There is just ONE WEEK until Mother’s Day here in the UK! So I’m here with a handy DIY Mothers Day gift idea that you can make to show your Mum how much you care on March 26th.

Pinterest is of course a huge wealth of inspiration for all sorts of things. Just last week a beautiful pin caught my eye for it’s sheer prettiness. Wouldn’t it make a lovely DIY Mothers Day gift I thought?

The next day I was passing time whilst our kitten was in the vets with a spot of shopping nearby. By chance, I spotted vintage garden lights in Home Bargains and I immediately remembered the pin from the night before!

At just 99p each, it was worth giving a couple a go TO recreate the pretty vases as a heartfelt DIY Mothers Day Gift.

And I think it turned out beautifully!

Do you want to know how I did it?

It was easy peasy. Seriously. And super fast. In fact, I over complicated it, so you can learn from me and avoid my mistakes!

First , I unscrewed the silver cylindrical “lid” part from the plastic “bulb”, and set about removing the solar light gubbins. My thought was to remove the lights, wiring and battery hidden by a screwed-in little cover, and then screw the cover back into the cylindrical lid. Now, just what amazing feat of quality and engineering I was expecting for 99p I’m not sure. But when I went to screw the plastic cover back, the flimsy plastic parts that received the screws snapped off. Bummer.

So this is where you can learn from me and save yourself a couple of minutes. Go ahead and unscrew the cylindrical “lid” off the bulb. Then instead of removing the screws on the inside, see in the picture where the lightstring goes through the hole? Just snip the wire right there as close as you can to the hole. Yes the battery is still inside, but I don’t think there’s a huge risk of electrocution from the little solar battery so I *think* you’ll be ok.

Disclaimer – you carry this out at your own risk! I am not an electrician and if you are overly concerned you could always seal over the hole with a big blob of silicone glue. This should keep any moisture out once you fill your finished vase with water. Just allow it the stated time to properly cure as per the manufacturers instructions.

Next gather your beautiful blooms! Isn’t this fun?!

I pinched some carnations and chrysanthemums from my almost-finished bunch of Valentines bouquet. I also picked some pretty pink hyacinth heads fresh from the garden.

Pop them into your bulbs; I learnt that more is more. The water obviously causes the petals and flower heads to float, so the more you put in, the less room they have to float up to the top.

Final step is to gently add water, screw on the cylindrical lid, hang somewhere pretty, then sit back and admire your handy work. If you’re not happy with the arrangement after adding the water, the solution is simple. Pop a pencil into the bulb and gently nudge the flowers to where you want them.

The whole thing took me about 10 minutes. That included picking the garden flowers, searching for a screwdriver (which you’ve learnt you won’t need) and the breakage fiasco.

I found on day 3 the blooms were still bright, but the water had gone a little cloudy. I gently tipped it out and filled it back up again.

By day 5, the flowers from my almost spent bouquet had had it really, but the fresh garden flowers were fine. I wasn’t sure how flower heads would last immersed in water, but they’ve done ok. It’s certainly given an extra couple of days to the remaining blooms from an old bouquet which would have ended up in the bin otherwise.

These beautiful light bulbs are a gorgeous and unusual way to display pretty blooms. Wouldn’t it make a lovely Mother’s Day gift to have a child fill one with flower heads that they picked themselves from your own garden?

It’s a really quick, easy and lovely DIY Mothers Day Gift idea that will mean so much and look so lovely.

Why not accompany your DIY light bulb vases with my pretty free Mother’s Day printable from my last post? Print it off and pop it into a pretty frame to make the perfect partner to the vases.

I’ll be back in a couple of days with another quick and easy gift idea for Mother’s Day. But if you’re suffering from Peg Doll withdrawal, here’s a pretty Mother and Daughter gift set I made last year.

Cwtch ♥ Mawr