Weekend Mini-Make: DIY Balloon Light IKEA Hack

I'm back with another Weekend Mini-Make today: a quick craft you can complete over the weekend for less than a tenner. And even better than that, all my mini-makes are designed to be something beginners can try their hand at, whilst also being a relaxing, well-being boost. As I've mentioned before, I regularly turn to DIY and crafting when times get hard, so for me, having a creative outlet has become a vital part of my everyday life. I hope that these simple, cheap crafting ideas will inspire others to have a go, and see if it can make big changes in their life too.

This week I'm recreating something I fell in love with when browsing a high-end children's store. At over £60, my first thought, as ever, was 'how could I recreate that?' Well step in that old student house staple - the IKEA Regolit light shade. At just £1.75, this DIY is a fraction the price, with everything else I used for this DIY I already owned.

Total spend: £1.75

You will need:
IKEA Regolit shade
String
Basket (I used a plant pot I already had, also from IKEA)
Pom pom trim - I had this leftover from a previous project, originally bought from eBay
Wool or string to hang with
Glue gun or double sided sticky tape
Paper bunting (a printable template can be found below)

To start with I stuck the pom pom trim onto the basket using a glue gun, however double-sided sticky tape or something similar would also work. I then put the shade together as per the instructions, and attached to the basket using string, which I simply poked through the basket and tied to the metal part of the shade.

Then, to add some interest to the balloon, I decided to pop some bunting onto the shade. It would definitely be much easier to find some small fabric bunting to hang around the shade, however for ease, I simply cut some flags out from a piece of paper, and stuck them directly onto the shade using pritt stick.

You can download and print the template I used here: 

I then tied some string to the top metal fixing of the shade in order to hang it with, and that's it! Pop some teddies into the basket and hang up in a nursery to create a cute decoration.

Hope you enjoyed this quick and simple DIY - let me know if you make one, I'd love to see! And I'll be back next Friday with another quick craft perfect for completing over the weekend.

Thanks for reading,
Sam Xx