Warning: This project is messier than expected.

Like I was complaining about yesterday, it's fall. But ... I can't mope about it forever, so I made a fall craft: DIY yarn balls.

My Mom sent me this fun craft a while back, and I decided to give it a try for a little fall flair. If you go check out the step-by-step instructions, it sounds easy and simple. I am here to honestly report that I struggled. So why share a flailing art project? Because even though my yarn balls ended up wonky, they still made for awesome 3D art with character.

Going back to that link, they list out all the supplies. Take them serious. You need all the different ingredients. I know because I ran out of glue and my last few balls are still flaking off corn starch.

Have all your supplies rounded up before you begin.

They make the dipping and wrapping sound easy-peasy, including the cleanliness of wearing gloves. I was useless with the gloves on. My fingers couldn't precisely do anything. I took them off in hopes that wrapping would get easier. It didn't. My yarn slipped and slide. I eventually just dumped it on there until it sort of covered the balloon. My advice: keep the balloons small and the yarn gooey. Besides the wrapping issues, I splattered the corn starch-water-glue mixture all over the covered area and myself. Luckily, it washes right off or can be easily picked off once dry.

Like I warned, this project can get a little messy — take my leg for example. Thankfully, it's a pretty harmless mess.

Once I have wrapped the balloons, I left them hanging in our living room for 24 hours.

My balloons dried completely in the 24-hour time span. I cut the balloons and they released cleanly from the yarn. Like I mentioned, I had a lot of excess corn starch happening — so much in fact that my purple yarn looks white. It didn't hurt anything though and gives them a ghostly effect, just in time for Halloween.

Once dry, I popped the balloons and had egg-shaped balls.

You could string the yarn balls together like in their example or round them up in a dish for a table display, but I decided on floating, 3D wall art. I randomly pressed apartment-approved push pins into the wall and then rested the yarn balls on them. And done. The whole project took a little more than 24 hours, and we have some great DIY art for our apartment. Crafting success!

The yarn balls make for fun, 3D wall decor.