TRULY GENIUS Dollar Tree SOLAR LIGHT HACKS NEW Luxury outdoor patio DIYs MORE

We are going to have so much fun today hacking solar lights. I am sure you've seen these guys around for a very long time. A Dollar Tree actually has come out with some cute new options. So this cutie right here we're hacking today, and I'm also going to be putting some new spins on these old trusty friends of ours. Hi friends, and welcome. My name is Shannon from The Daily DIYer. Be sure to subscribe so you can come right back here every single week for free budget-friendly DIYs and hacks. These solar light lamps are my favorite by far. I've been seeing them other places for $15 upwards of $30, but only $1.50 a Dollar Tree. These are super cute all on their own, but let me blow your mind with this first DIY. It's going to shock you. You do need one of the tallest black metal candle holders the Dollar Tree carries. We need to remove the bottom piece. So you just need to rock it back and forth until it becomes loose. I am going to say go ahead and put some gloves on for this. It was shedding some black pieces. I didn't know if they were metal or just paint, but better be safe than sorry. Also keep this bottom piece. It's going to come in handy for later DIYs. Too cute to just toss out. Now pick a drill bit that's the same size as the post of your candlestick. The other item you're going to need for this DIY is a 2x6 that is cut down to 9 inches tall. You can even ask your hardware store to cut this down to size for you if you don't have the tools to do it. We're then going to take our drill with the drill bit that's the size of our candlestick post and we're going to drill about two inches up from the bottom on the skinny side. You'll then want to sand this down smooth. You can get a sanding block in the hardware section at Dollar Tree. You're then going to want to paint or stain your piece of wood. I just happened to reach in and grab out what I thought was brown paint from my drawer and found it was actually wax and I'm kind of obsessed with this now and I'll probably be using this a lot more often because this worked perfectly as a stain but it doesn't take forever to dry so you can even take a heat gun to this and this dries very very quickly. You just want to take a rag, rub it into the wood going the same direction as your wood grain and do your entire piece of wood. Now come on a DIY journey with me. I usually cut these parts out, the parts that don't work but I really want to be upfront and honest so you can see really how much goes into some of these DIYs. I wanted to put a bend into that candlestick in an L shape and I thought it would be so easy to just push it on the corner of a table or even step on it to bend that metal and let me tell you these Dollar Tree candlesticks are no joke. It's really great metal so I went outside to the concrete, found a nice corner, took my hammer and just went to town until I had that L-shaped bend in the metal that I needed. So now we have all the pieces that we need so we can put this whole project together. Just wait till you see what this turns into. It's amazing. You need a little bit of super glue and put that into the hole that we drilled into our wood block. Insert your candlestick into that hole and then you also want to hammer it down so it is good and wedged in there. So this is the basic idea of what we're going for here but since I had hammered so much onto this poor piece of metal I'm going to cover up some of those discolorations with some black rub and buff and it blends right in after a couple coats. Spray paint will work for this as well. So what we've created here is a bookshelf sconce. Have you seen these? I've seen these at Target. I've seen these in high-end stores and really honestly this was super easy to create all with the help of this Dollar Tree lamp solar light. You just want to twist the bottom off of the top and then set your solar light down into that candle holder. It does help to set this on a bookshelf that might be near a window so it can recharge. However, if you're just looking for a decorative effect that works too just to have kind of the look of the sconce that doesn't necessarily light up. It's totally up to you. But I think that this is just amazing. Super affordable. Less than five dollars to create this. If you want to take this one step further you can even change out the solar light shade or just set a new one right on top to give it a different look. If you enjoyed watching this Dollar Tree DIY make sure to hit that thumbs up button and coming up we are going to hack this really unique solar light that is also new to Dollar Tree. But before we get to that I do want to go ahead and show you that hack from that garden watering can solar light that is just so so cute but we're going to make it even cuter. For this DIY you do need a shepherd's hook. You can get those at Dollar Tree. That's the one I'm using here. However, a taller one may come in a little bit more handy as you'll see why as we go through this