I've made two of these silhouette LED projects so far- the first was for my husband for his birthday. This instructable shows the process for the second one I made- after so many people told me how much they loved the first one!
This project uses RGB flexible LED strip....which can change color and can be dimmed. We leave ours on a full brightness color-changing mode during the day and turn the brightness down for a nightlight at nighttime.
This is a great project to make for a personalized wedding gift- at least I think so!
This project uses RGB flexible LED strip....which can change color and can be dimmed. We leave ours on a full brightness color-changing mode during the day and turn the brightness down for a nightlight at nighttime.
This is a great project to make for a personalized wedding gift- at least I think so!
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
You can find most of these materials at your normal craft/hardware store. To make this project even more eco-friendly, you could even try finding materials which you could reuse/upcycle!
~~Poster frame- I used a 18x24" Studio Poster Frame made by Nielsen Bainbridge (got this at craft store)- the reason I liked this frame was because of its: Depth (1 1/4") and adjustable back (which you could have sitting flush against the glass or towards the back of the frame. This allowed room for the flexible LED strip while still looking professional). You could also use a smaller collectibles frame- or even make your own if you would like to!
~~Translucent Paper- For this I used 8x11" thin mulberry fiber paper from the craft store, but for the next two I will be ordering paper from www.paperworks.biz because they sell larger sheets (no seams in your project!) I just ordered some samples to see what the paper looks like.
~~Gluestick/Adhesive- You can use spray adhesive for lightweight materials, or a normal gluestick works fine too.
~~Acrylic glitter paint *gems*- this adds some sparkle to your artpiece- of course this works well for my design but you can choose to leave it off.
~~Black posterboard and cardstock paper- You will use the posterboard for the larger design aspects (so that there will be no seams) and the cardstock paper for the smaller aspects
~~Scissors
~~Exacto knife- this is for the small and intricate parts of your silhouette design
~~Black spray paint or acrylic paint
~~Super Glue- Your normal super glue brand would probably work fine, I actually like to use a glue called Miracle Glue, which is a purer form of cyanoacrylate and forms a stronger bond.
~~Glue Dots- pop up relief
~~RGB LED flexible strip- I decided to use RGB (color changing) LEDs, however if you would just like a solid color you could do that too. How much you need depends on the size frame you select- for this project I used 24" along the bottom, and a 12" and 8" piece behind the couple. So, total, I used 3 feet 8 inches of LED strip.
~~Remote Controller (to change the color and control the RGB LEDs)- I chose the 44 button IR remote
~~Power Supply- since this project uses less than 6 feet of flexible LED strip, you can use a 12V 12W 1A Power Supply
~~Control Cable- I used 22-4 Power Cable- you can make this as long as you would like.
~~Connectors- You can either use these or solder control cable to connect all of the separate strips. I used splice connectors to connect the strips.
~~Rosin-Cor Solder and Soldering gun-
~~Wire cutters/strippers and pliers
~~UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic Coating
~~Poster frame- I used a 18x24" Studio Poster Frame made by Nielsen Bainbridge (got this at craft store)- the reason I liked this frame was because of its: Depth (1 1/4") and adjustable back (which you could have sitting flush against the glass or towards the back of the frame. This allowed room for the flexible LED strip while still looking professional). You could also use a smaller collectibles frame- or even make your own if you would like to!
~~Translucent Paper- For this I used 8x11" thin mulberry fiber paper from the craft store, but for the next two I will be ordering paper from www.paperworks.biz because they sell larger sheets (no seams in your project!) I just ordered some samples to see what the paper looks like.
~~Gluestick/Adhesive- You can use spray adhesive for lightweight materials, or a normal gluestick works fine too.
~~Acrylic glitter paint *gems*- this adds some sparkle to your artpiece- of course this works well for my design but you can choose to leave it off.
~~Black posterboard and cardstock paper- You will use the posterboard for the larger design aspects (so that there will be no seams) and the cardstock paper for the smaller aspects
~~Scissors
~~Exacto knife- this is for the small and intricate parts of your silhouette design
~~Black spray paint or acrylic paint
~~Super Glue- Your normal super glue brand would probably work fine, I actually like to use a glue called Miracle Glue, which is a purer form of cyanoacrylate and forms a stronger bond.
~~Glue Dots- pop up relief
~~RGB LED flexible strip- I decided to use RGB (color changing) LEDs, however if you would just like a solid color you could do that too. How much you need depends on the size frame you select- for this project I used 24" along the bottom, and a 12" and 8" piece behind the couple. So, total, I used 3 feet 8 inches of LED strip.
~~Remote Controller (to change the color and control the RGB LEDs)- I chose the 44 button IR remote
~~Power Supply- since this project uses less than 6 feet of flexible LED strip, you can use a 12V 12W 1A Power Supply
~~Control Cable- I used 22-4 Power Cable- you can make this as long as you would like.
~~Connectors- You can either use these or solder control cable to connect all of the separate strips. I used splice connectors to connect the strips.
~~Rosin-Cor Solder and Soldering gun-
~~Wire cutters/strippers and pliers
~~UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic Coating
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