Winter Wonderland Lite Bulb

Lsherbach
by Lsherbach
6 Materials
$1
30 Minutes
Medium
Every year I have made it a tradition to give everyone who comes to Christmas gatherings a special homemade ornament as a keepsake. My Winter Wonderland Lite Bulb is what is in store for 2017
If you have never attempted this before, there are some great videos on Youtube that I would strongly recommend you watch.
1 Place a towel on top of your work area to help protect it if the light bulb is broken.
2 Wear protective gear. Put on safety glasses and gloves to protect your hands and face from anything that could happen with the light bulb if it unexpectedly breaks.
3 Twist off the solder point at the bottom/top of the light bulb with the pliers. This will break a wire that leads to the filament assembly.
4 Pull and crack off the glass insulator pieces. You can do this with your pliers by using the new hole that was made when removing the solder point. I have also used an awl for this step
5 Break the fill tube inside of the light bulb with a screwdriver (or the awl) and remove.
6 Shake the filament assembly out of the light bulb through the bottom, open area. This will remove the remaining internal pieces from the light bulb. I think it is a really good idea to have a paper bag handy to put all the broken glass in, so when you are finished you can safely dispose of the glass, marking the bag BROKEN GLASS.
7 Next, I run water in the empty bulb, to remove the white “paint”; and using a long thin piece of sponge and a little dish soap, I wash the inside of the bulb.  Be careful here, as the bulb is delicate.
Winter Wonderland:   First, I gathered all the components for the ornament. I picked up some twigs from the garden and snipped them to about 3 ½” and added red paper flowers and a few pearl beads (you can certainly use any flowers you like) with hot glue.  I used buttons to seal the opening at the top of the bulb and of course I didn’t have any silver buttons, so I just painted buttons I had on hand silver (making sure they are big enough to completely cover the opening) and threaded some silver wire thru the holes to create a loop for hanging.
Using a small kitchen funnel, I added about a ¼ cup of Epsom Salt to simulate the snow.  I use this because it is very inexpensive and I can find it in the supermarket.
Then I very carefully coax the twig with the flowers down into the base of the bulb.  You may need the help of a tooth pick or a wooden skewer; but take your time here, as the result will be beautiful. 
Now take the button and glue some glue around the rim of the button (I do not use hot glue here, I learned the hard way that it will NOT hold up to the weight and changes in temperature – I used clear gorilla glue) Set aside and let dry thoroughly.
I then added some tags (created from the interne) that were in keeping with my Winter Wonderland theme.  Tied the tag with some kitchen twine, and there you have it. 
Suggested materials:
  • Lite bulb   (had on hand)
  • Epson salt (for snow)   (supermarket)
  • Small red flowers/twig
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  • Trish Trish on Sep 23, 2017

    Your tag looks like asian / chinese work ... I LOVE IT and would like to know how you made it .

    This is SO Beautiful!

  • Lsherbach Lsherbach on Sep 23, 2017

    Trish, thanks for you question. I started by "google"ing the phrase LET IT SNOW and found the graphic pictured here. I copied and pasted it into a WORD document and edited it until I achieved the size I needed. I cut the saying into a tag, backed it with scrapbooking paper and mounted these on a piece of "burlap" ribbon and tied onto the ornament with kitchen twine.

    I hope this helps. Happy crafting!

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