DIY Disney Cars Lamp

My mom has been looking for a couple years now for a Disney Cars themed lamp for my step-dad's man cave that is completely done in a NASCAR with hints of the Disney Cars movie since its one of his favs. Well I finally decided to take it into my own hands and create a custom lamp for my step-dad. This DIY is my adventure in creating this lamp from start to finish.

I appologize in advance for the pictures, I had to use my cell phone for the pics.

First I hit up my favorite place for DIY upcycling suplies....Goodwill :) Here in the Phoenix valley our Goodwill stores offer up everything in the store (except snacks and holiday items) for 50% off every other Saturday which is my favorite time to go. On one of my Saturday adventures at several Goodwill stores I came across the lamp (below) and new it was the one for this project.

I got this lamp for $3.00 after the 50% off, it was a little beat up but had a great shape to it for what I wanted to do.

My next stop was Michael's where I purchased gloss acrylic black paint and a sponge brush which together cost me less than $2.00

I also needed a shade and something extra. My mom and I found a red lamp shade at Big Lots for $10 and checkered flag duct tape at the 99cent only store.

We had a couple hot wheel sized versions of the characters from cars but found those to be a little to big so my mom and I made a trip to my local Target store and found a couple packs of the Cars Micro Drifters; each pack was $5.99 and contained 3 cars.

Now it was time to get started...

My first step was to paint the entire lamp in the gloss black paint.

Once that dried (it took 2 coats to cover everything) I added the checkered duct take around the edge on the bottom and under the lip on the to of the lamp. I did this by cutting strips and matching up the pattern. 

Once I had this step done I began detailing the swirls in the shape of the lamp like they were roadways with white nail polish and a thin brush. You can sometimes find these at the dollar store or fairly inexpensive at Walgreens in the sinful colors brand. I followed the white up with yellow to make the dashed lines.

Once all of this dried (it doesn't take long at all) I began to glue the little cars onto the lamp like they were driving on the roads I had created.

Once all my cars were glued to the surface and secure. I added my shade for the completed pictures. I left the plastic on until I take it to my parents house so the plastic is still on it in the pictures.

So this is my final product for my Step-dad's lamp. I hope you get some inspiration from this project. Happy Crafting!