picking up pom poms all over the floor.

That’s her alien.

Yeah.

Let us remember that I have the only two kids in the world that did not like Disney World, and yet continue to dress up as every Disney character they can on Halloween. They are usually the exception not the rule. So I was like this isn’t that hard, I’ll just finish some up for them.

LOL. This is what I get for choosing to do this with a glue gun instead of pins. They weren’t kidding.

This took foreverrrrrrrrrr.

While the result it pretty great, it went like this.

  • Dab hot glue on ball.
  • Wipe excess strands of glue off ornament.
  • Put on Pom Pom.
  • Hold 5 seconds.
  • Repeat x infinity because just when you think there is no more white space on that styrofoam ball another empty pocket that you missed placing a pom pom ball on appears.
  • Hot glue strands everywhere.

Don’t be deceived by the cuteness. You need time to get this done. Or it could just be me.

Big tip: use a smaller styrofoam ball as this is about the size of a baseball.

In which case the next day because I am immensely stubborn, we made mini Pom Pom wreath ornaments instead and they went much faster.

All you do is take some wire, cut out a small hoop and thread your pom poms over your wire.

To close up the hoop, I made a loop on one side of the wire, then looped the other one through and tucked both wire ends into the top pom poms.

Then we just added a ribbon and twine to hang.

And because my kids have a better imagination (despite inheriting my impatience) than I do, they also make great bracelets.

Anyone want to dare me to make these pom poms into a garland? Maybe next Christmas. And maybe I’ll buy bigger pom poms.

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27 Comments

  • Reply
    Jolene
    November 20, 2014 at 10:27 am

    Oh my god these are the cutest! I shared your DIY wreath on my mom Facebook group the other day, I got a ton of likes 🙂

    • Reply
      Alex
      November 20, 2014 at 12:01 pm

      Thank you so much Jolene!! That’s so sweet of you!

      • Reply
        Loree
        April 3, 2023 at 1:25 am

        I pinned mine and yes, it just took forever, but was fun!!!

  • Reply
    Tara
    November 21, 2014 at 2:17 am

    Super cute! I love the ball, even though it took so long to make! It’s so funny how what seems like the easiest craft can end up taking forever!

  • Reply
    fynesdesigns
    November 23, 2014 at 7:29 am

    SUPER CUTE A! My kiddos are going to love these!

  • Reply
    Jennifer @ Brave New Home
    November 24, 2014 at 3:35 am

    I love the pom pom balls! They’re so playful and colorful they could easily be displayed all year long. My four-year-old just picked up the phrase “this is boring” and pretty much every holiday craft I try to make with him is, you guessed it, boring.

  • Reply
    Sara
    December 4, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    where do you buy the balls? I have been looking for them but they are so expensive 🙁

    • Reply
      Alex
      December 4, 2014 at 8:40 pm

      Hi Sara! I’m in Canada and I buy mine at our local Dollarama dollar store chain. Depending on where you live, I know that there are some online dealers that sell them in bulk that are much cheaper than what you would pay retail. Hope that helps!

  • Reply
    dcmonique
    December 6, 2014 at 5:59 pm

    A link for the online pompom dealers would be most helpful.

  • Reply
    San (@AskSanAnything)
    December 14, 2014 at 4:41 am

    LOL. Loved this, despite your warnings. Though, I would probably go with the wreaths. 😉 Thanks for sharing this totes adorbs ornament idea(s). 🙂

  • Reply
    MJ
    January 6, 2015 at 2:39 am

    LOL your post made me laugh 🙂 I think I might actually give this a try one day… I too have a bag of pompoms waiting to be used… but let’s find a day where I feel I’m super patient 😉 Thanx for sharing!

  • Reply
    Linda Mudie
    September 1, 2016 at 12:18 am

    To combat the hot glue strands, use a hair dryer on high heat and the hair-like strands will disappear.

  • Reply
    Amy Major
    November 15, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    I love the wreath idea so much! I’m having trouble getting my wire through some of my poms. What brand did you use?

    Thanks!

