Wednesday, October 6, 2010

97 cent soda can lights!

First off:  I cannot take credit for this super cool project... my sweet hubby came up with this genius idea.

Okay, here is the tutorial for individually lighting up your tombstones or other creepy crawlies for Halloween!

You will need: 
  • A cheap can of flat black spray paint.  We purchased ours at Home Depot for $0.97!  This covered about 36 soda cans.
  • Clear holiday lights, size C9... they are usually a set of 25 lights per strand placed 1 foot apart.
  • Clean soda cans, at least one per tombstone or whatever you want to highlight. 
  • A utility knife
  • A unibit (this one is similar to ours) for your drill, we used a 3/16 to 7/8" to be able to get the socket of the lights to fit.

What to do:
  • Drill the circle out of the bottom of the soda cans
  • Cut the soda cans on the top with your utility knife, right where they are beginning to taper-- the edges will be sharp so lightly bend them inward if you wish.
  • Spray the soda cans with the flat black paint and wait 1-2 hours to dry completely.
  • Check that your strand of holiday lights works. 
  • If the things you would like to highlight are already set up, take the lights and the soda cans out to your display and figure out proper spacing. 
  • Do not plug in the light set yet.
  • Take the bulbs out of the sockets you will not be using and set aside.
  • Take the bulbs off the sockets you will be using.  Place the soda can over the socket and replace the bulb.  The size of the hole is such that the metal of the soda can will not touch any metal on the lights.
  • Position lights and test. 
  • Wait for dark and enjoy the fruits of your labor!  :-)

 I would love to hear if you use this for your own Halloween setup!  Please feel free to drop me a note with a link to your photos.

Only 25 days left until Halloween... do you know what you're going as??!? 
Happy Crafting!