Bucket Lights | How to Easily Make Your Own
I quite often look online for inspiration for crafts. Recently I came across the idea of bucket lights. Bucket lights are a clever way of creating light for outdoor spaces.
Bucket lights have several applications. Perhaps the most common application is campsites. Bucket lights at camp provide light in addition to your campfire, but in a safe way. They’re also movable so you can place these bucket lights wherever you want on your campsite. A couple throughout your campsite makes it easier to move around at night as it helps you see where you are going. It also provides just enough light to not interfere with your moonlit evening.
Bucket lights also work in other outdoor spaces like cabins and summer homes, or in your own backyard. Have an outdoor sleepover in your backyard? Bucket lights would be handy.
My boys and I volunteer at a couple of camps each summer. This year I made one to go outside my cabin. It worked great.
Supplies Needed to Make Bucket Lights
You only need a few things to make bucket lights.
things you need
- Bucket – any large, white bucket will do. This can be a utility bucket from the hardware store. It can also be a food service bucket – like what large amounts of mayonnaise come in. I use the large ice cream pails from camp – they are 2.5 gallons/11.4 litres. You will also need the lid.
- Vinyl Graphic to put on the bucket.
- Lights – I like the LED ones as they come in different colours and even have a remote control. I’ve heard that aquarium lights work well also, but I haven’t tried it personally. Here are some I found on Amazon. These use 3 AAA batteries.
Amazon Link
lights
That’s it! It’s actually quite an easy craft. It doesn’t require a whole lot.
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Step by Step Process to Make Bucket Lights
- Clean the bucket. Remove any labels. Clean the surface well with some sort of adhesive remover in case any labels leave any residue behind. Then clean with rubbing alcohol. If it looks like it’s be “printed” on, use acetone to remove. This is probably the most work of this project.
- Prepare your graphic. This is the fun part. You can design anything you want. You may want a quote or a picture – anything that may go with your setting. Cut it out with permanent adhesive vinyl (I use Avery, but there are several other brands out there). I use my Cricut Maker to cut it out.
TIP: you want a decent-sized graphic. I personally find that less is more when it comes to this – meaning shorter quotes are better. Long quotes will make the size smaller and therefore harder to read. I sized mine just a bit under the diameter of the bucket. This is, of course, based on personal preference and the design of the graphic. My graphic only had decorative bits on the side so if they wrapped around the bucket a bit, that’s okay. - Apply to the bucket. Remember that most permanent adhesive vinyl takes a couple of days to cure. In the meantime, just keep it dry and make sure no one picks at it. For general directions on how to apply adhesive vinyl, check out this blog post All About Adhesive Vinyl.
- Optional – depending on where the bucket light is situated, you may want to weigh your bucket down. The most common way to do this is to fill the bucket with water. This is a plus for those of you using this at an actual campfire – you have water, just in case. You could also weigh it down with rocks or a brick, or even sand.
- Turn on the lights and enjoy.
Look how great this bucket light looks outside my cabin up at camp. Since it is a Bible camp, I chose scripture that referred to light. It gives just enough light to help you see when moving around, yet still, let us enjoy the moon and the stars.
They also work well for holidays – think Halloween or even Christmas. Here are a couple of Halloween ones that I made.
How to Make a Bucket Light
Materials
- Bucket
- Adhesive vinyl graphic to put on the bucket
- Transfer tape
- LED lights and batteries
Tools
- Cricut cutting machine
- Scraper
Instructions
- Cut your graphic out of adhesive vinyl using your Cricut.
- Apply transfer tape to your vinyl graphic.
- Prepare the bucket by making sure it is clean. Wipe down with rubbing alcohol if necessary.
- Apply your graphic. Burnish well.
- Carefully remove the transfer tape.
- Allow the vinyl to cure. This takes about 2-3 days.
- Insert your LED lights.
Notes
You may wish to weigh the bucket down with sand or water.
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