Christmas Lightbulb Crafts - A Robin

21:06 Pippa Ainsworth 0 Comments

I'm not the most crafty person in the world. I wish I was a little more creative but the ideas just don't seem to come naturally to me. However, now Bud and Little Miss are getting older I am determined to get crafting with them more often and to make time to look for ideas more. When the people at Lightbulbs Direct got in touch to ask me if I'd like to enter their competition to create a Christmas decoration using old lightbulbs I decided to take part.

I thought long and hard about what to create, would it be a bauble, a wreath or a standing decoration and, in the end I decided to come up with one of my favourite symbols of Christmas - the robin. We only had spotlights to recycle and I felt that the flat, round shape would be great to act as the robin's red breast.

You will need to make your robin:

What you need to make your lightbulb robin

1 old spotlight bulb
Red nail polish or glass paint
Brown fabric (I used velvet)
Strong cardboard
Googly eyes or gems
Yellow cardboard (or paint or colour a small piece of cardboard yellow)
PVA Glue
Ribbon
Sticky Tape

1. Paint the glass part of your lightbulb with red nail polish or glass paint.

Red lightbulb painted with nail polish

2. Cut out the shape of a robin from your brown fabric. I cut mine free hand but, if you are more cautious you could draw the shape on the back of the fabric first. Ensure you cut out a hole in the centre of your fabric to allow you to push the spotlight bulb through.

Glue your fabric robin shape to cardboard

3. Apply PVA glue to the back of your fabric bird shape and stick the fabric to a piece of strong cardboard. Cut around the bird shape and ensure you cut out the hole in the middle.
4. Push the lightbulb through the hole so it sits firmly in place.
5. Fold your fabric over to double thickness and cut out a wing shape. Glue the two wings either side of your bulb red breast to create the robin's wings.
6. Fix your googly eyes or gems to the robin's face, either using glue or by peeling the back off them if they are self adhesiive.
7. Cut out a triangle of yellow cardboard and glue this into position beneath the eyes.
8. If you would like to hang your robin then use sticky tap to affix a loop of ribbon to the back of the robin's head..

Hang your robin in your tree

Our robin is now hanging in our Christmas tree but, as long as you cut your robin shape so the bottom is slightly flattened, the robin will stand up and be supported by the bulb behind. I'm pleased with how the robin turned out and I think it would work well with a range of Christmas ideas, you could paint the bulb white and make a snowman, or use the red bulb with some white trim and make Father Christmas.

This is my entry into the Lightbulbs Direct Light Bulble Competition. To enter please visit the competition page to find out how to submit your entry, the deadline is 26th December.