I have had my eye on this little guy from Ballard Designs for years now, but could never talk myself into handing over the small fortune they wanted! (ahem, $45?!) I needed it to go in our front bathroom because the door will never stay open. We have been using a wooden stool to hold the door open and it has scuffed the door and the wall thanks to children and being a frequent walkway!

Thanks to this wonderful little website called Pinterest, I found a tutorial and finally got to work making one of my own!!

(Notice the scuffs and marks from the stool no worries, I’ll get in there with a magic eraser as soon as I get one precious little moment )

One little word to the wise first though…
this craft will test your patience. No, no, there’s no “I got this” or “Pshhh! Easy-Peasy!” Nuh-uh. Just remember to breathe through it and really just give yourself 30 minutes and you will have a cool little finished product!!

Oh, and wear some gloves

All you need is:

Manila rope (I got mine from Tractor Supply Co. in size 1/4″, but I highly recommend going bigger, like 3/8″- can also be found at Home Depot and the like)

Tennis ball

Rocks/something weighted to put inside ball

Exacto knife

Breathing. For your patience.

What you gotta do:

Cut open the tennis ball very carefully and put rocks inside (I tasked my son with finding small pebbles from our driveway out front). Set aside.

(It started clean, I swear! My son thought I brought it in for the dog )

Watch this tutorial to learn how to make a monkey fist knot (that’s what the rope is tied into). I watched it once, then grabbed my gloves and rope and started making my knot right along with the guy, pausing the video every now and then to catch up.

Be patient and keep with it!

What I did different or would do different next time:

Get something heavier than pebbles. I made this to hold our bathroom door open and it is just not heavy enough!

I ended up adding rope to the “noose” on the end so that the ball hangs from our doorknob all the way to the floor. It actually stops the door from closing since it’s not heavy enough on it’s own.

Get bigger rope!!

(Before adding extra rope to make it hang at the floor it was about this long)

It is SO nice not having the bulky stool in the bathroom anymore!! Loving this new doorstop!

♥This little craft was recently inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Mrs. Priss, who is having a Pinterest Party on her blog and she is encouraging us to face our obsessive Pinterest selves and start doing what we’ve been pinning!!!!!