Are you planning on hosting a few outdoor parties at your home now that summer is finally here? If so, you’re probably going to need to add a few outdoor party lights so that your guests will be able to see at night. (Unless you plan on ending the party as soon as the sun goes down, which isn’t any fun.) The easiest way to add lighting to your home is to buy inexpensive lights from your local home improvement store (you can even jazz them up to make them more personal) or even make your own, using lights you already have.

Some ideas for using and even making your own outdoor party lights are:

• Do you have Christmas string lights that are stored in your garage for the next holiday season? If so, use them to make unique centerpieces for your tables. If you just wrap the lights around an object (a small piece of driftwood, large sea shells, or even putting them inside a large glass jar) so that the lights are visible you can create a centerpiece no one has seen before.
• Have you ever seen the glasses and jars full of colored sand at the county fair where you live? You can make your own sand art inside a jar and place a tea light candle on the top of it so that you can create colorful background lights. You can find the sand in any craft store or even make your own by mixing up white beach sand with packets of different colored Kool Aid.
• If you’re having a child’s birthday party you should buy a few inexpensive globe string lights (you can find them almost anywhere lights are sold) and then you can personalize them with paint or markers with his or her name and how old they are. If you buy the kind that is covered in thin paper, colorful permanent markers are perfect for writing on them.
• If you have expensive lighting fixtures attached to your home near where the party is going to be held, you can even personalize them without permanently altering them. Imagine everyone’s surprise when you hang colorful ribbons or even large swatches of colorful cloth from your minka lavery outdoor lighting fixtures when they see them.

As you can see by these simple ideas, as long as you’re a little creative you can use your old lights or even make your own without spending much money, which will leave you more money for the fun things like presents and food for your next event.