This post was sponsored by Duracell Ultra Batteries.
With all the hype around the new Star Wars movie, my kids have been eyeing off the lightsabers in the shops for a while now. But I’m a party pooper, so I said no to buying an expensive, noisy, plastic lightsaber. Of course when my eight year old suggested we could make our own… well now that sounds like a fun project!
Morgan and I talked a lot about how we might make a lightsaber.
We wondered what could work for the light, what we could use for the tube, and how we’d make it ‘look cool’. We did some googling, we asked Dad for some technical advice and we gathered some supplies to try out our ideas.
We weren’t sure if our lightsabers would work, even as we were building them, but they turned out great so we thought we’d share them with you.
How to Make a Lightsaber!
These lightsabers are easy to make with materials you can find around the house or purchase easily. You don’t need any special skills to make a lightsaber that lights up!
To make your own lightsaber you’ll need:
- A laminator
- Two A4 laminator pouches
- A roll of coloured cellophane
- Scissors
- Clear tape
- A super bright torch/flashlight (see below for details)
- Batteries
- Our free printable lightsaber handles (see below for details)
- Markers or coloured pencils.
It’s important to choose the brightest torch/flashlight you can get, so that it lights up the entire length of the lightsaber.
We found small, inexpensive, torches, with five super bright LED lights and a button on the end. They were the perfect size and brightness.
We also needed batteries that could last the distance.
I knew these lightsabers were going to see lots of use so I wanted a battery that could power all that play. We used Duracell Ultra (Duracell’s long lasting AA batteries) and they’ve even been able to outlast my wild kids!
Here’s how to put your lightsaber together:
Morgan and I came up with all kinds of wild ideas for how to make a coloured plastic tube for the lightsabers, most of which were either too expensive, or too impossible! In the end we decided to try laminating some coloured cellophane and it worked great!
Start by cutting a piece of cellophane to the size of two laminator pouches placed end to end. Then carefully place a pouch over the cellophane at one end, and at the other, so they overlap a little in the middle.
The cellophane is slippery so it’s a bit tricky, but you don’t need to be perfect. As long as the laminator pouches cover the cellophane and overlap a little around the edges and by a good centimetre in the middle, you can trim off any wonky bits later.
Carefully feed your overlapped pouches into the laminator and you’ll get one long piece of coloured plastic coming out the other side!
Roll the laminated sheet into a tube the same size as your torch and tape it together, then tape the tube to the torch.
The next challenge we encountered was the light escaping out the open end of the tube, but we fixed that with a very simple solution… Scrunch up a bit of left over cellophane and pop it into the open end of the tube to ‘seal’ it, then put some tape over the end.
Now you need to make your lightsaber look super cool by adding a custom designed handle!
Free Printable Lightsaber Handle Template
You can design your own lightsaber handle using a sheet of paper and some markers, or you download the free printable lightsaber handles that Morgan and I designed and colour them in.
You can download our free printable lightsaber handles here.
This printable is an A4 sized pdf file. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized’ paper be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
Once you’ve finished your handle design, wrap it around the torch and secure it with some tape, and you are ready for Jedi training!
Morgan and I were thrilled with how well our homemade lightsabers turned out. It was so great to see my boy come up with his own ideas, do some research, test out his theories and revise ideas that didn’t work.
Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker have been battling on and off at my house for the past few weeks and our homemade lightsabers are still going strong.
Will your lightsaber power the light or the dark side of the force?
If your kids love Star Wars, or you are looking for a great Star Wars party activity, or a fun activity for May 4th, check out our Build a Droid free printables.
It really depends what time of day it is.
An unnaturally chirpy daughter at the crack of dawn each day is hard to bear, so I’d be fighting for the dark side before midday. (Life is all about balance after all.)
However, at around 5pm the dark side decends on our house.
All the fighting, crying and despair over unpacking lunch boxes, having baths and doing homework….Urghhh. Bring us light!!
My 3 year old has inherited the star wars gene from his father. It’s all he talks about and he hasn’t seen the movies yet (and not likely too until he’s older if his mummy has any say in it!) But when he plays lightsaber fights with me, he’s always on the dark side (usually Darth Vader), and I’m Luke. That suits me perfectly, I would be much better as a positive, “do good” Jedi anyway! I love your lightsaber Kate, Morgan was very clever!
I want my daughter to grow up knowing that she is strong enough and smart enough to achieve whatever her heart desires. Princess Leia is the perfect role model for girls of all ages. She is a great leader but she also knows when she needs her friends to back her up, all marvellous good/light qualities to aspire to. Go team General Leia!
Oh we are already on the darkside so it’s too late for us! Darth has definitely enthralled my 7 year old! Love love love this project… now I know why I bought a laminator 2 years ago!
My 7 year old absolutely loves Star Wars. He said that he would love to be on the light side to protect people, and so that one day he would hopefully get to use a green light saber!! He wants to make a green light saber using your plan
I would be the light side as there is already enough dark in the world! I could be the hero for all children who are constantly bullied & beaten, as I have children with special needs & it’s extra hard for them!
My lightsaber would power the dark as it’s more fun getting up to mischief on the dark side but having the power of a lightsaber gives you the power to turn to the light side so it’s a win win situation
Mine would be good because at home in our 3 way battles mummy has to be green for yoda ( aka the master lol ) blue is for daddy and red is for kayden!! (The 3.5 yr old!!!) my husband and son are starwars crazy! So much so the men are going to the midnight launch next week! And I just deposited 3weeks wages at your stores for xmas prezzies! Starwars Ofcourse oh and a train table!!!
My 3 yr old would definitely be powering the dark side. So much anger in such a little package, but still totally loveable!
My Lightsaber would power the light side as there is too much datk side in the world and we need to teach our children make it a better place for our Grand children.
All four of our household love, love, love Star Wars! My two boys aged 6 &4 watch Star Wars nearly every day. They have Star Wars Lego and Star Wars Lego games.
With the lightsabers they both want to be on the Dark Side of the force.
The Dark Side has force lightning, as well as General Grievous who has 4 arms and 4 lightsabers!
I would chose the dark side because then I could use the power against my kids who are from another Planet and are taking over my life.
We made these today and my boys had so much fun with them. We are going to make some as presents. My eldest boy thanked me for the lightsabers at bedtime saying he thought they were really great and it made my day.
Oh you’ve just made my day too!! So glad you enjoyed them!
I would have thought the light side for sure and that’s the case for my 8 year old. However for my 6 year old it seems that it’s the dark side – General Grievous is of particular interest because he has FOUR light sabers!!
I would like my lightsaber to power the light side of the force as light is bright & brightness is empowering and shows the way forward but on the other side – the darkness is directionless.
As a Special Education Teacher and Mum of 2-
I live to see the light in all that I do!
With my lightsaber powering the positivity we all need,
I’ll continue powering my special children to read!