My life as a hurricane: Halloween Ceiling Centerpiece

This is my first creation that I am chronicling from start to finish so bear with me. Please feel free to post comments on ways I could explain better or better items to use. I am always up for hearing of a better way to do things!

So, for work this week, we are doing a day where we all bring in a Halloween decoration or treat for our last Pinterest day. This whole month we have been bringing in different crafts and creations we have done based on things we have found from Pinterest. My contribution is going to be a ceiling centerpiece that I have made with some of my own original ideas and some from things I've seen online. Mostly this is my own creation though. I am also decorating the wall with bat cut outs but I felt that this was fairly self explanatory.

So, the first thing I did was to create the center of my centerpiece.

Here are the items you need for this first part that I call "The nest":
1. Glue gun
2. 4 inch styrofoam ball
3. Two 72 piece Halloween decorative balls
4. Round toothpicks that you will cut in half.
5. Fishing line/Necklace line used for making bead necklaces.

I got all of these items from Michaels except for the tooth picks.

The first thing I did was to get my toothpicks ready. I cut the majority of the toothpicks in half. Only the last few decorative balls I used were with full length toothpicks. After you cut your toothpicks, get the fishing line ready to be stuck to the styrofoam ball. Take one of your toothpicks and tie a knot with the fishing line on the end of it. Push it into the styrofoam ball and put some glue from the glue gun on the end so it will stay in the ball.

After you get your fishing line stuck in the ball, take your toothpicks, put a drop of hot glue on the end and stick it into one of your orange decorative balls. Then stick the other end of the toothpick into the larger styrofoam ball.

Stagger the balls around the foam so that it is mostly covered. You shouldn't be able to see any white. If the ball is covered then you can use the remaining balls with full length tooth picks and cover any white that is left. You will get something resembling this:

I call it the "Nest" because I feel like it looks like a creepy spider nest...

For the next part of the centerpiece you will need the following:
1. Glue - Elmers or Mod Podge. It doesn't matter, you just need to put some water in it so it's easier to use with the yarn.
2. Yarn. I got two different colors that had sequins in them. The black yarn has some purple in it as well.
3. Balloons
4. Plastic spiders

Cut between 20 - 30 strands that will wrap around your balloon 1 1/2 times from your yarn. Then dip your yarn in the glue/water mix. Make sure to squeeze the excess glue from the yarn. Then wrap around the balloon. Repeat with all the strands you have cut until it looks like a web. Repeat with the other color you have chosen and then let the "webs" hang to dry over night.

The next morning the webs will be dried and you will need to pop the balloon. Carefully remove the balloon from your web and you will be finished. You may need to pull and tweak certain parts that caved in when the balloon popped. Don't worry about it breaking, it just needs to be molded. Use the glue gun to glue the spiders to the sides and let dry.

Now, to create the holder of the centerpiece, you will need the following:
1. 10 inch cross stitch hoop
2. 15 inch x 18 inch black cross stitch fabric.
3. 2 or 3 long strands of the yarn to use for hanging.

Take the strands of yarn and arrange them under the first part of the hoop so it can be hung later.

Then add your fabric and secure to the second hoop so it will be held tightly. Once it is secure, cut the excess black fabric from the hoop.

I went on to attach my "nest" and my two spider webs to the sewing hoop by using a large needle and tying knots on the back end of the hoop. Once that was secure, I used hot glue from the glue gun to keep the knots in place.