DIY. We're going to take our solar powered watering can and hang it onto the shepherd's hook. You want to use the little hook at the top and then a little piece of wire actually helps here too. We want to make sure that our watering can looks like it's tipping out and over. It's a little piece of wire here wrapped around not only the watering can but the shepherd's hook as well is going to keep that in place for us. The other item you'll need is a solar powered fairy lights. These are new to me and I'm sort of obsessed with them now. So cool. The back of the solar panel has an on and off switch and modes. You could actually set these lights to go in different rhythms. Super fun. You'll see that here shortly but you just want to put your solar panel into the sunshine but kind of hidden too at the same time so you don't necessarily see it in your landscaping and then you go ahead and unwind your fairy lights. These are teeny tiny wires so they're not easily visible which I love and there's a lot on this roll. I'll be sure to link these fairy lights down in the description box below for you along with the other supplies you're seeing in today's video in case you want to recreate any of these projects as well. And then it is just as easy as wrapping some of that wire around the spout of your watering can and then excess string down into your bush, your flowers, wherever you want to put this cute little solar light that whenever the lights go out are actually going to look like your watering can is dripping water into your greenery. Here's a close-up look of this but honestly when you stand back you don't really see all of the wire. They're kind of hidden in there but just a close-up look so you can see the lights that are wrapped around the watering can and it was so easy to do. This only took about five minutes, 10 minutes tops. Very quick and easy to do and look how pretty this is at night time with those solar lights. It auto turns off and on for you. Couldn't be easier and then I also wanted to show you some of the different functions of these solar lights. So you just press that button on the back of the solar panel and you get to pick which kind of function and flow of the lights that you want. But the idea here is having the water look like it's spilling out of your watering can but in light form and I think this is just so so pretty gorgeous and an easy DIY anybody can do. So speaking of DIYs that are easy enough for anyone to do, this one is another one that takes even less time. This is actually a solar light from Walmart. I think these were like $2.94 maybe. I don't know, something like that. A little bit more hefty of a solar light. You can use the Dollar Tree ones. Those work as well but I just had these so I thought I would go ahead and use what I had instead of heading back to Dollar Tree. But to upgrade these in a really simple, quick and easy way is to grab some of these glass sconces or the shades for them. You can get these at thrift stores. You can get them in at hardware stores like Home Depot in their lighting section and you just tip them upside down, stick them on top of your solar lights and you can see there's that hole so the solar panel still is available for the sun to recharge them and look how they just glow at night when our solar lights turn on. In last week's video, I just happened to bring up the subject of Christmas even though it is June. A lot of you commented and said you're looking forward to Christmas DIYs already too and I actually happen to have a video from the past hacking Dollar Tree solar lights for Christmas. So this is another one where you might want to grab a few extra solar lights so that you have them handy for Christmas time and if you're in the mood for some Christmas DIYs featuring solar lights, I will have that video linked down in the description box below for you and I'm so excited about Christmas too. I'm already thinking about how I'm going to decorate the she shed for Christmas this year because it has a whole new look so here's a little sneak peek. Picture this tree right here replaced with a Christmas tree. So I'm so excited about that and you definitely want to check out the solar light Christmas video next if you haven't seen it yet. But enough about Christmas for now. Let's get on into our next solar light DIY. We're going to do a cutting board for this DIY. You do need a larger size cutting board as well as just one of their smaller size cutting board. Of course, a solar light. You don't need to do anything with a larger cutting board, but you do need to take your smaller cutting board and cut it in half lengthwise. Next, I'm using my half inch size drill bit to drill a hole into the bottom of one half of the smaller sized cutting board. We want this hole to be big enough that the plastic stick part of our solar light will fit down into. And this drill bit is not quite big enough. So you just kind of route it out to make it just big enough. We want it to be tight with this part, this plastic part that pulls out of your