Homemade Christmas Ornaments

"Reindeer Light Bulb Ornament - 2"

Submitted by Kristi Gorecki of FL

My light bulb ornaments grew out of a desire to do something crafty and creative with all the burned out light bulbs we were throwing away.  Now that we mostly use the new spiral energy savers, I guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board for new ornament ideas.  The first inspiration I had was looking at a regular light bulb and seeing it shaped like a reindeer's head.  I was so excited with how it turned out, that I started looking at other types of light bulbs we used and trying to see something special in each of them – that is how the Snowman Floodlight and Santa Clause Vanity Bulb Ornaments came about.  Anyway, one friend loved the reindeer ornaments so much when I first made them 4 years ago that she "ordered" half a dozen and gave them to friends for the holidays.

You will need:

1 "regular" light bulb
Brown craft paint
Foam paint brush
Black permanent marker or black paint
Red permanent marker or red paint
2 brown pipe cleaners
2 jingle bells
Scrap fabric
12" length of ribbon

Once the brown paint has dried, turn the bulb with the round part down.  Using a black permanent marker (or black paint on a small paintbrush) draw on two small circles for eyes near the skinny part of the bulb.

Using a red permanent marker (or red paint) draw a larger round circle for the nose down near the bottom part of the bulb (the glass end is the bottom).

Allow all paint to dry.

Cut one brown pipe cleaner in half.  This will create 2 pieces, each being the foundation for an antler.  Cut a second brown pipe cleaner into 2 inch pieces.  Wrap the small pieces of pipe cleaner randomly around the longer lengths of pipe cleaner, creating the "branches" of the antlers.  Twist the pieces of pipe cleaner together securely so that each branch is secured to it's main antler.  Thread on 1 jingle bell to the bottom end of each antler.  Once you have 2 antlers shaped to your liking, hot glue them, one on each side of the metal end of the light bulb. 

Cut one piece of ribbon to approximately 12 inch length.  Tie ribbon around the metal end of the light bulb and the antlers, in a knot, with the bulb in the center of the ribbon.  Tie loose ends of ribbon together, to form the hanger.  Not only does the ribbon act as the hanger, but it also helps to further secure the antlers to the bulb.

Using ribbon or scrap fabric and a hot glue gun, attach material around the metal end of the bulb to act as a hat for the reindeer as well as to camouflage the metal, antlers and ribbon.

Reindeer can be further personalized by painting on eyelashes to make Rudolph a "girlfriend", or using stick on google eyes and other 3-d embellishments.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments Index