How to Make Christmas Ornaments from Light Bulbs

You can turn dead light bulbs into beautiful Christmas ornaments with a few common materials. Not only can you customize your ornaments for any décor, these make inexpensive presents for teachers and co-workers. Plus it's a great way to recycle burned out bulbs.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• light-gauge wire (20 to 26 gauge)
• jewelry pliers or wire cutters
• dead light bulbs
• white glue
• disposable plastic container
• flat paint brush
• small jar
• water
• patterned tissue paper
• decorative ribbon
• spray polyurethane

1. Cut a length of wire to about arm’s length. Double the wire, leaving one side an inch or two longer than the other. Wrap the wire around the screw end of the light bulb and thread the longer end of the wire through the loop.
2. Bend this strand back around the neck of the bulb in the opposite direction of the other strand until they meet on the side opposite the loop. Twist the two strands together with jewelry pliers until you have a twisted length about two or three inches long.
3. Bend the twisted length into a loop over the top of the bulb, forming a hanger for your ornament. Thread each end of the loose wire back through the two loops that are now formed on the neck of the bulb and twist the loose wire ends together two or three times tightly. Leave the loose lengths of wire for attaching ribbon.
4. Tear the tissue paper into irregularly shaped pieces roughly one to two inches square. Add a small amount of water to white glue in a flat plastic container or on a paint palette. Keep a small jar of water nearby to control the dilution of glue and rinse your brush between coats.
5. Brush a little glue onto a portion of the bulb about the size of the tissue paper you want to glue and place the tissue paper onto the glue. Paint the tissue paper lightly with a coat of diluted glue to secure all the edges and eliminate air bubbles. Don’t worry if the tissue paper folds in places.
6. Cover the bulb completely, allowing the tissue paper to dry between applications. You can choose to cover the screw end of the bulb with paper or leave it bare. Don't worry if there is some overlap.
7. When you have completely covered the bulb, spray with two to four coats of spray polyurethane. Hang so that they aren't touching any surface until completely dry.
8. Wrap a length of ribbon around the neck of the bulb and tie or secure in place with the loose ends of the wire, depending on the size and type of ribbon. With wire ribbon, you can use the wire to form a bow. Combine different sizes of ribbon for different effects.
9. The finished product. After twisting the wire securely enough to hold the ribbon, you can either cut the end and tuck it under the ribbon, or form curlicues with the wire by wrapping around a pencil or small stick.

Tips & Warnings

• Globe bulbs made for vanity mirrors make especially attractive ornaments.
• Découpage glue will also work, but white glue is generally cheaper.
• Smaller patterns are the easiest to work with. If you want to use tissue paper with space between larger images (like polka dots), start with a layer of tissue paper the same color as the background. Then you can place the images any way you wish without needing to cover the bulb fully.
• You can use solid-colored tissue paper and create a mosaic effect by cutting the paper into small triangles, but this is time-consuming.
• You will get different effects from using white versus clear bulbs, as well as from varying the thickness of the tissue paper layers. Add more layers to create a more opaque finish.
• Wire ribbon is much easier to work with in the final decoration, but you can tie smaller satin ribbon underneath it to add interest to your design. Try quadrupling smaller ribbon and tying a tight double knot; you can leave the ribbon in bows or cut the loops on a diagonal. If you are very ambitious, you can string beads on the wire to create beaded bows and other embellishments.
• Use a paint brush that you don’t mind dedicating to projects with glue unless you plan to wash it very thoroughly between layers.
• Polyurethane may yellow over time; keep that in mind when working with patterns incorporating large amounts of white.