I remembered seeing a great garden craft project a few years ago - a painted gazing ball.

Gazing balls, also called lawn balls or garden globes or even mirror globes, are the reflective balls that are often perched on stands in backyards or gardens. Since they have a reflective surface, they reflect the grounds around them, but by painting them, you truly make the gazing ball the center of attention.

As with any painted glass project, you want to clean the ball with rubbing alcohol to prep the surface for painting. Then, just paint your design on the gazing ball using acrylic or enamel paints suited for glass surfaces. Whether you paint it with whimsical flowers as in the Colorful Flower Bowl or more traditional as in this trifle bowl painted in Donna Dewberry's One Stroke technique, whether you choose a fresh repeating motif like the cherries in the Cherry Painted Glass Jar or something more geometric like the Funky Pitcher and Glasses, you'll enjoy creating your own yard art.

And if glass gazing balls aren't your thing, I've read of some people taking old bowling balls and decorating them. Some people use silicone (typically used for caulking) to attach small flat glass marbles. tumbled sea glass, or pennies to the bowling ball. Much less fragile than a glass gazing ball, to be sure. Wouldn't it be beautiful if you did a mosaic of little glass tiles? I can just imagine it. We recently posted an ivy mosaic pot on our site so mosaics have been on my mind lately and this seems like another great garden craft idea.

So get crafting for your garden. Even if you have a black thumb, you can craft a beautiful garden.