{{gwi:2110295}}Image by: eva1429
Copper leaf ball
Copper Leaf Bowling Ball

eva1429's directions for her copper leaf covered bowling ball, with red marbles and bb's:

It really was easy to do but a little more time consuming than I anticipated.

Materials needed:

* Bowling ball, of course * 36-gauge or similar copper tooling foil (bought mine over the Internet at ) * Red half marbles or gems (if you have some red beads, they'd be cool, too.) * Copper bbs (the ones I used are called copperheads, so they are only copper-coated. Not sure what is under the copper or whether or not these will verdigris. Bought them at K-mart in the sporting goods department.
Some copper beads would be neat, too.) * GE Silicone II Adhesive * A chopstick or wooden skewer to spread the Silicone. * A container to hold the bowling ball (I used an empty coffee can.) * Craft scissors (work fine for cutting the copper foil) * Empty ballpoint pen (cuticle stick would also work)

Make templates for the leaves by finding three or more simply shaped real leaves of different sizes. Trace the leaves on lightweight card stock (I used an old file folder) and cut them out.

Place a leaf template on top of the copper foil and trace around the outline with the empty ballpoint. I outlined a large batch of leaves of different sizes on the copper foil before cutting them out. I can't really tell you how many leaves to make, because I did a lot more overlapping of leaves than you'd really need to, plus it'll depend on the size of the leaves you use.

Cut out the copper leaves with the scissors. Make veins on the leaves by drawing them on with the empty ballpoint pen.

Place your bowling ball in the container and start decorating. I started at the top of my ball (thumbhole down), but it wouldn't really matter. Use the chopstick or skewer to take Silicone from the caulk tube and spread on the back of the copper leaf (be generous with the Silicone). Position the leaf where you want it on the bowling ball and carefully press it down. Continue adding leaves, overlapping larger leaves with smaller ones, to make a pleasing design. Fill in the gaps by gluing on red marbles with Silicone. To add some dimension and fill in smaller gaps, put Silicone directly on the ball and sprinkle bbs on the Silicone. Press the bbs down into the Silicone.