solar light. We're going to stick that down in there with the pointy side up. Time to pull out our larger size cutting board. You do need two sawtooth picture hangers. I'm going to highly recommend the ones I'm using here because all you have to do is hammer them in. There's no teeny tiny nails that you have to smash your fingers trying to hammer down into your picture hangers. Those will be linked down below for you. Easy peasy. Hammer them right in. Two on each corner. We're going to flip it over to the front side and attach that half piece of cutting board towards the bottom. I measured up about four inches from the bottom. We're going to use some wood glue to attach it. Just run a bead of glue down the flat side of your cutting board and then line it up with the marks that you made on the bottom. If you wanted to, you could take a brad nailer, put a couple nails into the back. It'll extra hold it. Or you can grab some of these tumbling tower block wood pieces from the toy section at Dollar Tree. I lined four up next to each other and put them underneath the shelf that we're creating. That just creates more support. Wood glue is actually really sturdy and holds really well if you let it set and cure all the way. So let it sit for a day before you put anything on it and it'll be good to go. We are creating something that you can put outdoors. So if you're going to be putting it outside, seal up your wood. I will link this down below for you. It's made for all kinds of different mediums, but especially for wood to protect it. I did pull out my vinyl cutting machine for this next step. If you don't have a vinyl machine, no worries. Some paint, a paint pen, a Sharpie marker even would work for this. But if you have a vinyl machine, grab that out. I'm using some matte black vinyl. We're going to cut our house numbers into this and then we're going to cut it down, weed it out, and apply it to the top center of that larger cutting board. I'll be sure to link all the supplies I'm using for my vinyl down below for you because I'm sure I'm going to get questions. And if you do have questions, you can always leave those in the comments for me below as well. I'm happy to help you as best I can. And then you can also use, like I said, any kind of paint pen or Sharpie marker to write your numbers on here as an alternative. All right, we're almost done with this project. You want to take that plastic stake from the bottom of your solar light, stick it down into that hole we created on the shelf, pointy end facing up and away from you. And then that is going to create some stability for our solar light to sit down onto. The shelf we created is the perfect spot to add a potted plant, faux or real, totally up to you. If you do faux, I would definitely recommend putting some space tape underneath the bottom of your potted plant just so it doesn't go blowing around on you. You can find space tape on Amazon or even in the hardware section at Dollar Tree. Unfortunately, it was raining this day, so I couldn't put this outside to show you, but you can get siding clips that I'll link down below for you. They slide up underneath their siding and you can put this next to your front door or an area in your home where you want to put your house numbers. You can put your name on there, anything like that. If you want to add this as a cute little sign to your home's outdoor space. So I do just want to take a second to do a little bit of a side by side because I do happen to have one of the old Dollar Tree solar lights and compare it to their new ones. So prices are going up at Dollar Tree, but I have to say so is quality. So here is the old one, probably from two or three years ago now. It is plastic. It is painted plastic, whereas the new ones are metal. So I do think it's an upgrade. I think it's worth the extra cost. Another upgrade for these solar lights, which I didn't realize when I bought them, I realized it when I made this project, is there's a switch on the bottom and it'll change from regular white to off and to also this color changing option. So I think that's really, really cool. It is $1.50 now versus $1 or $1.25 that they've been in the past. But I do think you're also getting a lot more bang for your buck. This is sped up. I wanted to show you all the colors that it changes to. This is faster than normal, so it's not this quick, but just wanted to give you a look at this cool feature. However, I also want to throw in there, you can get solar lights cheaper than Dollar Tree if you head to Walmart and even Dollar General. So keep an eye out for deals if you need to buy a bunch of them. But if you just need one or two, these are pretty good ones that you can find at Dollar Tree. This is another quick and easy idea for your outdoor garden spaces. You need two things, one of the flag holders as well as one of their shepherd's hooks from the gardening section at Dollar Tree and one of these really cute solar light lanterns. They come in a box, so it's kind of hard to see and I wonder if some