Mechanicsville VIRGINIA

Bonnie Penny made her Sparkleball Christmas Tree with 17 different sparkleballs, each wrapped in red or green netting and topped with a red velvet bow.

San Diego CALIFORNIA

Lee's giant sparkleball uses 225 16 oz. cups with 1 light per cup. Her husband Len had to design an ingenious hanger (heavy wire with disk) to support the ball's weight.

West Palm Beach FLORIDA

Annette Jones learned about sparkleballs on thriftyfun.com. For her first one, she used multi-colored zip-ties on a no-melt version. (rollover image)

Boston MASSACHUSETTS

Joey made these for a friend's Christmas party. They hung them from recessed lighting fixtures in the kitchen and living room. "Everyone I was talking to about making sparkleballs looked at me like I had two heads-- until they saw them!"

Anaheim CALIFORNIA

Mark Snow's sparkleball was a gift from a friend. It completely wiped out his "Elf Poop" holiday blues. He writes " a hand crafted gift is the essence of giving and Christmas. The fact that someone set aside their regularly scheduled life and dedicated that time to create something just for me was just awesome." (Read the full story here. )

Jefferson City MISSOURI

Andrew has made over 300 sparkleballs. Above, he uses two different strings of lights (red lights in the cups/white stuffed in the center.) [rollover image]

Nova Scotia CANADA

Jean Hardy bought this sparkleball at a craft fair. It's made with small cups and the lights are completely embedded within the sparkleball, not stuck through the cup bottoms. Between every cup, the maker put a big dab of sparkle glue.

Tingalpa, Brisbane AUSTRALIA

A Sparkleball Snowman from Rob and Annette Cox

Chicago ILLINOIS

Manola made these 1/2 Sparkleballs for her fireplace mantle. The outer ring is stuffed with green LED lights, and the inner rings with red.   Manola found the textured plastic cups on ebay.    [rollover image]

December 2008

La Jolla CALIFORNIA

Macky, Fritz, and Blythe made solar sparkleball with icicle lights (25 to a string) Sister Blythe cut the lengths of pliable coated wire that the boys twisted to attach the cups. (rollover image)

Logansport INDIANA

Terry got the sparkleball bug from her mom, who learned to make them on winter trips down to campgrounds in Texas.

Clamoring made this sparkleball chandelier for her bathroom.

Avon Lake OHIO

James Gerrasch made this no-melt sparkleball with 60 LED lights and red/green Christmas cups. (rollover image)

Rialto CALIFORNIA

Nancy never met a craft she didn't like, but sparkleballs are a favorite. She keeps it simple: uses only 50 lights in her sparkleballs-- but as you can see it's still just as beautiful. (rollover image)