Fran’s Friends: Creating Decorative Seasonal Tealight Wineglass Lampshades

Hello everyone! It’s Fran from Fran’s Friends, and today, I’m excited to share a fun and creative project: making decorative seasonal lampshades using recycled materials. These unique lamps are perfect for adding a personal touch to your home decor, and they’re incredibly easy to make!

What You’ll Need:

• Secondhand shop lampshades
• Tealights
• Wine glasses

Select Embellishments:

• Acrylic paint
• Bobbles
• Lace trim
• Ribbon
• Upholstery braiding
• Star decorations
• Stuffed Easter eggs
• Buttons
• Fabric scraps
• Heat and bond
• Felt
• Piping
• Blanket stitching
• Adhesive metallic papers
• Braiding
• Beads
• Plastic binder dividers

Seasonal Inspirations:

I love creating lampshades for different seasons and holidays. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Christmas: Think red and green! Decorate your lampshades with acrylic paint, bobbles, lace trim, and ribbon.
• New Year’s: Go for gold! A gold acrylic painted lampshade with upholstery braiding and star decorations will add a festive touch.
• Easter: Purple and yellow are perfect for Easter. Adorn your lampshades with stuffed Easter eggs and buttons, along with ribbons.
• Valentine’s Day: Bright fuchsia pink with red and fuchsia heart decorations will create a romantic ambiance.
• Autumn/Thanksgiving: A brown acrylic painted lampshade with shiny leaves and a ribbon bow is ideal for this season. You can even make matching leaf-decorated napkin rings from repurposed materials.
• Canada Day: Show your Canadian pride with a lampshade decorated with small Canadian-themed pins and embellishments.

Nautical-Themed Lampshades:

Recently, I created two nautical-themed lampshades for a guest room. I used blue fabrics from a previous swim cover-up. Initially, I planned to paint one lampshade and cover the other in fabric, but I ended up painting both blue.

For one of the lampshades, I cut out fabric shapes, applied heat and bond and felt to the back, and then added piping and blanket stitching around the edges. I also glued upholstery binding and silver, blue, and crystal beads around the top and bottom, and added fabric hearts.

To create bases for the lampshades, I used plastic binder dividers covered with adhesive metallic papers and braiding, embellished with beads. The finished products are night lights that use tealights for illumination.

This is a simple, fun, and creative project using inexpensive materials. I encourage you to give it a try and let your imagination run wild!