Introduction: Batman Cardboard Lampshade

By Man and Van London
About: My name is Christian, but friends call me Chris. I was born and raised in Cardiff. When I graduated the Cardiff Metropolitan University, I moved to London. Decided to become more independent you know? I’ve cha…

I recently moved into a new house and had a lot of cardboard boxes for recycling. Instead of throwing them away I decided to get creative. The light in my kitchen was the first of the list. It needed a lampshade, so I decided to create one of my own.

Step 1: Items You Will Need

  • A small box. It really doesn't matter what it looks like as you will be repainting it later. In my case the box was relatively hard, so I suggest you find softer boxes. It will make cutting much easier.
  • A sharp craft knife or scalpel. You can find these in any bookstore.
  • a pencil
  • some glue
  • spray paing
  • some packing tape or any kind of tape
  • a surface you will be doing the cutting on

Step 2: Draw Some Lines

Draw some lines on the down side of the box like in the photo. After that cut a hole like in the next step.

Step 3: Cut a Hole

Be careful not to make the hole too large as you don't want your batman light shade to fall off. You might be wondering why I've made a rectangle hole. It doesn't need to mimic the shape of your light socket.

Step 4: Installing Your Batman Light Shade

When you press the box slots it should look like in the photo. You have to keep the slots down like while you're putting the box on the socket.

Remove light bulb from socket before proceeding. Shut down electricity supply to the room you're working in.

Step 5: How It Has to Look

Your box should look like this when put on the light socket.

Now when you know it fits the right way, it's time to get down to some drawing and cutting.

Step 6: Draw Some More Lines

Take your Batman light shade off the light socket. You will need to work on it.

Grab your piece of paper and draw some lines around the box like shown in the photo.

Step 7: Cut Paper

After that cut out the shape. This new shape will be glued to your box, but not just yet.

Step 8: Photo Manipulation Job

Find a nice picture of the dark knight on the internet. I'd suggest you look for a photo with a simple design. A detailed pic would be very hard to cut and will consume a larger deal of time and nerves. In my case I chose the 90s animated Batman for it's slick and edgy design.

Use a photo manipulation program such as Photoshop or Pixlr to make your photo black and white. If you don't have Photoshop, just use Pixlr as it's free and no installation is required. Fool around with the brightness and contrast until you get an effect similar to the one in the photo.

When you're done you can either print your new image or recopy it by hand.

Step 9: If You Want to Recopy

If you're using a laptop you will easily be able to see the image when you put the piece of paper on the screen.

After that glue the paper on the box. Each side of the box should have a different image. Or you can just draw the same image on all 4 sides- it's up to you. The point is you should make 4 separate images and not just one. Sorry I didn't warn you in the previous step.

Step 10: Next Step

When you're done playing Picasso it's time to glue the paper to your box. When the glues has dried up start cutting. I personally cut my box on one side to make it easier to cut. In the end you should have something similar to what you're seeing on the photo.

Don't worry if the paper palls off. You won't need it as you will be spray painting the box anyway.

Step 11: Tape Sides of Box Back Together

The title says it all, not much explanation necessary.

Step 12: Bonus: Batarangs

You can use these in a different decoration of your choice. I, on the other hand, just wanted to take a photo of them 'cause I think they look cool.

Step 13: Spraying Time

Since I have a lot of boxes I just put my lamp shade in on of them and started spraying. To be hones it was really effective. All the messy paint went into the box and not on the floor.

Step 14: Leave It to Dry

When you're done spraying leave the batman lamp shade in sunlight for 15 minutes.

Step 15: Hand It

Just as it was shown in step 5. And don't forget to put the light bulb back on.

Step 16:

Now, switch back the electricity supply and enjoy!

To tell you the truth I was expecting the lamp shade to leave better looking shapes on the walls. Maybe if it's larger it would work. Anyway, let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to your responses.

Thanks for reading!