people kind of miss them because those lanterns also come with a shepherd's hook in them, but they're not great and you have to put them together. So I would just recommend upgrading to the metal shepherd's hooks. Even though they're not great, they work perfect for this. So what I've done is I've put a flag on my flag holder, stuck it into my little garden space and then I am budding up the shepherd's hook right along the pole of the flagpole and then using a zip tie to attach them together. I've shared this idea in the past, except I put a different lantern on there, one that you would have to put a candle in, a light in, and it's hard to get them solar powered just because they're covered and they may not necessarily get enough sun. But these solar new lanterns at Dollar Tree work perfect for this. They're the perfect size. You kind of get this combo deal. Look at Miss Honey, give her a thumbs up. She, you'll see her more here in just a second so you can see her cuteness. But I also want to mention that don't forget to pull out the starter stick. I don't know if that's what it's called, but these little tabs to pull it so it is ready to go. You just stick the lights back down in there, the cute little fairy lights. This twists on and off. I tried to pull it. Don't do that, twist it. And then just hang this onto your shepherd's hook. This is such a cute little combo deal and so is Miss Honey there posing on the porch as a little model for us. So always give her a thumbs up. I try to throw her in there for you so you can see her taking a little nap. Just the cutest little thing. But anyway, back to the DIY. Easy peasy 10 minute DIY. No mess, quick and simple. And then of course when the lights go out, when the sun goes down, your solar lantern turns on and it is just as cute. Great combination. Hope you try this DIY. Wait until you see this solar light at night. It kind of blew my mind. It is gorgeous. But as cute as this is, it's pretty plain. We're going to give this more of a high-end look. Super easy. If you've never tried gold leafing before, here's your sign to give it a try. This solar light, the top pops out. It's got the tab. Remove that. Make sure it works. We don't want to do all this work for our solar light not to work. But here's what you need. Two simple things for gold leafing. You need your gold leafing kit. It just comes with your gold leaf sheets and some adhesive. And you need a paintbrush. That's pretty much it. It is so easy to do. If you can mod podge, this is even easier than mod podging. I will link supplies down below for you. All you do is you take the adhesive. You very, in a very thin coat, wipe it onto your surface. I'm just doing the bottom decorative part of the solar light. Then you're going to set it aside. Let it dry for about five to 10 minutes. It's going to tack up. Once pretty much all of it's not white anymore, like this, it's ready to go. So now all you have to do is take your gold leafing sheets, lay it down into that adhesive, and then you'll need a very soft paintbrush to help apply this onto your surface. This is very delicate, but don't be, you know, you don't have to be too, too sensitive with it because we do need to get a lot of this off. So you can peel some of it off and you can also use that paintbrush to pop any of the little spaces in the decorative part of your solar light. Here's a look and kind of a sped up version of what I'm talking about. And that's honestly it. I mean, just that simple to get this beautiful gilded look. I didn't do the top. I just wanted the decorative part to be the gold part, but it's up to you how you want to decorate this up. And then I am going to take this one step further, add a decorative wood round plaque to create a base. You don't have to do this, but I thought this would really be pretty with my own home decor, which is kind of like cottage core. So I am using that wax to quote unquote stain this wood. You just wipe it on, wipe it off. It dries quickly. And then you can use some glue if you want to attach this onto your solar light, or I just used some space tape. So this is another one of those DIYs that you're going to want to put near a window so it can solar recharge, maybe on a bookshelf or a side table. That way it recharges during the day. And then at nighttime, it auto turns on for you. I got really excited because this is kind of like late afternoon, early evening time when the sun's starting to go down and look how pretty the shadows are that it casts. Love it so much, but oh my goodness, showstopper when it gets completely dark. Look at the light show that this creates. This is just a showstopper day and night. Love that project so much. Love this next one too. You need a mason jar. You know, I'm obsessed with mason jars, so I try to throw them in there any chance I get. And I love Dollar Tree's mason jars because they're plain flat, no logos or anything. And we're just going to simply mod pod some pressed flowers onto our mason jar. I'm using Maker's Magic here. As you saw, I