Christmas JOY Decoration

Its nearly Christmas so when my mum-in-law was out shopping and saw the light up JOY sign in M&S at £45 (M&S light ) she asked if I could make one.

Challenge Accepted!

The cost of my version was about £5, most of that being the cost of the lights.

Step 1: Bits & Bobs - Tools & Stuff

Materials

18mm Ply for the letters and base

Paper for the templates

3 screws for mounting the letters

Spray Mount for sticking the templates to the wood

set of 30 led battery powered lights

Silver Foil

Copper Wire

Tools

Hot glue gun and glue

Spray Mount

Saw for cutting out the letters (I used a mix of bandsaw and jigsaw)

Drill

Drill bits: pilot for screws, 6mm for lights, 16mm for inside curve of O and 30mm for the cut out in the O

Step 2: Making the Letters

I produced templates on paper and then used spray mount to temperately fixing them to the wood to cut out.

I used a mixture of bandsaw and jigsaw to cut out the letters.

Once cut out give everything a good sand.

For the large feature hole on the O I used a 25mm forstner bit.

I used a string of 30 LED lights, so marked out and drilled holes big enough to allow the lights to be passed through from the back.

The base stand was made from a length of the same wood and the letters were fixed with a screw through the base.

Step 3: Final Assembly

The large hole was then lined with foil. The cross/star was bent from copper wire and hot glued in place.

The lights were pushed through the holes and fixed in place by hot glue.

Then just turn on the lights and enjoy.