Make an Alien Abduction Lamp
This is an entry in the Living With Lindsay Five Dollar Challenge! The challenge was to make a home decor item for $5 or less. My project is inspired by Lasse Klein’s conceptual Alien Abduction Lamp. The lamps are still being developed and are not available for sale yet.* I thought it would be fun to make one for my own personal use out of materials I found at the dollar store.
When I was shopping for materials, I couldn’t find any toy cows (a cow has to be the one being messed with by the aliens, right?), so I bought a plastic “Noah’s Ark” set that contained a pig (although there were only one of each animal in the set, so I hardly see how that qualifies as a Noah’s Ark set!) After everything was done, I found a farm set that had a cow in it at Target’s dollar spot, so I had to get it to make the lamp perfect!
Project Materials:
- Large-lipped bowl, $1
- Smaller bowl, $.25 (mine was marked down)
- Acrylic glass, $1
- Touch light, $1
- Package of farm animals, $1
- 3 Aliens I happened to find in the coin-op machines on the way out, $.75
Total cost: $5
You will also need, from on hand:
- Glue (E6000 recommended, but hot glue will probably work)
- Cutting implements to cut hole in one bowl and the top of the glass, such as a dremel, drill, or tin snips (we used the latter two–a pain)
- Batteries to operate the light
- Paint (we used black spray paint and silver craft acrylic)
To make:
1. Dismantle touch light so it will fit inside larger bowl, facing down. You will either discard all the white parts, or you might need to trim the plastic rim down so the smaller bowl will fit snugly on top of everything.
2. Cut a hole in the larger bowl about the size of the bottom of the acrylic glass. We used a drill and tin snips because we don’t have a Dremel, and it was kind of a mess. Hopefully you have better tools!
3. Cut a hole in the bottom of the acrylic glass.
4. Put the acrylic glass upside down on the table, put the large bowl right side up on top of the glass to test for fit. You won’t want to glue them together now because when it’s all set up nicely, you’ll paint the bowls flying saucer color.
5. Put the touch light face down into the larger bowl.
6. Place smaller bowl on top of everything, face down.
7. How does it look? If good, then paint the bowls black and/or silver.
8. When everything’s painted, glue the appropriate parts together. Leave the top bowl unglued so you can turn the lamp on and off, and change batteries when needed.
9. Set it up and enjoy!
Here’s the lamp in the daytime.
*It goes without saying that I made this for personal use and am giving instructions on how I made mine only for your personal use. Please don’t make copies to sell–that’s bad! It’s unethical to rip off independent designers, and it’s not great to rip off mass-market designers for selling purposes, either! Be original in your Etsy shop!
Related posts:
- Make a Sweater Sleeve Lamp Use a recycled plastic container and a cast-off sweater...
- Make a Cocktail Umbrella Lamp I have always been in love with cocktail umbrellas...
- Make a Ruffly Pom-Pom Lamp Disney at Ruffles and Stuff made this great ruffly...
- Make a String Lamp Use an old technique to make a cool new...
- Make a Feathery Pendant Lamp Over at Apartment Therapy, AT reader Ashley made this...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
Wow – I think I actually like your version better!! (Is that sacrilege?!)
Very cool! I really like it!
ha! this is fabulous! i agree with bridget, i like yours better too! i think it’s the rounded shape of the UFO and the waveyness of your plastic glass, they’re both great touches!
This is awesome!
This is great! How fun for a kids room.
What little boy wouldn’t want this lamp. Very cute!
Have a good day.
Sandra
So adorable! Well done!!
Yours is WAY better! My husband wants one for his office. We will be making one soon. :) Thanks for making me laugh today.
brilliant!
Oh My GOSH!!!
This is by far one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, and you made it for only $5?!?!?! You are truly talented, and I’m going to have to make one too… thanks for the laugh, and the AWESOME Idea :)
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is really cool!
This is AWESOME! Thanks for a great idea, H! Me and the boy will be making one soon.
Make an Alien Abduction Lamp | Dollar Store Crafts…
ha! this is fabulous! i agree with bridget, i like yours better too! i think it’s the rounded shape of the UFO and the waveyness of your plastic glass, they’re both great touches! # 30 March 2009 at 11:46 pm ……
I’m sure I like yours better, what a funny idea!