    • Reply
      Alex
      November 15, 2017 at 3:46 pm

      I got mine at the dollar store in the hardware aisle. It’s definitely not thin craft wire but more of a thicker stainless steel wire, the type that you would hang a large picture frame with. It doesn’t bend when it goes into the pom pom. As well, the pom poms themselves have denser pockets in some of them, so twist them around if you’re having a challenge go through it. But if your wire bends on contact, you need a stronger wire.

  • Reply
    Erin M Dolan
    November 19, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    What size pom poms did you use? I know you said the ball was about the size of a baseball, but not the size of the pom poms. I am looking to buy some. Thanks!

    • Reply
      Erin M Dolan
      November 19, 2017 at 8:05 pm

      Also does the package tell you what size the styrofoam ball is? When I look to buy them, they say 4 to 5 inches but a baseball is 9 in. Sorry for all the questions! Thanks.

    • Reply
      Alex
      November 20, 2017 at 6:59 pm

      Hello! The pom poms are tiny – just under 1 cm – and I get mine at Dollarama (I am not sure if you’re in Canada). Amazon has lots, just search for Mini Pom Poms. As for the diameter of the styrofoam bll, my best guess is the 2.5 or 3 inches. But unless you’re making a giant ornament, I strongly recommend sizing down to a max 1 – 1.5″ ball, otherwise they will be incredibly big. Hope that helps!

  • Reply
    Lauren H.
    December 3, 2017 at 9:35 am

    Hi. I was wondering: how did you attach the twine to the styrofoam ball in order for it to hang?

    • Reply
      Alex
      December 3, 2017 at 10:11 pm

      You can do it one of two ways. The first, tie a knot at the end of the twine to make a loop and use a pin it in. Or you can just use a glue gun. I think I did a combo of both for this one as (first pinned, then put glue over it) as the pin kept coming out.

  • Reply
    Tracy Marie Bean
    December 10, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    Is there any way to print this out? I work in daycare and don’t have access to a computer there.

    • Reply
      Alex
      December 10, 2017 at 4:34 pm

      Do you mean the entire blog post or instructions on how to make the ornament? Doing the ornament is a simple as getting a styrofoam ball and a glue gun and gluing the pom poms to the ball itself. You can also use mini pins but the bigger your styrofoam ball, the more of a nuisance that becomes.

      • Reply
        Tracy Marie Bean
        December 16, 2017 at 1:33 pm

        The instructions for the ornament. I have some kids who do better with visuals.Gluing is a good idea. I was thinking the pins might be hazardous if they came out with small children and animals.

        • Reply
          Alex
          December 16, 2017 at 6:20 pm

          Unfortunately I don’t have printable instructions for this. We wound up using a glue gun as the pin thing became very cumbersome, as I mention in the post. I will also mention that if you do use regular school glue for this, the pom poms won’t hold as well and will fall off as more are glued on and the ball is moved around. You need a glue that is almost instant. I’d recommend Mod Podge over that as it dries much faster but test that out before you try it. Glue guns like pins may not work as easily for a classroom environment but our younger daughter who is now 7, has been using a glue gun for several years (but that’s in the comfort of our home and me being there). I have another craft called a Wishing Jar ornament which may be a great alternate option. If you go to my Project Gallery and choose Holidays then Christmas, it will show up. When in doubt, my fav all time Christmas craft for kids were our aluminum foil collage Christmas cards. You can find that here: https://www.northstoryandco.com/christmas-card-crafts-for-kids-before-there-was-pinterest/ – Hope that helps some!

  • Reply
    Erica manley
    November 19, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    What is the gate wire you used for the Pom Pom wreath

    • Reply
      Alex
      November 20, 2018 at 6:28 pm

      The wire I used was just a basic roll of metal wire that I bought at our dollar store but you can easily get it at your local hardware store as well. It’s nothing fancy at all. I do not recommend craft wire as it’s too soft and won’t punch through the pom poms. This one is fairly rigid. Think of one that you would use to hang picture frames on a wall. That type of strength.

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