Sweet wrapper light

I do love a bit of ingenuity to create nearly free stuff that spruces up your space. And this is quite the most creative use of rubbish I've seen in a long time: a decorative bedroom light – made from sweet wrappers.

Isn't it lovely? It was made by my friend Holly (who's becoming such a regular feature I think she should have her own column here... I am working on it... she made the gorgeous cushion, too). The colourful ingredients? A box of Quality Street polished off at Christmas. Once the lights shine through those spangly wrappers, they are transformed.

The heart-shaped basic structure was, in this case, a originally a decorative festive thing from Ikea, with lights in it that had broken. But you could make your own from wire – coat-hanger thickness (using some pliers will make it easier and more shapely). Or buy a heart-shaped wreath wire (this is a multi-buy, so you could hook a few together and then think of something else creative to do with the spares now that you're all fired up with ideas). Or find another shape or discarded household thing that could do with some reinvention; you could use anything that you can hang on the wall using cord (as here) or fishing wire (so it's invisible) or just a couple of cup hooks.

Holly pulled out and threw away the broken lights her Ikea decoration had come with, then wound two new sets of fairy lights around it, and then (ridiculously) simply scrunched up the coloured wrappers and poked them between the wires. You could stick yours on with clear sticky tape, depending on what you find to use as your base. Soooo easy. And just goes to show what you can do with broken stuff and rubbish, other than throwing it in the bin.

I'd love to see other people's creations if any of you have done/do something similar so do get in touch with photos if so...