NO WAY! This is SOOO creative, I’m blown away. Wow. I love it and I’m super, super impressed! The cow made me laugh so hard! I’ll be linking.
this came out so well! So very, very clever. thanks so much for sharing!
Oh, you’re too good! Love this!
Oh, this is so much fun that I can’t hardly stand it! Love it!!
I know I’m not the only to spot this and love it- another great creation. My hat goes off to you. ^^
Hilarious! I’ve gotta make that!
Can I just tell you that I love how your brain works! What you come up with is amazing!! Love this lamp!
That is just too too cute!
sandy toe
This post inspired me to make an Alien Abduction Nite Lite with dollar store items.
http://craftsandcreationswithkathy.blogspot.com/2009/05/alien-abduction-nite-lite.html
My son thinks this is one of the coolest things I have ever made. Thank you so much for sharing this idea with all of us!
What a creative use of dollar store items. At Christmas my family exchanges home made gifts and we try to keep the cost @ $5.00. This is too perfect for my uncle.
Poor cow. I’d rather put a baby in there.
Fantastic! The uneven thickness of the glass you picked, has a lot to do with its overall goosebumpishly eerie effect which is superior to that of the original.
It’s amazing! thanks for share
I found an inexpensive way to make these for the kids at kids camp. I used two paper bowls, and a clear platic throw away glass. I painted the bowls black and cut windows out in the top bowl. I painted the insides of the bowl bright yellow. I used a small dollar store touch light for $1.00 and three AAA bateries for $.34. The windows show up green and the light shines down through the glass. It cost only $1.50 for this project per child and they loved it!
LOVE this lamp! I have been looking for a cute small lamp for my son’s space themed room (that didn’t cost $50!).
I found that you can get small samples of green outdoor rugs (the ones that look like grass) for free at home improvement stores. When I make this lamp for my son’s bedroom, I think I will use one for underneath the cow, unless it makes the lamp too tippy.
this is soooo awesome i think its pretty cool that by looking at something u can figure out how 2 make it
Hi!
Just wanted to let you know that I saw this page and decided to make my own. A picture plus a link to here is published on my blog.
Your version is waaaay better than mine :)
This is so AWESOME! I am so making one for my boyfriend’s dorm. :)
Here’s Therese’s Alien Abduction Lamp: http://thingsivemade.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/alien-abduction-lamp/
Very nice tutorial, i love the lamp. Thank you.
I think it’s awesome but I would have bought a solar led light (like those cheap ones for the garden) and put the solar panel on top drilled more holes so the light shines out the sides and put little pieces of clear colored plastic glued over the side holes then used a square scrap piece of wood, glued indoor out door fake grass and some mini trees around and used that as a base. Set it by a bright window and enjoy. My step son will LOVE putting this together! He loves aliens! Thanks for the idea!
So cute! I love your creativity!
What a fun project for kids!!
I’m going to have to make one for myself. I’m a big sci fi fan especially of the aliens and i have ton of those little quarter machine aliens that I’ve collected and this will be a cool way to put them to use.
[...] original lamps. If you don’t mind putting in a bit of Blue Peter effort though, you can also make your own much more cheaply. You could even save a little money by foregoing the “Package of farm animals” and [...]
I linked to this idea from my blog. I have made a few versions of this lamp, but can’t seem to get it right! :P
madincrafts.blogspot.com
great X-MAS GIFTS
How very clever! Thanks for sharing.
We saw a link to this project on our friend’s site (www.graciousrain.com) and decided to give it a try. A set of drip pans for an electric stove works wonderfully as a UFO. They brought the price of the project slightly over $5 but were well worth it. We didn’t have to drill anything or buy spray paint. And with some celophane, we made the hole in the side of the drip pan into a window with alien pilot inside. Also, Walmart has a happy face touch light for $1 that gives off an eerie yellow glow. Thanks for this idea!
[...] “Alien Abduction Lamp” at Dollar Store Crafts [...]
Brilliant! Literally and figuratively
Leave your response!
Twitter / Facebook
Categories
Archives
DSC Goodies: Copy & Paste Code
Recent Posts
I also write for:
Threadbanger
Blissful Kids
Blogroll
Most Commented
Most Viewed
Tags