I've finally managed to find some easy to use, and not overpriced, lights to add to cards - we had some a couple of years ago but we couldn't source them again and they were a bit fiddly - these new ones are so much better! They come in packs of 3 and each set has 3 individually wired led lights so you can either put them all in one place for brightness, or have 3 different areas on your project lit up.
Naturally I had to test them - well you needed to see a sample to see how they work - so I've made a Christmas card using them with a couple of Concord and 9th sets which were perfect to illuminate!
I started off my making my living room scene using the Holiday Home Stamp and Die kit onto a 17 x 12 cm piece of white card - adding some patterned paper and wood grain card to represent the wallpaper and flooring. From then on it's just a case of building up the elements in the kit - the fireplace layers and the fire, the Christmas tree and the candles, the swag and snow globe to decorate the mantle with and then a few presents to pop under the tree. I wanted a big sentiment over the fireplace so used the picture frame and sentiment from the Very Merry Gallery Stamp and Die Kit.
At this stage you don't want to glue everything down whilst you work out where to add holes for the lights. I put the fireplace in place first and glued that down as everything works around that. I placed the fire where I wanted to go (with a slight overhang so it didn't look the fire was only in half of the fireplace) and made a few pencil marks so I knew were the flames were and poked a hole with a pokey tool in the middle of those. I repeated the process for the tree putting a hole behind the star on top and the candles, with a hole behind the largest one.
Then I flipped the card over, and poked the holes back through from the back to make it easier to poke the lights through. I put a light through each hole and secured the wires at the back with a little masking tape to ensure they didn't move - making sure that the battery part was in the corner where I wanted my push here notice. (sorry I should have taken a photo of that bit but I forgot as I was having fun experimenting!) The lights themselves look like this:
Then it was a case of adding all the elements. The globe and sentiment were glued directly to the card. The candles, fire and top of the tree were adhered with tiny foam strips to allow space for the lights behind. I only added foam to the top two tiers of the tree so I could glue the bottom flat to make it easier to add the presents for the button press.
I used the foam strips that come with the lights around the edge of my base card, so that when you add your topper the batter pack doesn't curve the card and there is some air around it too. Then you stick your topper to the base card and press the button to illuminate it!
I'm thinking how much fun it would be to create some cool Christmas decorations using the North Pole Greetings set - a nice long over mantle banner you could turn on each night over Christmas? I might just give it a go......
Happy Crafting!
Tara
