Gadgetory

decorating for the holidays is a yearly activity that everyone in your family can participate in and enjoy here's how you can spruce up the light display in your front yard this holiday season on the cheap put some DIY holiday light balls to get started you only need three materials one of which is optional first you need some outdoor string lights approximately 200 lights per medium-sized ball you're also gonna need one inch hex mesh which is also called chicken wire they often come in two foot wide rolls and you're gonna need approximately a 2 by 4 sheet of hex mesh per medium-sized bowl and finally you can use it ties to secure the ends of the light strands to the wire mesh but it's not actually needed for tools your own they're going to need wire cutters or cutting pliers but it would also recommend wearing gloves when working with the wire mesh because when you cut it it leaves it rough edges which can and will snag and cut your hands rather easily start making your holiday light balls by unrolling and cutting the hex mesh into a 2 by 4 foot sheet this will make a 2 foot diameter ball the biggest mistake you can make here is being stingy and not cutting enough mesh which will result in a more oval shaped ball instead of a sphere once the mesh is cut make a cylinder by connecting both short ends of the mesh to fasten them square up both edges of the wire and find 2 loose ends of wire that match up and twist them around one another at their bases to help hold the cylinder shape now comes the tricky part bending the cylinder into a sphere this can take a little bit of practice but fortunately if you mess up you can just unbend the wire and start over hold the wire mesh about six inches down from the top edge and bend in the top using your other hand next hold the piece of mesh that you bent in while making a pleat with the mesh adjacent to it in essence you're bunching together an open end of the cylinder to help make a sphere when the open end is bent in place the cylinder on the ground opened and up and step on the wire to flatten it and help hold its shape next bend the opposite end of the cylinder you can't step on this end to flatten it but try to flatten the pleated wire as best you can now the wire likely looks like a slightly more rounded cylinder not a ball you must bend and shape it into a ball this can be tricky but should only take a few minutes finally it's time to wrap lights on around the ball of wire take the female end of a strand of outdoor string lights and run it through one of the hexagons pull it out of an adjacent hexagon to lock it in place optionally you can use a zip tie to better secure this end while keeping the strand taut wind it around the mesh ball as evenly as possible for a two foot diameter ball you want to use between 200 and 300 lights when finished lock the male end of the strand in place the same way as the female end but this time leave just a little bit of slack to make it easier to plug in hang these balls from trees on your porch or place them around the yard just keep in mind that you will need to run an extension cord to each ball which can be a bit of a logistical nightmare but knowing how jealous your neighbors will be makes it more than worth the effort