Forget String Lights: Brighten Your Patio With A Punch Bowl Centerpiece Globe

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Fall, with its crisp and sometimes misty air, is the perfect time to test new lights for outdoor cozy gatherings on the patio. In recent years, string lights have grown in popularity as people decorate this important outdoor space with simple yet chic sets of lights. As elegant as ordinary string lights can be, they can start to look a little passé thanks to their ubiquity. If that's how you usually have your patio lights, it might be time to brighten your yard with something new, like a DIY globe light. Using ready-made products like plastic punch bowls and tabletop disco lights, your new lamp will put a proper seasonal glow back into those misty autumn nights.

This project is as inexpensive as it is clever. Most of the materials you'll need to make it can be found at Dollar Tree. While you won't find a globe here, you will find two Caterer's Corner Crystal Cut Plastic Punch Bowls that you'll make the giant globe from. An LED Disco Light will give your outdoor lamp a nice glow, while the store's floral department will hook you up with the flowers you'll need to make the globe's wreath-like base.

To turn the punch bowls into a light, you'll need a tool like an ORGANPRO Electric Hot Knife, this is among the most critical. This allows you to alter one of the bowls — a design feature which you'll appreciate when you're ready for the lamp to sport some new decorative embellishments. Lastly, you will need some craft glue, like E6000, as well as a marker, to round out your supply list.

To start, cut a round hole in the center of one bowl with the hot knife. It may be helpful to use the disco light's base as an outline for the hole. Trace the light with a marker before you cut the bowl.  Next, use some of the E6000 Craft Adhesive to glue the rims of the two punch bowls together.

Once dry, place the newly made globe over the disco light. If you're into floral crafting, form your flowers into a wreath shape to make the base. Otherwise, you can use a ready-made wreath you find among Dollar Tree's decorations. Or, instead of using flowers as the globe light's base, you could swap out the florals and replace them with something like the GnFlus Ornament Ball Wreath. In  interior design, forms like circles and squares — or bulbs, in this case — repeat over and over, and give a sense of rhythm and balance. If you choose a wreath that features shiny ornaments, you'll get some additional glow from the lamp, thanks to the light reflecting off the bulbs.

Adding a painted element to this glowing globe could also be fun. For example, in the winter you could spray paint the inside of the globe with something like Generic Christmas Tree Flocking for a frosted look. And then, make a different base for this version of the lamp by spray painting a round tin cake pan from Dollar Tree. Make the pan a bright color, like red: Then, turn it upside down to create a base that looks like the foundation of a snow globe. Finally, place your newly painted punchbowl snow globe lamp on top of its base to brighten both your patio and your mood.