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As a kid, anything that would glow-in-the-dark was automatically my new favorite toy. Should you know someone who has a current fascination with things that glow, is a night owl, or is someone who just loves to party into the night – check out these awesome gift ideas!


Gifts of Time

Make “Glow Water” with Tonic Water– Here is the easiest project ever and is inspired by the Growing A Jeweled Rose blog. Buy tonic water (regular or diet) and gift them a black light (if they don’t already have one). That’s it! To fancy it up – add in equal amounts of baby oil to get super cool waves or bubbles! Glass Voss Water bottles work really well (I just scraped off the lettering with a metal ruler)!

Warning! Tonic water glows because it has quinine dissolved in it to give it a bitter taste. I tried the suggestion of mixing it into frosting to decorate cakes with – don’t do it – it will ruin the taste and it doesn’t glow. If you want a laugh, read about my failed attempt at trying to make a glow-in-the-dark cake using tonic water! Or – if you want to find an easy and cheap way to make a cake glow under UV light, find out how I did it with my Solar Eclipse Cake Recipe!

Draw Your Own Card with Invisible Ink – Write your out own thoughtful message in a card made entirely out of invisible ink! Get two of these pens so you can write secret messages back and forth!

Make Your Own Glow-in-The-Dark Gift Using Glow in The Dark Power – These work perfectly for craft projects – be creative with it! Mix it into any type of clear medium – such as resin/epoxy, sealants (Mod Podge even!), nail polish, fabric or acrylic paints, and bead or glass making.

Knit or Crochet A Gift – There are so many ideas that would be awesome to have glow-in-the-dark pattern stitched in. You will be limited in the type of yarn available and some may require a black light to light up. Click here for ideas of how to incorporate glow-in-the dark patterns found on Pinterest!

Customize Glow-in-the-Dark Clothing – You can use these iron-on glow-in-the-dark vinyl sheets and fabric markers to create your own designs! These sheets are compatible with Cricut and Silhouette, but you can also just use an exacto knife!

Make their Car or Motorcycle Glow in the Dark! – Only kidding – do not do this. But with Glow-in-The-Dark Vinyl wrap you can make anything that has a smooth surface glow in the dark (doing this on your skis or snowboard would be cool!) or make your own cut-outs for wall decals!



Tangible Gifts

 

Glow in the Dark Fidget Spinner – Amp up whatever Fidget Spinner Tricks they know by having them do it in the dark!

World’s Biggest Glow Sticks – Put all other glow-sticks to shame!


A Unique Night Light: This has removable LED glowing orbs that can be removed from the stand and change color through the night.

 

Addie and Emma’s Glow in the Dark Stars – These are more realistic than the big ole’ stars of my childhood, as they are small, round dome-shaped self-adhering dots of various sizes and colors! They are also low profile so they don’t scream “I have things that glow-in-the-dark in my room” during the daytime.

Forest Organics Glow in the Dark Mushroom Growing Habitat Kit – This is probably best left to mushroom growing enthusiasts as you will be growing these from scratch and mushrooms can be a bit finicky with their growing conditions. Based on reviews, if you have the patience, then these will work really well and will be an awesome conversation starter as people see them in your terrarium for years.

Glow in the Dark Mural Wall Art – These glow-in-the dark wall decals vary in size, but function as art during the day and light up at night for up to 8 hours. A lot of prints to choose from!

BioPop Dinosphere: I studied Cellular and Molecular Biology in college and must say that my geeky heart soared when I saw this even existed! It is a beautiful glass orb that is filled with LIVING marine plankton, called Dinoflagellates, which are bioluminescentwhen disturbed (if you think this is cool – wait until you read about the Extreme Experience below!). I will be adding this to my own personal wishlist!

Light-Up Clothing with Fiberoptics: You can go simple with a touch of glow (they even have one in a kids size) or just go all out with glowing craziness!

Tablecloth: Sounds boring right? Wrong. This fiberoptics tablecloth, which can change colors, will be a show stopper and if the person you have in mind truly loves things that glow-in-the-dark – this will be something they’ll love to have in their home for entertaining guests.

Flashy Eyelashes from f.lashes: So new it’s still on kickstarter – glowing interactive LED lashes that come in multiple colors and patterns!  Video courtesy of f.lashes and learn more about them at www.flashes.se!

