DIY Upcycled Vintage Slide Lampshade

One of my most treasured possessions is a large lot of slides that my grandfather had from when my mom and aunt were growing up. There are hundreds of slides, and some really fantastic pictures. We scanned a good most of them in a few years ago. Recently my mom and I went through them all again. We pulled out the ones we wanted to keep and made a pile of outtakes and landscapes that were not special, that my mom gave me to craft with. I have wanted to make a slide lampshade for a looong time now, and I was super excited to finally get the opportunity. I first got the idea from a book I was given years ago called RE-Creative by Steve Dobbs. In the book there is a project for a lampshade made out of metro cards. It was really cool! I found this old lamp at goodwill for a few dollars that had a rectangular shade which was the exact shape I was looking for. To my delight I had exactly enough slides to create my lampshade. It was a bit of work, but I had a blast making it!

Here’s What You Need:

*Photo Slides(A bunch)

*Lampshade

*Large Jump Rings

*Jewelry Pliers

*Ruler

*Pencil

*1/16″ Hole Punch

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is strip your lampshade down to the metal. Cut or pull off the fabric or paper and remove the tape. If there is sticky areas left you can remove the gumminess with acetone or a cleaner like goof off. Measure your lampshade dimensions and determine how many slides you need to fill each side. For mine I had 4 rows of 4 for the sides and 4 rows of 6 on the front and back for a total of 72 slides. Next, you need to mark your slides. You need to have holes evenly spaced depth wise and centered in each side of the slide. Find the center of each side of the slide and mark. Mark for your hole to be 1/8″ in from the edge. Now punch a hole in each side where marked. Use this first slide as a template and mark all the rest of your other slides. Then, punch the holes in each side of your remaining slides until all of your slides are punched. Now it is time to attach the slides together. Open up a jump ring and insert two slides onto it, then close it up. Add another slide and jump ring to the first one, and continue until you have a row. I made my rows going across and then added separate rows together from top to bottom. Keep adding slides to form rows and rows together to form your four pieces. Then attach your font and back to one side to create one long piece and an extra side. Attach the slides to the top piece of your lampshade. It helps to do the ends first and then work your way inside. This can be a little tricky and a little tight at times, but have patience and everything will come together. attach the long piece starting at the end of the front, going around the side, and then back up the back. When your long piece is attached at the top, then you can add the remaining side piece. Add the piece to the top first and then attach the sides to each of the other sides at the front and back. Now you should have a lamp top piece that has your four sides of slide pieces, and they should be attached at the sides as well. Now to finish the shade you need to attach the bottom metal shade piece to the slides. Attach the slides at the bottom to the metal piece all the way around. It helps to attach the corners and then work in from the edges. And that’s it. Put your lamp shade on the base and light it up.

I am so in LOVE with this lamp! It is my favorite lamp ever! I love that not only is it made of slides, they are slides that my family took. There are some fun ones in here. When you turn the light on, the photos light up and are so cool! It makes a fun pattern on the wall too. This project took me several hours and was kind of tedious at times, but the end product was totally worth it! I hope some of you guys will give this one a try. It is sooo much fun! I’ll be back Thursday with a much easier DIY. Until then….

Happy Crafting!