Pinterest and button bowls

I love Pinterest. In addition to being a great time waster, it has given me some really great recipes that I now make regularly, ideas for fashion, and crafts that I want to try. I probably spend 2 or 3 hours a week pinning and repinning stuff. I started to feel bad that I wasn't actually doing much with the ideas I pinned, so I decided to try one out. There is this really cool button bowl that a lot of people I know have pinned. I love how it looks - the blues are perfect, and the idea seemed so fun! You can find the bowl here. Only problem: the directions were slim - as in glue buttons around a ballon then pop it. Um, hello? What kind of glue should I use? Any tips on arranging the buttons? I googled "how to make a button bowl" and found some examples of failures - bowls collapsing, the buttons falling off, etc. I was not deterred. This weekend, I decided to make a button bowl for myself. And in case anyone else in interested, here is how I did it (although I would not recommend it as the most fun craft ever. The glue gave me a headache, it was pretty tedious, and took a really long time. Thank goodness I watch too much TV :)

So first, I went to the store and got a ton of pink buttons and a tacky glue pen. The pen works well because it lets you control the glue better. Then I got a box, and taped the bottom of the ballon to the box. This gave me better control over the ballon.

Then, I started gluing the buttons around the ballon. I started in the middle, working my way out to the side. I did one side at a time (the buttons start to slip a bit so I had to give it some drying time). I used a black marker to mark up the ballon, but I wouldn't recommend that since the marker transferred to the glue and is visible inside my bowl. Or maybe make smaller marks or a color that blends in with the buttons better? 

Once all the bottons were glued down and had a chance to dry, I covered the entire bowl with Hard Coat Mod Podge. I let it dry overnight.

When it was good and dried, I loosed the ballon and slowly popped it. The bowl didn't collapse as I feared it would! Take that, Pinterest!