Light Up Your Summer Crafts With FBLs!

Aloha, crafters. With warmer weather comes Summer Crafts.

Adding FBL lights to summer crafts makes for super cool party decor, whether having a couple friends over for a chill patio hang, or a bunch of party animals over for a night swim and dance party. As one enters said party, imagine being greeted by THIS groovy front door wreath:

Neat-o, huh. Summer Crafts done with paper cocktail umbrellas are my favorite.

Love that tiki retro vibe, plus with LED lights now readily available & for cheap, it’s a magical match I tell you. Here are the essential ingredients for your own summer crafts:

FBL battery powered LED String Lights, naturally.
Many colorful paper cocktail umbrellas. Find ’em in bulk on Amazon.
1 styrofoam ring found at craft stores. A twig wreath could work well too.
1 hot glue gun + sticks! Aw, my best friend. Never leave home without my glue gun.

Start by attaching your bendy wire string lights.

White LED String lights are the brightest, they rule. That battery house is simple to conceal behind the wreath, just hot glue it down. Next zig zag the wire string along the foam ring, bending it as you wish (spread those lights out evenly!), and add dabs of glue along the way to hold in place. This completes the “skeleton” of your summer craft wreath. Just pop open those umbrellas & get to piercing them all over the styrofoam! Easy, right?

Check out the back. NOT a big deal if the glue gets messy, or if toothpicks poke through.

That’ll be our little secret once it’s hung up & on display. TIP 4 YOU: should you find yourself with a small wreath, break off half of each toothpick to fit the umbrellas nice & snug. ANOTHER ESSENTIAL TIP: overlap the umbrellas to your heart’s content. The beauty of this part is you can re-pierce each umbrella if you’re not happy with the placement. Try & try again! Ya can’t really “mess up”.

For more tiki inspired fun, take a trip down memory lane & have a look at the LED Pineapple Lamp Lights I made a couple summers ago. *Ooo* they’re gonna look SO lovely next to my new LED Tiki Wreath. Mahalo, my friends! Happy Summer, craft it up.

TCB & DIY ~

~ Flashing Blinky Nikki