- 2 days ago
Everyone Will Be Buying Dollar Store Solar Lights After Seeing This Genius Yard Idea
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ABOUT HOMETALK: Welcome to Hometalk! We are the world's largest DIY community, dedicated to helping you transform your home with budget-friendly ideas, clever hacks, and genius decor projects.
📱 FOLLOW US:
FACEBOOK → https://www.facebook.com/Hometalk
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I picked up some inexpensive solar lights from Dollar General. I started by cutting up an old
00:05white pillowcase by using a large round plate as a guide. I cut a little extra so that I know
00:10I have
00:10enough to work with. I then draped the material over the solar light. Then I screwed the top of
00:15the solar light back on right over the fabric. I started with some round foam from Dollar Tree.
00:20I cut a hole through the center and slid it over the stem of the solar light. Then used some
00:25hot
00:25glue to hold everything in place. Cut an opening in the center and spray painted it black.
00:29Since the foam is really porous, just like I did with the ghost, I cut some white material from
00:34the pillowcase and placed it between the top and the body of the solar light. Then I added another
00:38ribbon. Finally, I used black felt for its eyes and mouth and a little piece of orange felt for
00:43its carrot nose. Then I added foam on top to create the top of the hat by gluing it down.
00:48A little ribbon around the brim finishes it off by adding just a little bit of hot glue
00:53and finishing it around the sides. I love how that little nose turned out. And there you go.
00:57With a few changes, I cut some white material from the pillowcase and placed it between the
01:02top and the body of the solar light. For the face, I kept it really simple. I cut two eyes
01:06and a mouth out of black felt and hot glued them right onto the pillowcase. Stick it in
01:11the ground, let the fabric hang down, and now we have a little ghost floating above the grass.
01:16I picked up a plastic pumpkin and started by drilling a three quarter inch hole right in
01:21the bottom. You want the hole just big enough for the stem of your solar light to fit through.
01:26And that's it. Now I can stick it right into the grass along my walkway. During the day,
01:30the solar panel charges the light and when it gets dark, the pumpkin lights up from the inside.
01:35With a few inexpensive solar lights, some Dollar Tree supplies, and things I already had around
01:39the house, I was able to make three fun yard decorations. For today's project, we're going
01:44to start with a three inch piece of round wood. Now you can use plastic pipe for this, but I'm
01:50going
01:50to use wood and I'll show you why. First piece I'm going to cut is 30 inches long. That's going
01:55to be
01:56long piece. And I also want to cut a little bit shorter at 24 inches. I will go ahead and
02:01cut that.
02:01I have a miter saw makes it easy. I'm also going to use a 16 inch piece of board for
02:06the base. But
02:07this base is where I'm going to need to drill two pilot holes. I'm going to use a drill bit
02:11that's
02:12just smaller than the screws. Using the same size drill bit, I'm going to drill down the middle of
02:17the two round boards on each one. We're going to take the wood screw. It's about two and a half
02:21inches
02:22long, and we're going to barely put it through the board. I'll show you where. We want just the tip
02:27to show because that helps line it up with our posts. We're going to put two of these screws in
02:32to start, and then we're going to line it up with our pilot hole that we drilled on the round
02:36posts.
02:37Put that in, secure it all the way, start with the small one, and then you're going to go to
02:41the bigger
02:41one and do the same. Once you get that secured, look at this. It's actually super strong and holding
02:46up just like we need. Next, we're going to take it outside and we're going to spray paint it.
02:50We're going to do either a white or an off-white. There's a reason I'm using spray paint and not
02:56just regular household paint because I want some of this wood grain to show through. The next step
03:01is I'm going to take some hot glue. Now, what I'm going to do is put this on here, and
03:05the hotter the
03:06glue is, the bigger and longer it's going to drip down the side. Now, you're probably wondering why I
03:11didn't paint this afterwards. Well, look at this. Once that hot glue dries, look at that color. It looks
03:17like melted wax. Next, we're going to grab an oversized Easter egg. We're going to need the
03:22base of this, and we're going to do the same with the hot glue. Put it on the bottom, and
03:27we're going
03:27to secure it to the post. Take that same drill bit that we used earlier and put a drill hole
03:32right in
03:33the back, what we'll consider the back. These fairy lights are great. We're going to unravel it and pull
03:38it all the way through that hole because we want all these lights to be inside this Easter egg.
03:42We've got to secure the switch to the back. Again, it just takes a little bit of hot glue.
03:47Make sure you don't burn yourself, and just secure it right to the back. In about 10 to 15 seconds,
03:52it sets up. Then we're going to take all the light strands and put them inside. Don't push them down
03:57too far. We want them to pop up after we're done, so secure the top. Let's decorate it with a
04:02bow
04:02and some holly or anything you want to make it look good. Light it up, and look at that. These
04:08are our
04:08two oversized candlesticks. I think they turned out just amazing, and they sit up nice and secure,
04:14and guess what? You can also use them outside, but when the lights go out, look at this. It just
04:21glows
04:22and looks like a great, wonderful candlestick, perfect for the holiday season. I hope this inspired
04:27you to build your own oversized candlesticks. It's that time of year again, and pumpkin pails are in.
04:33I'm going to need a bunch of these. I'm going to need some pool noodles, some orange, black,
04:36and purple, but I'm going to start with these little pumpkins that I got off Amazon.
