DIY Bowling Ball Lady Bug Tutorial [With Templates]

I saw this online, so I'm not taking credit for it, but there were no plans or print outs to help make it. So, while it took me quite a bit of cutting and planning, I've taken it upon myself to make some plans to help you on your mission of creating your own lady bug bowling ball!

Here's what you need:
1 Bowling Ball (I'm not sure what size mine was, I'm pretty sure it was a 10# ball, so if you have larger ones, you can increase the size of the templates to fit.)
2 Cans Spray Paint (I used outdoor gloss in pink and black)
White Paint
Black Paint for touch-ups
Paintbrush
Pencil
Masking tape
Something to balance your bowling ball on while you spray paint it (I used a metal rod that was a 2" cube
Scissors
Plans (Below)


Step 1: Sand the bowling ball just to get the surface rough. My bowling ball was pretty shiny, and I wanted to make sure the paint would stick to the ball and have as less of a chance of chipping as possible. I also sanded the finger holes, too, since they were even more smooth and wanted to ensure the paint would stick.

Step 2: Spray paint the entire globe black in a thin, even coat. Make sure that you really mix the paint and don't worry about a couple drips here and there. Also make sure to spray inside the finger slots at this point. Once painted, it's important to let the globe completely dry for a full 24 hours before spray painting again. I had originally let it only set for about 3 hours before painting it over and it was still a bit tacky. When I sprayed the pink coat, the wet black paint bled through and it looked like a mess. So just to be safe, let it sit for a full day, preferably on a day that is not very humid. 

Step 3: Print out the pieces below and cut them out. The back piece is not long enough to be printed out on one sheet of paper. It says "12 Inches" on it, but just do it the length of your standard printer paper. You may need to adjust it to fit within the margins. I used about a 15 inch piece, but you can use however long of a backstrip you like. I included an extender to print, just tape the extender to the main backstrip and cut as needed. 

Step 4: Once everything is cut out and your bowling ball is completely dry (and really has sat for 24 hours) you can now stick all the pieces except for the eyes to your bowling ball with masking tape. Try and tape it so that there are no cracks in between the ball and the template. You're going to have some of the colored paint seep through, but taping it as much as possible helps avoid heavy spot touch-up later on.

Step 5: When all of your templates except for the eyes are taped, spray paint the entire bowling ball that is exposed the color of your choice. Again, let sit for a full 24 hours. This sounds like an excessive amount of time, but there's nothing worse than spending all this time on a project and then smudging it with your fingers. So just sit tight and forget about it until it's dry!

Step 6: Carefully peel back all the templates. The masking tape did not chip my paint, but just in case you have some heavy spots of the top coat on the tape, you don't want to peel it off.

Step 7: Put the eye template evenly between the finger slots, and set it where you think it will look best. Make sure to center it! Using the pencil, outline the template. When you take the paper off, you should see a faint pencil line to paint. Using the white paint, paint the eye balls, but leave the finger slots black. 

Step 8: Do any touch-ups with the black that are necessary and let dry. Then you're done! Enjoy this little guy in your garden! 

Download these to your computer and pop them in your word processing software, or software with a ruler guideline to measure.