Monday, March 17, 2014

Bleached Sweet Gum Balls


bleaching sweet gum balls
I know I am usually bleaching bottle brush trees, but this time I bleached sweet gum balls.

I was inspired by Gail at Purple Hues and Me when last fall she bleached pine cones. Read all about Gail's pine cones here.

I promptly went and collected a bag of sweet gum balls and put them in a jar of bleach.



I did not have any brown ones left to show you, but most of you know what a sweet gum ball looks like.

I had used them in an art piece.

All of them painted, but the smashed one in the corner.

That one is real.

I love the brown ones for fall decor so I knew I would love the bleached ones.





I had planned to make glittery Christmas ornaments with them, but they took forever (more than three days is forever to me!) to bleach.

I rinsed them off and stuck them in a basket on the patio.

Never even thought of them until we were cleaning out the planters, and Chucks said, "Look at these mutant sweet gum balls!"

Oh, that's where they went!

Now they seemed to be delightful and beautiful to me.

A found treasure.


I put them in a glass vase with the Easter lambs and love them.

Bleached sweet gum balls.

Hey, I wonder if they can be dyed?

Now that's an idea!

See y'all!







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9 comments:

  1. Oh I love, love, love the bleached sweet gum balls! Wish I had some around here! I think dyeing them is a fabulous idea . . . one that would really take off! Can you imagine making a wreath out of sweet gum balls? Thanks for the wonderful shout out, too! Although you could have used a smaller font.

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  2. Please come to Missouri and take all of our sweet gum balls!!!! I have to admit as I was reading this post, I was wondering if they could be dyed!

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  3. I love them bleached - but I bet they CAN be dyed!!!
    Danni you can send me a bag of them if you're giving them away lol
    XOXO

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  4. I too love the bleached look you achieved, beautiful! And much better than being underfoot...in flip-flops, lol.

    Gigi @ Old World Patina

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  5. They look pretty bleached. I have them all over my yard. I'm not that fond of them. I once made of wreath using them.

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  6. You know I love them! White! Wow! What a great idea. You know how to think outside the box.

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  7. I've never heard of or seen sweet gum balls, but how cool that they can be bleached.

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  8. What a great idea! I've seen them before, but never knew what they were called. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Your bleached gum balls wonderful and the wall hanging is beautiful and amazing, Donna. I love that you added a real gum ball to the painted ones. Very cool!

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I enjoy reading all of your comments and will always answer with email. I will try to track you down if you show up as a "no reply" commenter to let you know. Friends are like that!