Materials:

  • Regular light bulb
  • Indoor/Outdoor gloss acrylic enamel glass paint:
  • White (for Snowman) or brown (for Gingerbread-Man), black, pink, sky blue, orange
  • Paintbrushes:  One soft medium sized one to put on entire first coating
  • One small one for painting on facial features
  • One Egg carton
  • Small scrap of material for hat
  • Jute for hanging
  • Rubbing alcohol or sand paper

  1. Start by cleaning the entire surface of the light bulb with alcohol this helps paint stick better. Another way to make the surface more accepting of paint is to lightly sand the outside of the light bulb. Allow drying time.
  2. Then using your egg carton turned upside down, poke a hole in one of the departments for the egg and make a hole just big enough to easily sit the light bulb in. This helps keep the light bulb in place while you apply the first coat of white for a snowman or brown paint if you are doing a gingerbread man. It’s also great to avoid getting messy fingers.J Allow approx. 4 hours for fist coat to dry.
  3. Then apply a second more even coat and let dry for 48 hours before going on to do the facial details.
  4. Once completely dry start to apply your facial features. A hint about faces…there are some great simple resources for examples of facial features such as coloring books, pumpkin cutting kits, or books that can be purchased with step-by-step instruction. You may also be able to find some great appliqué stickers to do the job easily.
  5. Apply a thin layer of finishing spray to seal paint. (I use a matt) and allow drying.
  6. When your light bulb is all done the last step is to give him a wintry hat to cover up the ugly metal top. A simple way is to use a scrap of material in the shape of a rectangle and just fold in half and tie ¾ of the way down with string or a piece of the same fabric. I used an old acrylic sweater to cut out mine.
  7.  Then just glue it on to his head and tie a piece of jute to the top of his hat to hang him.