Lighted Christmas Presents

While shopping one day, before the Christmas rush, Bill and I came across these lighted Christmas gifts for outside decoration.  They wanted 69.00 for them and I could not bring myself to buy them.  So...we went across the street to Lowe's and purchased some chicken type wire and then went to Wally World for the material.  They didn't have a huge selection of material so I couldn't be too particular.  Plus, they wanted 5.95 for the gold bow, so I couldn't bring myself to buy more then one.  The other two bows were in my stash but I plan on replacing them next year with ones I make myself. Just need to remember to buy some good ribbon.  We just used some scrap 1 x 4's that we had and made us a 'box' by making a top frame and a bottom frame out of the 1 x 4's that we cut down to 1 x 1's.  The wire was stiff enough that we didn't have to add side rails...just stapled the wire to the top frame, forming the wire into a box shape as we stapled. Then added the bottom frame and stapled the bottom. I really liked how the red and gold looked after I stapled the material on to the box but after dark, you can really see the wire cage when the lights are lit on the inside.  Oh, the lights are just a white Christmas strand that I had and I ran it from one box to the other and basically, just bunched up inside.  I could have attached them to the wire but thought I'd pick up some smaller strands after Christmas and then I'll add them permanently. This worked for now. The silver box was made later and I decided to add a muslin piece to it first....then covered it with the silver...didn't like that look after dark at all...LOL....will be redoing it before next year.  I'm thinking I just need to double my pretty material instead...another project for another day.  All together we probably only have about 15.00 in the set....

Daylight shot

Night Shot