DIY Holiday Hydro-Dip Pickleball Ornament Upcycle

Upcycle your broken pickleballs into beautiful holiday ornaments! This is an easy DIY that will give your pickleballs new life. Read the full tutorial below. 

One of the most asked questions in pickleball is what should we do with our broken balls?! While they can’t be recycled, they can be UPcycled and what better to make than ornaments this time of year!

We wanted to find a way to turn broken pickleballs into holiday treasures, so with a little bit of color and some water transfer magic, we came up with these DIY Holiday Hydro-Dipped Pickleball Ornaments. We used green paint to fit our color scheme, but these would look so good with many colors!! Give this fun, easy DIY a whirl and let us know how it goes! 

Materials

• Broken pickleballs
• Spray paint
• Liquid gilding
• Small tub
• Toothpicks

How To

1. Spray paint the exterior of your pickleballs. It might take a few thin coats, just make sure you let them dry in between spraying. Once your ball is covered and the paint is dry, you’re ready for step 2. 
2. Prepare your hydro-dip bath. Fill a container with room temperature water, leaving enough space at the top to fully submerge your pickleball.
3. Use a toothpick to drip a few drops of liquid gilding onto the surface of the water so that they float on top.
4. Gently rock your container to one side so the liquid gilding expands slightly. Then use your toothpick to swirl the gilding into a marbled pattern on top of the water. 
5. Dip your pickleball into the water and slowly roll it around once it’s fully submerged. It will pick up the gold. 
6. Repeat steps 3-5 if you want to add more gold. 
7. Allow to dry and add ribbon to hang from your tree. 

Cheers and Happy Holidays!