Wednesday, December 13, 2017

12 Days of Christmas Day 12 Light Bulb Garland

12 Days of Easy Christmas Ideas
On the twelfth day of Christmas
Beyond the Picket Fence gave to me
A light bulb garland for the wall, banister, or tree.
vintage christmas bulbs from the thrift store

Why did I revive the rhymes this year? Anyway, we have FINALLY arrived at day 12 of projects. When I spied this bag of red vintage style Christmas light bulbs for $1, I had no idea what I was going to create with them, but said what the heck, I will come up with something.

The big bulb lights like these always remind me of my dad. He was a fairly meticulous man and worked hard to decorate the outside of our home with lights like these. They were all red a few years and colorful others. In those days (the seventies) it was popular for kids to steal the bulbs. I remember him getting pretty mad and frustrated to find missing bulbs, but he would replace them. The memory makes me smile. 
make a cute garland from vintage style christmas light bulbs

This project and it is super easy and quick, and can be changed up to fit your style. Vintage style BIG bulbs are very common at the thrift store, either individual bags of the bulbs or on the wires still. You can use all one color or the colors you like. 
reindeer sign and Christmas bulb garland
Cut a fairly long strand of jute or twine. Remember that you will need more than what you want the final length to be since you will be wrapping it around the bulbs. I started on one end and wrapped the jute around the neck of the bulb twice and then knotted it. I continued along, placing the bulbs about 10" apart.

After I finished getting all of the bulbs on, I tied fabric scraps to the twine and pine bough pieces (from the thrift store too).
tie fabric scraps and pine boughs on a garland
Ideas to personalize or change this up: tie ribbon on the jute, sheer ribbon looks great, add jingle bells instead of pine boughs, add cookie cutters to the garland, glue and glitter the bulbs, clothespin Christmas cards to it. Make it yours! Now, I am not sue if I love where or how I hung it. This sign in my hallway needed something more so I put it around it, but it does give it a bit of a shrine look. But, I am going to sit with it for a few days and see how I feel about.
12 Days of Easy Christmas Ideas

This is the view out my bedroom door and all of the Christmas decor makes me smile. Honestly, Christmas decorating (and all decorating) should be about what YOU love and what makes you smile. I hope you have found some inspiration with the 12 Days of Christmas 2017. Thank you for stopping by!

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Make an EASY Garland with Vintage Style Christmas Bulbs

3 comments:

  1. love the vibrant red color, and what you did is just so pretty. everything related to memories is so pretty and dear to our heart

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, memories do make Christmas items more special!

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  2. This is the cutest and most different idea I've seen in a while. Very nice.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your kind words!