How To Make A Christmas Tree From Vintage Style Light Bulbs

Whip up a very unique Christmas tree this season with some vintage style light bulbs and a few dollar store supplies.

Here's the quick and easy way to craft yourself a little holiday throwback and fun decor.

Every now and then I come across picture on the internet that sticks with me.

There's something so darling or unique about it that I save it.

And dream of recreating it myself one day.

I usually tuck the idea back in my brain somewhere for a rainy day.

Well, this weekend it finally rained and I was able to make one of the DIYs on my crafty Christmas list.

So our tale begins a few years ago, when I saw this photo on Pinterest.

It was a super creative Christmas tree made from vintage light bulbs.

And this holiday upcycling junkie fell in love.

From that moment on I kept my eyes open for a bag of old bulbs in every shop I entered.

Every yard sale I went to and every curb I passed by and in all that time, I never found any.

Not even one errant bulb.

To be honest, by this season, I'd all but given up.

Then, on one of my many trips to Dollar Tree, I noticed the cashier wearing a large, colorful light up necklace.

And it was made from very bright, vintage looking light bulbs.

Right then, I knew.

That old saying, fake it til you make it popped into my head and I grabbed a bunch.

Vintage Light Bulb Christmas Tree DIY

So it's not really the same thing, clearly, actual vintage style bulbs, like these, would look so much more elegant, but it comes pretty close.

Of course, those large colorful lights are very popular now, so you can buy these new, but they're not cheap.

Also, glass bulbs would be very heavy to mount, so you'd need to use a strong epoxy. It's definitely an option though, if you want a higher end look.

Supplies:

The process itself was very simple, although it did take some mapping out first. 

I started by removing the plastic from the styrofoam cone and painting it green. I used acrylic craft paint and a foam brush.

When the cone was fully covered and the paint was still wet, I drizzled green glitter over it. Just for a bit of sparkle in case some of the cone peeked through between my bulbs.

Once it was completely dry, I used a decent amount of hot glue to attach it to the candle holder. That would be the base and support my tree.

Ps- Santa if you're listening, this girl clearly needs a new glue gun. 😉


Next up, it was time to get busy with the bulbs.

At first I thought I was going to have to cut the bulbs away from the wire, but turns out, they unscrewed from the necklace easily.

Even better, once they were free, I realized they had a cute screw pattern on top, just like the vintage bulbs. Had I known this earlier, I might've been tempted to spray paint that part of the bulb in silver or gold for a more authentic look.

However, I was on a roll and not willing to stop. Plus, I really do like the way it turned out.

Gluing the bulbs onto the cone was the next step in the process. It was a little tricky to start, but once I got the hang of it, I was basically building a pyramid, like my starfish tree. 


Lots of bulbs on the bottom, very few on top. 

I started by loading the light bulbs up with glue and pressing them against the cone at the bottom. I kept doing that all the way around until I had one row in place.

Like I said, I did map it out a little before I started. I took a piece of scotch tape, laid a bunch of light bulbs down on it and held it up against the base of the cone to see how many it was going to take to make it around the tree on the first run.

Then I spaced my colorful light bulbs out accordingly so I'd have a nice looking row without too many big gaps.

With the first row in place, I started on my second.

This time I put glue on the bulbs and placed them between two others on the row below. 

I kept doing this all the way up the tree until I got to the tippy top, where I placed one bulb, a green one, that stood straight up, to mimic an evergreen shape.


In a perfect world, all the bulbs would've fit together nicely, without any gaps. But this is a Dollar Tree craft people and that just didn't happen. I did indeed have a some open spaces.

Spaces that were too small for a full bulb and too large to leave blank.

Instead, I took one of those plastic bulbs and separated it in half, which I was able to do easily, once they were unscrewed from the necklace.

Then I glued that half a bulb into the spaces that were glaringly open. 

Again, not perfect, but good enough.

The finishing touch was a tiny red bow tied onto the top branch...I mean bulb.


When I was done, I was actually quite pleased with my vintage style light bulb Christmas tree creation.

It was very colorful.

Very festive.


And very done. 

One more dreamy Christmas craft to check off my long wish list.

Just 999,999 more to go. 

🎄

What do you think of my vintage styled tree?