I finally have some good news, after reworking my wiring I now have reliable light for my project. Here is a link to my instagram post: https://instagram.com/p/BaKMuGSBxr7/
Last night I had an issue after blowing two of my three LEDs in my circuit. Long story short it did end up being because I didn’t use a resistor. The LEDs did get hot because they were getting too much power.
I decided instead of putting the LEDs inside the ping pong ball I’d stick them through the outside. This was done by drilling six holes in the ball and inserting the bulbs. I then connected all the positives and all the negatives on opposite side of the ball. At this point I knew I needed a resistor so I added that on one end. This lit up really bright.
I then took a clear ornament I purchased that is made specifically for diy purposes. This serves to protect all the internals. All I did to this is file a small hole in the shell that the wires could stick through and fed them through the built in place for the hook.
Lastly, I fit the faux fur encasement over the sphere. This was constructed like the two halves of a baseball. It turns out that this piece is slightly small for its intended purpose and I needed an extra 1/4 inch of material on each piece.
The final result is quite stunning. I would love to continue with this and make it fade or change colors or be sound sensitive at some point.