An Ornament and a Snow Globe....Two Recycled Light Bulb Tutorials

I don't think I am alone in being fascinated with  hollowed out light bulbs.

Last winter I found directions online for removing the inner workings of the bulb and tried it with a few.

I found this tutorial from Team Droid and really liked it.

I removed the inner workings from several burnt out bulbs I had.

 Then they sat on my workbench until recently....

Here is what they became....

I love the way this little ornament turned out.

There are a couple tips and tricks here.

These bulbs have fairly large openings in the base so the trees do fit through with the wooden base still attached.

Before you start, check this.

Also be sure to have a set of tweezers that are long enough to reach the bottom of the bulb while you are holding the ends.

Practice navigating the tree to the bottom a couple times.

It reminds me of the old kid's game Operation.

Once you think you can do it well without touching the sides, add a drop of hot glue to the bottom of the wooden base and carefully guide it to the bottom of the bulb.

 I added two so each is a little off center.

Wait for them to cool and add some fake snow.

I used purchased snow.

For my hanger, I used a piece of snowy holly garland.

I bent it into a U shape, stuck it into the socket with some hot glue and sealed it up by pushing a white pom pom in.

I am tickled with how they turned out.

I only wish I was better at photographing glass.

You could put anything inside that fits through the hole.

Definitely a reason to save light bulbs....

The second thing I made was this cute little light bulb snow globe.

The directions for this one are a bit different.

The tiny trees barely showed up in here so I used a larger tree and removed the wooden base.

Add your snow first with the bulb upside down.

Stick the tree up through the base of the light bulb while it is still upside down.

You can see mine bent a bit but I like the character it adds.

My tree is actually down into the metal base.

Then I added hot glue and put a wooden block on the bottom.

I turned it over and set the block down so the glue would flow down while it was still hot and create a good seal.

Then I wrapped the bottom with twine to cover the glue and tied a bow.

The blocks came from the flea market this summer.

A big cloth heavy tote and a couple dozen blocks for $2.

Some of the blocks were chewed on by someone's puppy, but I don't mind.

They work perfectly for me.

Even though the tree is not perfectly straight inside, it looks different depending on how it is turned.

I love to recycle things that would be thrown away...

This is versatile and can stay out all winter.

Thanks for stopping by.....

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