like Maker's Magic because it is waterproof and I thought if you wanted to put this outside, waterproof is the way to go. If you're going to put this inside, regular Mod Podge works. And honestly, I was disappointed with the Maker's Magic because it yellowed my white flowers. Such a bummer. So it's the same process. You just put down your Mod Podge, then your flowers, seal it in with some more on top. And I came back in the next day after it had dried completely and used some matte clear spray paint on the inside of the mason jar to kind of give it a frosted look. But as you'll see here, I was kind of disappointed with the Maker's Magic because it yellowed my flowers and I wasn't expecting that. So I think Mod Podge in this case might have been better if you're going to be Mod Podging pressed white flowers. So anyway, still pretty. It's still got a vintagey, antiquey look to it. I added the jute around the top edge. And then this is another solar light that I had in my stash from a couple of years ago. Pulled it out. I like these because they have kind of that candle flickering flame effect in them. And I thought this would kind of give it one of those firefly look and effects. I just set it right on top of the mason jar. Super duper cute. Still kind of bummed that it yellowed my flowers. But I mean, it's got an aged look. So might be your style. Pretty, kind of, sorta. I think it'd be prettier if my flowers didn't yellow. But the project in whole, I love. Now in case you missed it, I wanted to share this project again that I did earlier in the season when I first found these awesome solar lamps at Dollar Tree. As I said, these are probably my favorite ones, but I really wanted to give them a more heightened look. And you can do that really simply with some paint and just giving it a totally different look instead of it just being completely matte black. So let's lighten this up a little bit. No pun intended. And the shade I pulled off the top, took it outside, and gave it a few coats of some white spray paint. Now step two is to address the base of this lamp. And I'm going to paint it gold. As you know, this is my favorite, favorite gold metallic paint ever because it does such a good job. It goes on easy. It dries quickly. And it is just kind of like a magic miracle paint. It'll be linked down below for you. Mine has gone a long way. I've done so many projects with this one tiny little bottle too. But as you can see, it's just like regular paint. You go ahead and take a paintbrush and paint it on. It helps that the base of this lamp is black, which helps to accentuate the gold paint. Since I am going to be using this outside, I took it back out and gave it a few coats of some clear matte spray paint to seal it all up. And it's just as easy as putting it all back together once all the paint has dried. It's pretty crazy what just a little bit of paint can do to give something a totally new and different look. So take this idea, run with it, and create solar lights that match your own home's decor. Of course, Miss Honey, she's out there quality control for me checking it out. And I think she approved. Another tip and trick, grab out that space tape. You know I love it. And put it on the bottom of your solar light. These are kind of light, so a little bit of that tape on the bottom helps hold them in place. They don't just go toppling over in the wind. This next idea is an oldie but a goodie, but it's a fun DIY to do. So I wanted to bring it back for you to see. Grab some of these glass gems, some super glue, and of course, your solar light. This is just as easy as adding your super glue to the back flat sides of your gems. Use a little bit of hot glue too to help hold them into place. That'll allow you to work more quickly, whereas your super glue is going to last long-term outdoors for you. We're basically just going to take those gems and completely cover the clear part of the solar light. These cast such a pretty colorful glow at nighttime. You can do these in different colors if you want, and kind of have a rainbow effect depending on the glass beads that you can find at the store. But cute, cute. You can also put them in a mason jar and put them on a tabletop or stick them down your walkways. I'm sure most of us love to use tiki torches outdoors, but if you have pets or kids and you're worried about the flame, you can replace the inside with a solar light so you still get the light, but it has much more of a safety factor to it, and it's super quick and easy to do. I hope today's video inspired you and makes you look at solar lights in a whole new way. I'll be sure to have all the supplies I used in today's video linked down in the description box below, and if you could, please hit that thumbs up button, subscribe if you are new so you can come right back here next week for more budget-friendly DIYs and hacks. Thanks again for watching, and I will see you in the next one. Have a creative day. I do want to... I do want to take a second and show you a side by side, so I...