Upcycled Decorative Solar Garden Light

4 Materials
$1
2 Days
Easy
My son's ceiling fan died so he had to replace it ~ but not until I cannibalized it!
One of the pieces I kept was the globe.

Do I make a bird feeder, planter...so many ideas.
Then I thought what a way to use up some of ALL those glass gems I keep ending up with.

It seems at yard, garage, thrifts, estate, etc. sales, a lot of the glassware comes filled with these glass gems. It's not the gems I want it what they're in - but they come together.
So they've just been adding up in my supplies.

If you aren't "lucky" to find them this way,
you can always pick some up at the Dollar Store.
The globe
The globe, all those glass gems and since this was going outside I used GE Silicone.
Next I roughly drew a Dragonfly and a water lily with a pencil onto the globe.
I had really huge heavy clear ones that I placed around the edge of the globe.
  I used tape to hold them in place until they cured. 
As you can see the wings didn't turn out like I had (hoped) drawn them. 
And the Water Lily was a bust. 
So I decided to go with just simple flowers.


The light blue and green I used for the wings are kind of "cats eye" like, not sure if that's the right term. They have a shape in a darker shade, inside. A leaf shape maybe. Anyway I thought maybe that would help make the wings more "dragonfly" like. 
I filled in the background on the top with clear gems and pale peach on the bottom.
Wishing I had some pale blue for the bottom to represent water,  but oh well, I was using up what I had.


I'm happy with the way it turned out ~ not bad for my first time doing this type of thing :)


It didn't take long to make and was easy. The hardest part was waiting for it to cure - luckily it was a rather flatish surface, so not much trouble with the gems sliding off, except for the huge ones along the edge.
Another thing I had on hand was a cheapy solar light
I removed the light itself and placed it under the globe, stuck in the ground just a bit..
Was not too happy with the darker spot in the middle.
I snagged a globe solar from another area in my garden.
Due to the different style, I needed to drive the entire "holder/stake" into the ground.
The globe just lights the center :(
Not strong enough ~ Disappointing 
So I guess it's back to the cheapy solar, unless I find something else down the road. It's actually growing on me :)


For more info and what I've since used more glass gems on (trying to use them up!) check out: http://dragonflytreasure.blogspot.com/2017/07/upcycled-decorative-solar-garden-light.html
Suggested materials:
  • Fan Globe   (Salvaged from broken fan)
  • Glass Gems   (Accumulated unwantingly from sales or you can find them at the Dollar Store)
  • GE Silicone   (Left over from other projects / Walmart)
See all materials
Debbie/Dragonfly Treasure
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • H20gardener H20gardener on Jul 30, 2017

    Love it, will the solar panel absorb enough light through that globe with the glass stones on it? maybe some string lights under it could work better because the panel would be outside of the globe nearby

  • Kaioverbeck Kaioverbeck on Jul 30, 2017

    Gonna try to answer most of the above since I do this and love love it. I went to Good Will and Habitat for Humanity and looked for old glass globes with just the bottom opening. Some come with designs and golden colors. Then go to the $Tree and purchase their solar lites like shown. Pick your spot, sink the solor light pointed piece into the dirt, cover with glass globe until it meets the ground. And you will be amazed. For some reason the resiliance of the solar lights last so much longer covered like that. It is so easy and your friends will be like: How did you do that?

  • Fis25141305 Fis25141305 on Aug 06, 2017

    Can I use a plastic globe?

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