Light ‘Bulbles’ Christmas Crafting

One of my favourite things about Christmas is seeing all the trees lit and decorated. As we head towards the Winter solstice on the 21st, the days are getting shorter and shorter. A Christmas tree is such a wonderful way to brighten up the living room and give it a warm, cheerful glow.

Christmas Decorations

One of our favourite activities this year is Christmas Tree spotting where we get points for each tree on the walk to and from town. It sure does make the journey quicker for Lil’ L!

Christmas Decorations

This year, we decided to buy a real tree again. I absolutely love the smell of real Christmas trees! As is traditional in our house, the boys fetched the tree and decorated it to surprise me. It looks utterly beautiful! It’s covered in white lights, a couple of strings of gold tinsel, and gold and red baubles. There are a few fun decorations that we’ve collected over the years, like this cute Santa…

Christmas Decorations

But I was surprised to find that there were a couple of new additions to the tree…

Santa Lightbulb

Snowman Lightbulb

Aren’t they sweet? Every time I look at them, they make me smile so much!

It turns out that the boys made them from old lightbulbs that they found in the garage! A few weeks ago, we were invited to take part in a competition by LightBulbs Direct to turn old dud lightbulbs into Christmas decorations. The boys love crafts, so they were definitely up for the challenge (I love admiring other people’s creations as sadly I can’t draw or craft for toffee :/)

Here’s my hubbie to explain how he & Lil’ L made them…

Lightbulbs. I don’t know why it never occurred to me before that they’d make great Christmas baubles. And there are so many different ways to decorate them; paint, glitter, marker pens…

But what about the design? A nice pattern of holly, reindeers and Christmas trees? Something sparkly? No. For me, there are two things that a classic lightbulb naturally lends itself to being. Two things that share the same bulbous, curvaceous profile and shout Christmas. It’s obvious, isn’t it? OK, maybe not. I’m thinking of snowmen and the rotund figure of Father Christmas…

A little bit of white spray paint and a lightbulb is already practically a snowman. Paint a bayonet fixing black and you’re halfway to a classic snowman top hat, it just needs a brim. A couple of googly eyes, buttons and a scarf and you’re there. Unmistakably a snowman, straight out of a Christmas card.

Add some red paint and you’re headed in another direction. Choose a bulb with a screw fitting and this time you’re well on your way to a bobble hat. White beard, cheeky grin, a nice big black belt and there he is. Santa!

I enjoyed doing these with littl’un. Nice bit of Christmas crafty fun. And now the Christmas tree has got a few more decorations hiding in the branches. Next year we’ll bring them down from the loft with the other decorations and we’ll remember making them. A fun reminder from Christmas 2014.

Happy Christmas everyone and Best Wishes for the New Year, M&L, Bath, UK

The competition ends at midnight tonight! Good luck boys xx

Lil’ L’s Super Sleigh Bed

While I’m far from ready for Christmas, there is someone in my house that’s all geared up and getting very excited indeed. This weekend, Lil’ L’s been busy rehearsing for his part in the school pantomime (he’s playing one of the seven dwarfs), and he also got to work transforming his bed into a ‘Super Sleigh’!

He was recently invited to take part in a competition by Mattress Online and, after initially concerned that he might be getting too old for this kind of thing, he had a complete change of heart when he woke one morning brimming with ideas of how he could turn his bed into a sleigh. He couldn’t wait to start sketching his plans. Breakfast could wait.

Sleigh Bed Plans

This weekend, he got to turn his plans into reality. There was lots of cardboard cutting, followed by spray painting of the sleigh and stars.

Sleigh Bed - Paint Spraying

As he was spraying the stars, he realised he could used them as a template for spraying on the sleigh itself.

Sleigh Bed - Paint Spraying 3

It was a pretty cool effect!

Sleigh Bed - Paint Spraying 4

Next he got to work making cardboard reindeer, which he based on his sketches.

Sleigh Bed - Drawing 2

Once his sleigh was dry, it was a case of tying it to the side of his bed…

Sleigh Bed - Assembling 1

… and tying on the reindeer and tinsel.

Sleigh Bed - Assembling 2

I love the shadows they create on his wall. If you tap the tinsel, it looks like they’re flying and dancing.

Sleigh Bed - Assembling 3

All assembled, it was time to fly!

Sleigh Bed - finished

Here’s Lil’ L to explain how his ‘Super Sleigh’ works…

“My super sleigh has massive rocket boosters on it that can make it travel at the speed of light. The boosters and the steering are controlled by a small remote control which fits into a pocket on the side of the sleigh so I don’t lose it. At the back is a sack full of presents, blankets to keep warm on a cold night and plenty of food. The sleigh has a button that makes santa and the sleigh invisible so that no one can see it. The reindeers also disappear.

The sleigh has a clock which tells the time of day or night wherever the sleigh is so it always arrives on time. It also tells the temperature so Santa knows when to get the blankets out. The sleigh can land on any size roof, even really small ones and doesn’t need snow. The sack is magic and can hold thousands of presents. There is room for a few elves to help out. When all the presents have been delivered I can go to sleep because it’s also a bed”.

and on building the sleigh….

“I built the sleigh out of bits of cardboard that i taped together to make a really big piece. Then i drew a sleigh shape and cut it out with some help from my Dad. I then sprayed the sleigh red and did some swirly patterns on it to make it more interesting. I cut out some stars and used them as stencils for spraying. I like the way they came out. They look like magic dust and stars under the sleigh. I attached the sleigh to my bed with some zip ties.

I looked up some pictures of reindeer on the internet and then i drew an outline on cardboard and cut them out. There are three that pull the sleigh along on a bit of red tinsel. The reindeer at the front has a red nose. That one is Rudolf.

I really enjoyed making my sleigh and I’m going to keep it for the whole of Christmas so that I can sleep in it every night. I’ve never had Christmas decorations in my bedroom before and i think they look really good!”

Sleigh Bed - finished 2

The competition closes on Wednesday 17th December.

Good luck Lil’ L!