Glow in the Dark Lampshade
Your lamp will charge the glow-in-the-dark paint in this project every time you turn. Fall asleep in the soft glow of your lampshade!
What you will need :
- Lampshade
- Glow-in-the-Dark Acrylic Craft Paints
- Paper plates
- Pre-made foam stamps
OR
Make your own:
- Foam sheet
- Hot Glue Gun
- Scissors
- An adult to supervise or to use the glue gun for you
Caution!
Hot glue and the glue gun itself can burn your skin!
How to make a foam stamp
We used two different colors of foam to make it easier to see how we put the stamps together.
To make a spiral, cut a long piece of foam that's about 3 inches wide. Cut another strip the same length that is about 1 inch wide.
For the lightning stamp, draw your shape onto a piece of foam. Put another piece of foam under your design as you cut it out so that you get two same sized shapes. Cut another piece of foam to support your shapes that is a bit larger than your shapes.
Following the safety instructions that came with your hot glue gun, glue the one inch wide strip of foam on top of the 3 inch wide strip of foam. For the lightning stamp, glue the two shapes on top of each other so that the edges line up. Then glue the shape onto the piece of foam support.
For the spiral stamp, run a line of glue along the center of the one inch strip. Roll the stamp up quickly and hold until it cools.
Here are the completed stamps. The double layer for the lightning stamp gives it enough height so that it will stamp paint clearly. The spiral stamps can be used on either end. You can use each end for different colors of paint.
Stamping the Lampshade
Cover your work area with newspaper. If you are using a lampshade that you've had around the house for a while, you may need to clean any dust off of it first.
Squirt glow-in-the-dark paint onto a paper plate. Dab the stamps into the paint: if you get to much paint on the stamp, tap some off onto the paper plate.
Hold your free hand against the inside of the lampshade so that you can stamp firmly against the surface.
Depending on how thickly you stamp down the paint, the lampshade will take 3 or 4 hours to dry completely.