Every now and then you want to actually display physical pictures, not just virtual ones that reside on your computer. To do that you’re going to need some creative photo stands or frames (because no one wants to use plain and boring picture frames).
PaperNStitch.com (via Photojojo.com) has a simple and creative 3 step way to turn old tennis balls into awesome stands to display your photos.
After you turn your flat and lifeless tennis balls into these picture holders, you’re going to have some empty tennis ball cans lying around. What better way to reuse them than to upcycle them into touch sensitive LED lanterns?
Imma Imma Imma show you how to do that as well.
How To Make the Photo Stand
What you’ll need:
- A tennis ball
- A sharp (preferably serrated) blade
- Pennies or old keys
- Any funky crafting accessories: sparkle paint, stickers, pipe cleaners, markers, etc.
Step 1 – Prep Your Balls:
Use a sharp knife to cut a slit into the tennis ball. It should be big enough to wedge the corner or edge of the photo inside. Photojojo said their cut was about 2 inches long. Watch those fingers!
Slip the pennies or old keys in the base of the tennis ball to help it stand up right once the photos are inserted.
Step 2 – Decorate:
Go crazy. Paint it, hot glue some accessories, glitter it up, whatever. Have fun!
Step 3 – Display:
You can use the penny method listed above to help keep your tennis ball in place, or you could wrap a pipe cleaner around the base of the tennis ball to act as a nearly invisible stand that also prevents it from escaping.
Photojojo says, “If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can use any short cylindrical object as a stand. We picked up a 50-cent lamp socket collar for about 50 cents at a hardware store; alternately, you could use the cardboard tube from a roll of electrical tape, a thin-sliced paper-towel tube, or a PVC coupling if you’re Bob Vila.”
Check out Photojojo’s rendition of this project for some more clever ways to display and modify your tennis ball picture holders.
The Tennis Ball Can LED Lantern
This great Instructable shows you everything you need to know and do to make a clever touch sensitive LED lantern out of tennis ball can.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 empty tennis ball container
- 1 tennis ball (or other similarly sized ball)
- 1 LED touch light (about $4 for a 3 pack)
- 1 length of electrical tape (if necessary)
When you shake the can the lone tennis ball hits the light to turn it on and off.
Check out the Instructable to find out the uber-simple instructions for this project. Seriously, It looks like it would take a maximum of about 10 minutes to complete from start to finish. You can obviously stencil, paint, or otherwise decorate the lantern (which I highly recommend doing), but here’s a video of what the bare bones lamp looks like:
Tennis anyone?
I think every little step toward living green is an awesome one… but eco-snobbery sucks! My goal is to help newbies learn the most important steps toward living green — individually and collectively. Personally, I strive to have as little impact as possible on Planet Earth while I'm here.