04:40They got cute little handles, and they're going to be great for my string lights outside,
04:43but they don't fit right over the bulb, so I'm going to take a little razor knife,
04:47just cut a little slit, four of them, right on the top at 90 degrees to each other.
04:51What that does is allow me to sneak it up over the bulb. I'm going to take the handle,
04:56and I'm going to put it in the front because that way it can clip right onto the clip of
05:01the light.
05:02I'm going to be very careful, slip it on there, and put it on, and it's great,
05:05and I can put these all up and down the string lights. Now watch this. Whenever the lights come
05:10on, oh, look at that. Super awesome, and they're glowing. I love how they look in the backyard,
05:15but now let's go to the front yard. I need to get some pumpkins that I grabbed from Walmart,
05:19and they got the orange and the black ones. Also, I'm going to need some pool noodles. I got my
05:24black,
05:24orange, and my purple. I'm going to take these, and I got to get them all cut up. Now on
05:29the black
05:30ones, I decided to make those the smaller ones, so I'm going to take those with the serrated knife,
05:34and they cut real easy. I made sure I put down a map because I don't want to cut up
05:37my table,
05:38and I'm going to keep cutting them. The next is purple. I'm going to make this a longer one
05:41and use the first one that I cut as a template. Now I'm going to keep cutting those until I
05:46get
05:46all the noodles cut up that I need. Then I'm going to have a bunch of them all in a
05:49row. I'm going to
05:50have my orange, purple, and my blacks. First thing I'm going to do is grab those pails. I need to
05:54drill a
05:55hole on the side. I want to make sure you don't drill directly in the middle, but closer to the
05:59top,
05:59so that way the pumpkin wants to face up. I'm going to get two holes drilled so I can put
06:04a
06:04cord through them. Once I get those drilled, take that cord, and I'm going to put it all the way
06:09through. Now you're going to need a long one. It's going to be at least 20 feet. I'm going to
06:12pull it
06:13through, tie a knot on each side. That's the way the pumpkin does not move on me once I get
06:18it exactly
06:19in place. As you can see, the knot won't let it go through the hole. Next, I'm going to put
06:24the
06:24random type of noodle, or you can make it to where it's always the same with every color in a
06:31certain
06:31row. I went ahead and went with it with every color a certain row just because I like the uniformity
06:36of
06:37it. Now I'm just going to keep slipping those pool noodles over in between each pumpkin. Now each
06:42pumpkin is separated about four feet. I'm going to go with the orange, then the black, and then back to
06:47orange again. Just going through and putting pool noodles in each side. Once I got all of those done,
06:53it's going to be time to hang it, and I can use the bucket handles to hang it after I
06:57put some hooks
06:58up on the front of the house. And there they are. And I like how it looks, and I put
07:02some lights in
07:03the orange ones, and they blink randomly, and they look super awesome. I love how it turned out. Now
07:09remember, this is for the front of the house, and I've got the back of the house ready also. Look
07:14at
07:14these lights. They just look amazing. I'm ready to have those Halloween parties or when those trick-or-treaters
07:19come up to get those treats. We're going to head down to Dollar Tree and grab some wreath frames.
07:24We're going to need six of them. First thing you're going to do is put two sides together,
07:28and the secret is we're going to use zip ties. We've got to get these corners put together.
07:32Put them up on the sides right there and on the bottom. You're going to pull that tight. We want
07:37to make sure it fits really nice. Cut that excess off. It's going to be much easier now because
07:41you're starting to form your box. Once you get the box done, we've got to put the top on and
07:47the
07:47bottom. The way this is done, just put it on, but the zip tie goes a little bit different. You
07:51can
07:51just wrap it up and around and form it together just like that. Make sure again you pull it tight
07:56and cut the excess off. Now let's grab some easy liner. The big key to this is it's got to
08:01be
08:02transparent. You've got to be able to see through it. Once you lay it out, just wrap it around the
08:05box, and this is going to take care of the four sides. Once you put it all the way over
08:09the top and
08:10down the side, that is going to allow us to know where we need to put that first cut, and
08:15you're going to cut
08:15right between the dots that are on the easy liner. Once you get that done, we're going to use hot
08:19glue.
08:20Now don't worry that it's hot glue. It forms and holds that together really nice. It actually kind
08:26of melts the plastic a little bit like you're welding it. Go ahead and go the rest of the way
08:31down. That way we're going to form all four of these sides. Now it's time to do the top. We
08:36want to use
08:36one of our frames to go ahead and size it and cut it out, and we're going to use those
08:41flaps to lay
08:42over. Again, grab the hot glue, put it down, and lay it down. Once you get it all put together,
08:47grab some ribbon, and we're going to tie a knot in it. You can use any color you want. I
08:52used red on
08:53this one, and it's time for the lights. Yep, we're going to make this thing glow. That's why I was
08:58talking about using it transparent, but we just don't want to throw those lights in there. We want
09:02to zip time around the side. Once we get it, let's take it outside, stack them together, and we're going
09:07to
09:08plug it in. Watch this. There's that glow, and look at this. I absolutely love it. It is waterproof
09:16because of the liner, and it glows right there on the front door. It's an amazing decor just to have
09:23at your front door, and leave it out, and as it glows, you can see it from the street, and
09:27it also
09:27is there to greet anybody that comes up, knocks on your door. I hope this inspired you to build your
09:33own outdoor liner gift. Thank you for watching Home Talk, and we'll catch you next time.