Mother’s Day Gift Idea: DIY Lampshade

These fabulous kid-made candle lampshades are easy to make and make for beautiful gifts for mother's day, father's day, or any gift-giving event.

This DIY lampshade for wine glasses was a gift for my husband from his 10-year-old son. I think it is a wonderful idea! So with his permission, I will share with you how to make it. This candle lampshade was a Christmas gift, but I think it’s an excellent father’s or mother’s day gift idea. And it is very easy to make!

Older kids can do all the steps themselves or with your help. But even the smallest kids can make this gift by making the drawings on the lampshade. Since the other steps involve scissors and a smoothing iron, you might want to do some steps yourself.

Here’s what you need:

  • Linen fabric (White)
  • Fusible Interfacing
  • Textile markers
  • Smoothing Iron
  • Wine glass
  • Tea light
  • (textile) Glue

First step. Prepare the fabric

First, you cut your linen into the right shape for the lampshade (you can use this printable. Make sure to print it without extra margins). Next, cut a piece of fusible interfacing of the same form and iron it onto the fabric. Check the instructions of your fusible interfacing to see how to do this. The fusible interfacing makes the material stiffer, so it can be used as a lampshade.

Step 2. Drawing on the lampshade

Now comes the part where your kids come into action. Let them draw onto the lampshade with textile markers. They can get as creative as they like! Once they finish drawing, you might have to iron the lampshade again, depending on your markers. Check out the instructions for your textile markers for this.

Step 3. Glue and assemble the lampshade

The last step is to put the lampshade in place. Glue the short edges of the lampshade together with about a centimeter or half inch overlap. Check how it works out on your wine glass before gluing it, though, because it might depend a bit on the size of your wine glass how much overlap you should have. The hole on top shouldn’t be too small because you don’t want the lampshade to catch fire! Now put a tea light into the glass, and your lampshade on top of the glass and your homemade candle lamp is ready!

(Don’t leave the lamp unattended when the candle is alight, make sure there is no fabric directly above the flame)

I hope you enjoy this little project, and be sure to check out the rest of my website for more inspiration for father’s or mother’s day gift ideas (for example, my page on how to make kid-made scribble mugs or this page about father’s day gift ideas)