Super Awesome Glowing MonkeyLectric Bike Lights: One really cool way to spiff someone’s ride – as they come in multiple colors and designs! The Monkey Light Pro (far right picture) has 256 LED lights that create any customized image, pattern or animation – and get this – it’s bluetooth capable so you can control the displays from your phone. Photo Credit: MonkeyLectric at www.monkeylectric.com.


Gifts of Experiences

Go see the Northern Lights in Alaska! We stayed at the Aurora Borealis Lodge and this is our photo!

See the Aurora Borealis (aka Northern Lights) – You see that picture above? That is my husband and I and a friend standing in awe of our third night in a row of seeing the Northern Lights right above us during our stay at the Aurora Borealis Lodge (www.auroracabin.com) just north of Fairbanks, Alaska. I highly recommend staying with them as your rooms face the northern sky with no light pollution. There are ground rules that all guests must follow – if you have your lights on at night, then you must lower your blinds so as to keep it dark out for others. The best part? Since the lights often happen in the middle of the night, the owner of the lodge will radio you if the lights are visible and “worthwhile”, which you define at check-in. We told them – “anything .. you see anything .. wake us up”. You can see the lights from several locations, but when planning a trip – you’ll want to factor in the weather and moon phase (it’s best when it is a new moon – so that the sky is dark) to give you the best chances of being able to see them. In addition, you can check out www.aurora-service.eu/solar-activity to see live solar flare activity – this helps to know if and when you will be able to see them. For an extreme experience, you should see the Aurora Australis (aka Southern Lights) as it is more rare given that there isn’t as much easily accessible land mass to view them from. The five best places are South Georgia Island (South Sandwich Islands), Stewart Island (Southern tip of New Zealand), the Falkland Islands (Off the coast of Argentina) and Antarctica.

Visit a Bioluminescent Bay – One item on my ever-growing bucket list is to see glowing Dinoflagellates with my own eyes. Check out this video on YouTube to see how bright they can glow (the video is in Maldives)! Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico is reportedly the brightest bay in the world, but there are several places in the world that you can see them too. If your heart is set on visiting Maldives – it may be worthwhile to focus your efforts on the island of Vadoo where they occur more often. The most common tip is to make sure you plan your trip so that you are there during a new moon to ensure the darkest of skies. It’s important to ensure you are picking a tour group that is certified eco-friendly as these are fragile ecosystems, which is why I’ve listed www.blackbeardsports.com as a likely tour group I’d consider for Puerto Rico. In addition, they have a lot of other excursion type activities as well and get good reviews. Depending on your location, It may be worthwhile to try and see them in Castine, Maine if that is a closer alternative for you.

August 21st!  – Solar Eclipse Across the US – Path of Totality Party: Check out my Solar Eclipse Themed Gift Ideas page for more information on the upcoming solar eclipse! What a perfect reason to throw a glow-in-the-dark party! 2+ minutes of perfect darkness – I can’t wait!


Gifts of Charity

A few charities that relate to the glow theme. It is your responsibility to ensure the validity of these websites prior to making a donation.

www.firefly.org – The website is designed for firefly enthusiasts worldwide and focuses on ways to save their habitat. This is an atypical donation as it goes towards website maintenance, travel expenses and hosting fees for the the non-profit project created by Ben Pheiffer – a firefly researcher.

www.grist.org – Their slogan? Donate to “support coverage of a future that doesn’t suck”. Support independent environmental journalism and learn more about fireflies in this link.

www.northernlightsfoundation.org – This is different in that it is a children’s charity – the founder had started a local charity based in Duluth, Minnesota to provide financial support to families with children who have life-threatening illnesses. The inspiration for the name of his charity is that your donations will provide much needed light to the lives of children and their families who are experiencing a dark time.


…and Just for Kicks and Giggles!

(click the pic – if you see something that catches your interest!)





Still looking for more ideas?! Check out these sites!

glowsource.com light your party

If you don’t know about Glowsource.com – check it out!  They have a ton of glow-in-the-dark and LED products and party supplies!

Have you heard of Zazzle.com? They have customized glow-in-the-dark invitations and a lot of glow-in-the-dark products too (clothes, coffee mugs, tumblers, pillows, gift wrap, clocks, jewelry, etc.)!

I also found these glow-in-the-dark paints for card making and fabric supplies on Scrapbookers.com


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Gift Ideas that Glow in the Dark by fluoresence or under UV or blacklight - either by chemical properties or electric properties such as LED.