Decorating for the holidays can be rough, especially if you are bored with your current decorations and are unable to buy everything new. Being a geek, I love adding some personality to my home with fun and unusual decor, but it seems when I do find something that fits my style online, it’s too expensive and then I feel defeated.
Today I am going to show you a project that is simple, inexpensive, and brings on a new twist for fall decorating. We are going to be making Snow White inspired poisoned apple string lights!
Some of the supplies I already had such as my glue gun and glue sticks, but I will be adding a link where you can buy one if you don’t have it already. The estimated cost for this project is $31. With the glue gun it’s a little more, but considering future projects you will be able to make out of this is beneficial. Let’s get started!
- Red and Lime Green Acrylic paint with optional glow in the dark paint. I personally didn’t use it on these ones, but this paint is awesome if you want extra zing to yours.
- Ping pong balls. These are smaller than usual ping pong balls but are perfect for this project.
- Paint brushes. I’ve had these from before, but you can find them at your local craft store. I just used 2 different sizes to help with edges.
- Glue sticks
- X-Acto knife
- Glue gun
- LED lights. These are not the exact ones I have, but similar in shape. Mine are color changing and the place I ordered from before are not around.
- Clear lights (I’ll show what they look like with both.)
- Wooden Skewers (Not pictured)
First, figure out how apples you want to make. I have a 100 count light strand. Obviously, I do not want to make that many poison apples since it’s very time-consuming. I’ll just get creative where I place the rest of them. So, for now, I chose to do 13.
In the potato quality photo above, (I had to take this from the video), I am cutting an x on my apples that are about 1/2 an inch. You don’t want to make it too big or your lights won’t stay in.
Next, it’s time to paint!
Put your apple on the wooden skewer so you don’t get paint on your fingers. You want to make this smooth as possible. Only paint one coat is necessary. I stuck my skewers in Styrofoam so they can dry quicker and not smear all over my desk. Acrylics dry really fast so I only had to wait a couple of minutes before the next step.
Paint the poison on your apple. Don’t be afraid to use a reference if needed. Also, they don’t have to be exact so have fun with it! This is also the template part so you know where you want to put your hot glue. If you feel confident to just start with the glue then you are an amazing tropical fish. I have to direct myself or hot glue ends up everywhere.
Here is a discretion because even though I’m sure the majority of you have experience with hot glue, this still needs to be said:
Please use caution and BE CAREFUL!! The glue sneaks up on you and can cause serious burns. It happens to all of us, but please just make sure to use discretion while gluing!
As you can see that I am holding onto the skewer only as I apply the glue. Follow your template all around the apple.
Allow glue to cool down and dry. I gently placed them face up against the wall to make sure the glue didn’t dry all weird. Because I have some that are pretty funky looking and now I have to figure out how to save it. Next step is to paint over the glue with your green paint. You will need to do 2 coats over it to cover the glue. Be careful about getting any green on the red as it will darken the effect of the light shining through. This one you don’t have to make perfectly smooth and in fact, I think it adds character making the poison chunkier with paint!
Put your apples back up on the skewers, (at this point, you can put them upside down again and the glue won’t go wibbly wobbly) and allow to dry overnight. This makes them sturdy.
TADA!!!!
Your apples are done! Spray them with a sealant if you are wanting to keep these longer and get extra use out of them.
Here is the difference between the LED lights and the regular Christmas lights. Personally, I love both and am struggling to decide which one I want to use.
The apples pull off the lights easily so you don’t have to worry about damaging them so much. (Still be careful!)
Minus the drying time, this only took me a couple hours to paint and glue 13 of them. This is a fun project that you can do with your family and brings some pep to holiday decorating. Plus it’s fun to come up with something new and creative when funds are limited. 🙂
Stay tuned as I will be back with other DIY projects that are simple, fun, and easy on the budget!
