Dollar Tree lantern makeover

The other day I was at my friend, Jess’s, house and she was showing me some of her Christmas stuff. She also showed me a few things that her dad “grunged” for her. I asked her how he did and and she told me he used this multi-colored texturized paint. I told her that I would be looking for all the things that I can “grunge” this week, haha. Starting with this Dollar Tree lantern makeover! 

My first thought was to head to the Dollar Tree. I remembered seeing patterns there. They were cute, but just no my style. Because of that, I never thought to grab them, that is, until now! I put a few in my cart to see how this grunging would work. And I have to say, I am absolutely in LOVE with this technique!

Let’s talk a little bit about this spray. First, I found this spray at Walmart, with the spray paint and it is the brand Rustoleum. When you spray the first coat it does go on a little weird. Its almost like that first coat looks too watery and barley sticks, that’s totally fine! You will need at least three coats of paint to get it to look right. Maybe even 4! Just make sure that it is very dry in between each coat!

Anther thing I want to talk about is the handle on the lamp. Originally I left it on thinking it would be easier to paint that way.. and it was, but it made things difficult when I went to take the handle off. The paint stuck to it and when I took it off it ripped some paint off with it. So I would recommend taking the handle off before painting.

Ok, now that we covered some of the basics, let’s get started on this fun craft! Below you will find a list of materials needed to get started:

Materials: 

• Rustoleum multi-colored texturized paint – Look for a lid with a rust-like color
• Lamp from the Dollar Tree 
• Rusty wire – I use rebar wire and rust it at home. You can find rebar wire at just about any home improvement store and it is usually in with the cement.
• Christmas pick – I found mine at Walmart
• Wire cutters – To cut down the rusty wire and Christmas pick
• Ribbon 
• Spanish moss 
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks 

How to: 

Step 1: First, pop out the plastic part of the lamp. If you push it in with your finger it should pull right out. Once that is out, pop out the tea light. Just press down with your thumbs and it will come right out. Next, Use your wire cutters to take off the plastic handle. Your lamp is now ready to paint!

 

Step 2: Lay the lamp on an old surface outside and spray paint it with the multi-colored texturized paint. This will take at LEAST 3 coats to cover, so be patient, lol! Make sure each coast is completely dry before adding a new coat. If not, your paint will get tacky and won’t dry right.

Step 3: Thread a piece of wire through the same holes where the plastic handle was. I just bent the wire sideways under the lamp so it would come out. If you watch my video you will see I embellished first, I would not recommend doing it that way. In the video you are watching me make this craft for the first time, so I made a few mistakes, lol. But, no worries! I explain them all and typed this post out in order for ya, friend <3

Step 4: Now it is time for the fun stuff… embellishments! I cut two pieces off of a Christmas pick and hot glued them to the front, top of my lantern. I then took a a piece of ribbon and made a really simple bow. I hot glued the bow in between the two pine picks. I also added some dove tails to the end of my ribbon.

Step 5: You can now pop the tea light back in the lamp. Remember, you have to put it in through the bottom or it won’t fit.

Step 6: I wasn’t loving the white of the tea light showing with the rusty lamp, so I decided to add some Spanish moss to it so it blended better. I also want to note that my tea light was very hard to turn on. I got something hard and flat and pushed the button to on. Once I did that, I no longer had an issue turning it on and off by hand. You may want to check them in the store before buying, but both of mine were like this, LOL.

 

 

 

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If you decide to make this DIY  I’d love to hear from ya! You can drop a comment below or message me on any of my social media pages. Hope you have a blessed weekend and as always remember to keep it simple. Catch ya next week my friends!  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, youtube