Emoji Golf Balls

We live about a 6 or 7-minute walk from the Irish Sea. What a drag, right?

A few Sundays ago I took a glorious walk BY MYSELF down to the beach. Moms need that every once in awhile. It was heavenly. When I reached the beach I realized the tide was out. Really out. In fact, I hadn’t seen the tide out that far in eons. (Take “eons” with a grain of salt – I’ve only lived here 11 months.)

I called Handy Husband and told him he and the kids had to come to the beach quickly! The weather was amazing and the low tide had exposed little shallow pools of water with baby crabs and fish.

He endured the whining produced by our offspring and dragged them down to the beach where they proceeded to have the time of their lives. Irony, thy name is child.

We took off our shoes and enjoyed being able to walk in the water without fear of freezing to death. It was one of those perfect afternoons that I’ll hold close to my heart forever.

While we were exploring, Handy Husband found a golf ball stuck under a rock. Then he found another and another. The beach in that area runs into a tall cliff and at the top of the cliff is a park. I’m guessing someone has been having fun hitting a lot of golf balls into the ocean.

By the time he was done, Handy Husband had found 15 golf balls.

“What are we going to do with these?” I asked. Surely he had a plan.

“I don’t know,” was his reply as he dumped the golf balls into the shoe basket by our front door. For a family who doesn’t play golf, I guess that was as good a place as any to put them.

I thought about it and brainstormed with a friend. Ultimately, I decided the golf balls would make perfect emojis, which are all the rage with the tween crowd.

I scrubbed the sea muck off the balls and then headed to the hardware store to buy a can of yellow spray paint.

The balls received several coats of spray paint and plenty of drying time. I actually picked either a terrible time or place to spray paint because teeny, tiny bugs kept landing on the balls and getting stuck. So annoying.

When my daughter had her 10th birthday sleepover last weekend, I asked the girls if they wanted to do a craft. YES! was their enthusiastic reply.

As a side note, a nice, calm crafting session is something that would never happen at a sleepover with 7-year-old boys. I just hosted one of those too and the entire time the boys beat each other up wrestling played, I was praying no one got a concussion. Crafting was not on the boys’ agenda.

I gave the girls a black sharpie, a red sharpie and a white paint pen to work with. Away they went drawing emojis on the golf balls!

I learn so much more about what happens at school from my daughter’s friends than I do from my daughter, so overhearing their chatter while they were crafting was absolutely fascinating to me! Things make so much more sense now.

For this project, ultra fine-tipped Sharpies worked better for detail work, but took more effort to fill in a larger area like a smile. Definitely make sure your spray paint is fully cured before trying to write on the balls though.

“What are we going to do with these?” the girls asked.

This, to me, was a hilarious question.

Mainly because my kids have 50 gazillion little trinkets, scraps of paper, rocks, shells, bookmarks, bottle caps, etc. that MUST BE KEPT FOREVER even though they have no apparent purpose.

“You’re going to take them home and keep them forever!” was my reply.

“COOL!!!”

Well, that was easy.

My daughter’s golf ball emojis are currently displayed on her book ledges.

This project was perfect for 10 and 11-year-old girls, but I’m sure other ages would enjoy it too.

It challenged their drawing skills to replicate the emoji on a slightly bumpy, rounded surface. One of the girls didn’t like how one of her emoji faces turned out, so we just turned the ball around to the other side and she started over! I think any mess ups could be quickly covered over with a yellow paint pen or a dab of acrylic paint. I did not seal these with any kind of clear sealant because the sharpie seemed to be on there to stay!

All in all, the girls did a fantastic job! Most importantly, they had fun!

The other thing I love about this project is it is a creative way to upcycle old golf balls that, in this case, would otherwise pollute the ocean.

I’d definitely give this project the happy face emoji!  ?

P.S. If you don’t have an ocean to search for free golf balls, you can always ask a friend or neighbor who golfs if he/she has any old practice balls you can have. My neighbor saw this project in progress and dropped off a dozen old balls for me! Another place you could ask is a driving range. Or you can always buy 18 golf balls on Amazon for about 10 bucks. Good luck!

Here are some other projects using found objects! 

Golf Ball Pumpkins

Junky 4th of July Wreath

Outdoor Decorating with Farm Junk

Trash to Treasure: Art for a Boy’s Room

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