These ping pong ball planets are out of this world! This fun and colourful art project is the perfect way to bring the solar system to life. Kids can make vibrant designs to represent real planets, or let their imaginations run wild by creating their very own glowing planets.
Use fun and creative colour combinations to make this ping pong ball light craft really shine. Whether you’re painting a recognizable Earth, Mars’ red surface, or inventing a brand new planet with rainbow craters, the possibilities for this craft are endless!
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How to Make Ping Pong Ball Planets
Materials:
- Ping pong ball(s)
- Acrylic paint (multiple colours)
- Battery operated tealight candle
Watch the step-by-step video tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Add paint to a covered cake pan
- Cover a cake pan or baking dish with aluminum foil. You want to use something with tall enough edges to contain the ping pong ball as it moves around.
- Choose your first colour and add dots of acrylic paint around the foil.
- Repeat with 2 to 3 more colours. We recommend using white as one of your “colours” – it helps to create a marbled look and lightens the shades of your colours in certain areas.
Step 3: Roll the ping pong ball around
- Set a ping pong ball down into the paint.
- Pick up the cake pan and tilt it back and forth, coating the ping pong ball in the paint.
- Continue until the ball is completely covered and you’re happy with the look.
Step 4: Allow to dry and add to a tealight candle
- Repeat with different colours of paint to make another planet or two, if you’d like.Allow the ping pong balls to dry on a parchment lined tray. (Keep reading below for more paint drying tips.)
- Use a craft knife to cut a hole in one side of the ping pong ball. It should be large enough to fit the “flame” of the battery operated tealight candle.
- Apply a thin line of hot glue around the opening you just made on the ping pong ball.
- Insert the tealight into the ping pong ball and press them together.
- Your ping pong ball planet is complete!
- Have fun making all the planets in the solar system, or using fun colours to create your own planets.
- Then watch the planets glow and light up the room once you turn the tealight candles on!
Helpful Tips:
- If you’d like to speed up the drying process, once the top of the planet is dry you can create a little “cradle” of tinfoil. This will stop the ball from rolling. Place the ping pong ball in this cradle with the wet paint facing up
- Test your flameless tealight before gluing it onto the ping pong ball to make sure that it works.
- We recommend buying enough supplies so everyone can make at least a few ping pong planets. It’s so fun to try different colour combinations!
What colours of paint are best for making ping pong ball planets?
You can emulate the planets of our solar system, by using blue, green, and white to make Earth or red and orange to make Mars. Look up pictures of the other planets to see what colours will work for them!
But you can also create your own otherworldly planets in whatever colours you’d like!
It’s fun to see different shades of the same colour (eg. light, medium, and dark blue), and white makes a great addition to other colour schemes. It helps to blend the colours together and gives the planets lighter sections for the light to shine through.
We recommend using complementary colours that mix well and don’t create muddy brown shades when combined. You can always test your colours of choice on a piece of paper first to make sure they look good together.
Where can I buy plain white ping pong balls?
We prefer using plain white ping pong balls without a logo for our crafts. If your ping pong balls do have a small logo, the paint will probably cover it, but it’s not guaranteed.
Check the dollar store first, either in the toys or sports section. You may find plain white ping pong balls sold as part of a beer pong set.
Otherwise you can buy ping pong balls online, on Amazon, or in the summer aisle of your local party supply store.
Are there other ways to paint a ping pong ball planet?
Yes, there are a few ways you can paint your ping pong balls to look like planets. First, try using the method in the tutorial above.
Or you can also add paint to a paper plate and use a paintbrush to move the ping pong ball around. This gives you more control over where the ball goes and what colours go where, but you need to be careful that the ball doesn’t fall over the edge of the plate. The brush can also smudge the paint more than you might like.
Finally, you can also add paint into a lidded plastic container. Set the ball inside the container and place the lid on securely before shaking the container around to cover the ball in paint.
Perfect for classroom projects, rainy day activities, or just a fun way to explore art and science, these ping pong ball planets are sure to delight. So gather your ping pong balls and paint, and get ready to create a universe full of colour and creativity!
Here’s even more easy art craft ideas:
Plastic Bottle Butterfly Craft
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72 cute and fun crafts that kids and parents alike can enjoy. All with as little mess as possible!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
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