Want to express yourself creatively with light? Make a mood light, perhaps? Could you use a night light? Make name signs or multi-word messages? Using readily available materials, Illuminated signs are easy to make. Any of these and more uses can be accomplished with the simple methods in this instructable.
Step 1: Gather Materials and Tools
To make a light, I used common corrugated cardboard, a piece of yellow paper, a small piece of acrylic sheet plastic, tape, glue, etc. For tools, the usual paper cutting implements, i.e., straight edge, box cutter, scissors and so on. I use a table saw to cut the acrylic, but it can be cut by scoring lines deeply on your cut line, and then snapping the plastic. Special tools are made for this, but a utility knife will work....USE CAUTION IF SCORING PLASTIC THIS WAY! The light source for these signs are mini christmas lights, available everywhere. They are low amperage, low watt, low heat lights and come in different sized strings, and colors.
Step 2: Decide On What Your Sign Will Say
The possibilities are endless, of course, but for this instructable I will use CREATE.
Step 3: Cut Out Word
To make the word create, I used the word processor, picked a font, and for the size I wanted I chose 250 points. This is printed on some card stock I had available. Then I cut out the word using a box cutter and a scalpel.
Step 4: Paper Is Painted Black
I just spray painted the cardstock black as shown. Paint dries very rapidly.
Step 5: Glue To Acrylic Sheet and Back With Yellow Paper
Here,the word is glued to a piece of clear acrylic I had cut from a larger piece taken from a picture no longer used. It is light plastic, about 1/8th or so thick, very easy to cut to size on the table saw. I made this piece 4 x 11 inches. Yellow paper is then glued with the spray adhesive on the back of the cut out word.
Step 6: Make Box To Contain Sign
I used a piece of corrugated cardboard as shown to make the housing box for the sign itself. Follow pictures to make this box. The sizes can all be changed to fit the word or message that you are making the sign of. A depth of 2 and 1/2 inches is a good size for the box as the lights take up quite a bit of space and need this space as a minimum.
Step 7: Make Lightboard For Lights
Here, a piece of cardboard is cut to fit inside the sign box. It is painted white to reflect light, and holes are made to accept each of 20 lamps of the string of christmas lights. For other signs, strings of lights can be joined for more light, or longer strings are available. I bought a string of 100 today for $2.00.
Step 8: Install Lights in Box
Following the picture, cut a small "trap door" at one end of the box so that the light cord can be routed out the back of the box.
Step 9: Place Front of Sign In Place, and Tape Closed.
Here is the completed sign. Note how the acrylic plate is enclosed by taping with craft paper glued around the perimeter of the box. This could actually be duct tape if desired. Other samples of completed signs are shown. Each sign is individually constructed so that no two are alike.
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OR you can buy "PAGE PROTECTORS" (remember those plastic covers with a Black sheet of paper from school days?) in up to 8.5" X 11 " in most department stores, (Larger at Office Supply Stores) and they can be cut by scissors easily.
Have fun.
You've hit another home run here. I knew I shouldn't have retracted my previous marriage proposal to you!
Do you have any suggestions for what I can do with old blueprint paper tubes? I get them from work - giant paper towel-type tubes 3 inches in diameter and 3-4 feet long. Any ideas are appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Now, I'm looking at the pics of what you called " styrofoam mosaics".
What part is styrofoam? The tiles? If so, what did you grout them with. Looked for a link to another Instructable . . . Looking for GOOD kid projects and this is a dandy.
Standard Christmas lights about 15 - 25 Watts.
LED Christmas lights about 5 Watts.
You do the math.
Attention grabbing, add a flasher bulb to regular Christmas lights or an electronic on off timer to LED Christmas lights and they will draw attention.
OR better yet add a sound controlled on off for variable timing to local sound or music.
This looks like fun! :)
Would it be better to use LED lights rather than incandescent ones, by the way, to stop the heat build-up?
I know you say that they are "low heat lights", but I would have thought these incandescent lights can still give out enough heat to significantly warm a sealed enclosure, causing early failure or damage? Or maybe that can be solved with some ventilation holes?
Yes, some of the LED lights are a bit more pricey, but they seem to be coming down in price all of the time. Maybe some day they will be as cheap as the incandescent type. The light they give out may be an issue, as you mention. I'm not sure if they generally give out as much light as standard incandescent bulbs - I suppose that varies with the kind you buy.
Another issue with LEDs is that the plastic packages around the light emitting parts often focus the light into a thinner beam than normal bulbs, which throw out light in all directions (unless they have the "cloudy" type of package). It might be necessary to site them a bit further back from the sign or use a piece of "frosted" plastic sheet or similar to diffuse the light, to avoid bright spots of light from being thrown onto the back of the sign, unless that kind of look is what people are after!
LEDs should have the advantage of being more energy efficient for the same light output, though, assuming the transformer that they're supplied with is an efficient one, of course.