The Lights Project - Christmas Tree Nightlights

Welcome back from the break - if you're looking for the One Yard Wonders book and fabric giveaway, here it is!

Well, it's Day #3 of The Lights Project!

Aaaaand you're stuck with me today. We're making a Christmas Tree nightlight. I mean, it's the advent season, after all. And as the girls' old egg night lights were recently retired (so I could poach their innards), I thought we'd make them some new, festive ones.

I used the same string of STRALA lights, some festive cereal box cardboard, a random circle of corrugated cardboard and some green paper.

First, cut a segment of a circle to roll into a cone, out of cereal box cardboard. Glue that onto green paper.

Cut that out and do two things to it. One, snip the bottom (curved) edge. Two, poke holes in it for the little lights.

See?

Now, you don't have to do this if you're lazy, but kids seem to like this, so make a star. I cut two small stars out of paper and stuck scotch tape over both sides, then trimmed the excess off, so only the border of scotch tape holds the two star layers together. Sort of like a star-shaped pita pocket. Insert the endmost light of the string into the star 

so that most of the light shines through the middle of it

and stick it (we used masking tape) to the top of the tree but on the inside of the cone.

Poke the other lights through the holes, sticking them in place with more masking tape.

See? It already looks like a Christmas tree.

Then glue the ends of the cone together, shove all the wiring into the completed cone, cut a radial slit in the cardboard base and squeeze the wire through that

so the battery pack (with the switch) remains outside, hanging on a short wire.

Then glue the cone onto the base (this is why you made slits in the bottom edge of the cone earlier).

They look gorgeous as is

but kids will want to decorate them, so break out the gems and tissue paper and let them go to town.

On the tree with the white lights, we crushed tissue paper around the lights and scotch-taped them down.

Preeeeeety. Almost like jewels.

The girls have them beside their beds each night now.

Katie will be here tomorrow - see you then!