~Garden Lights~

This is a thrifty little project that is so easy! My friend {and creative muse} D'Ann saw these little garden lights at a local antique store. We knew we could make them for next to nothing!

D'Ann's hub is a contractor, so he takes lots of old light fixtures featuring these little jewels out of homes as he remodels. Between the ones we could get from him and some purchased at Goodwill and other thrift stores, we had quite a variety to work with!

So here is what you need:

globes from old light fixtures
solar garden lights (these are at Walmart for $1 during the spring/summer months)
shepherd hooks (got these on sale 40% off at JoAnn's)
wire (D'Ann's hub had the wire we used, but I have seen it for sale at Lowes)

Start with using the wire to make a handle. We used wire snips for this part. We cut two pieces of wire, one for the handle at 12 inches and one for the part that goes around the neck of the glass globe at 10 inches.

There really is not an exact science to this. We just made loops on each end of the 12 inch wire, then fed the 10 inch wire through each loop and twisted the 10 inch wire around the neck of the globe.

Next, we disassembled the solar garden lights.

You have to pull that orange tab out for the lights to start working. Once this was done, we put the clear plastic covering back on. Then we just sat the whole thing down into the neck of the glass globe! The clear plastic part is essential because it will help keep the light in place. We actually tried to do this without the clear plastic thing and hot glued the black solar part on top of the globes....FAIL....don't waste your time hot gluing....it doesn't stay!

And here is what it looks like with the solar light in place.

The last step is to determine where you want your garden lights. I chose the path in our backyard. It was still light when I put them in, and I got busy and forgot to take pics at dusk with them lit up! Will try to remember tomorrow and update the post! I just went outside to look and I LOVE the soft light illuminating the path through our shade garden/backyard! Of course, it is way too dark at 10:00 PM to get a decent picture for you! But here they are when I put them in.