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mosswitch

Christmas light bulb ball

mosswitch
11 years ago

Seemed like a waste to toss a few strands of Christmas lights so I pulled out the bulbs and glued them with E6000 to a clear plastic Christmas ornament. Kinda fun, really sparkles in the sun!

Sandy

Comments (17)

  • azcactusflower
    11 years ago

    That is way cool. That would make a good topper for a totem. Good way to recycle those light bulbs, they do tend to collect don't they? Thanks for sharing.

  • kim546
    11 years ago

    WOW ! It looks great. You have patience. I have glued pennies to an oversized ornament, but this must have been much more difficult.

  • rafor
    11 years ago

    That is ingenious!! Love the colors and who doesn't have several strands of non-working lights around. Great recycle :)

  • nonacook
    11 years ago

    Wonderful!
    Good idea.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    11 years ago

    That is just gorgeous!

  • sunnyca_gw
    11 years ago

    Beautiful, Looks so even you did a nice job of covering the plastic!

  • ravencajun Zone 8b TX
    11 years ago

    That's great, so pretty too. You could make it any size. And it would make a great totem topper.

  • mosswitch
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you! It was fun doing it!

    Took a while as I could only glue on a half dozen or so bulbs at a time, let the glue set up and do some more. Doing this five or six times a day for about three weeks, just a few minutes each time, took me about three weeks to cover the ball. And almost a whole tube of E6000!

    Haven't
    decided just what to do with it yet. Maybe hang it like some kind of exotic mutated sweet gum ball from a tree. I would make more except I ran out of lights.

    Haha never throw anything away, I got rid of a whole trash
    bag full of dead light strings before I thought of doing this!

    Sandy

  • aussie_mum
    11 years ago

    Wow! You have a lot of patience! :)

  • oldcrafty
    11 years ago

    Just beautiful!!!! And what a clever idea.

  • jeannespines
    11 years ago

    Patience definitely is your 'virtue,' mosswitch! Quite original & very colorful! Sure will be pretty anywhere w/some light rays just bouncing around it! TFS! Jeanne S.

  • sorie6 zone 6b
    11 years ago

    WOW what a great idea/ I threw away a bunch of the lights just this Christmas :( if I'd only known!!! What kind of ball did you glue it too?

  • mosswitch
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I just used an old clear plastic Christmas ball that I had. A glass one would probably work but if it got droppped, it would break. Any clear plastic ball would work. One of the ones that comes packed with M&Ms at Christmas, even.

    Jeanne it didn't take that much patience. I just left it propped up on my workbench and whenever I went by it, and the previous glue was set up, I would just glue on a dozen more bulbs. You can't glue too many at once because they won't stand up on the curved surface and they will keep falling over, which is why you can only do a few at a time, letting the glue dry in between.

    Sandy

  • concretenprimroses
    11 years ago

    Beautiful!
    Ack! I just threw out 2 strands too this year after saving them for years. I did keep some pretty glass light covers from 2 other dead strands. Now I have an idea of what to do with them. Thanks!
    Kathy

  • pixie_lou
    11 years ago

    Have you tried hanging it?

    How many bulbs do you think you used?

    I think it is pretty awesome. Gives me some ideas

  • sorie6 zone 6b
    11 years ago

    Could you use one of the plastic balls that are 2 pieces? they would sit flat then you could glue them together when all the lights were glued on.

  • mosswitch
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I guess you could use any plastic ball. I found it easy to use a whole one, I propped it up in a cup when I was working on it and just turned it as needed. And I think I might have used about 4 strings of 300 lights, for the bulbs. Somewhere around there but it would depend on the size of your ball.

    Not sure how I'll use it. Right now it's just on a candle stand in my window. (I took out the glass candle cup to use as a mushroom top, it's the perfect shape and size, btw!)

    Sandy

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