New Candle Lanterns from Trash

I found five old solar lanterns in a box in my mother in-laws garden shed. After a cleanup and new batteries . . we found they work but the light was really faint . . . these are some of the first solar lights on the market . . they have a soft, faint yellow light. Compared to today's solar lights they are dim and pathetic. Jim said "toss them" but since they are all metal and glass and a really cool design, I thought I would tear them apart and make candle lanterns out of them . . they turned out AWESOME! Actually, I like them better as candle lamps than solar lights!

The tops are held on with two screws and the insides were easy to pop out. The space where the solar panel was left a great hole for the candle to vent.

The candles are old baby food jars that another artisan on Etsy sent me for the cost of the postage. I have about 100 of them that I am going to make into hanging candle lights for the trees. I took them to a local candle shop and had them all poured in bright tropical colors. (I will post the hanging lights when I get to making them in a week or so . . .)

The bottom of the lanterns had a great cross piece that I hot the jar to . . they can be popped off easy to put a new candle on when needed.
They came out GREAT . . . they are way brighter than the solar lights ever were. I am thinking of putting two in the guest bathroom on a shelf . . they would great in there!

It amazing when you can something you were going to throw away and make something new and better! (makes me want to yard saling!)