Category Archives: craft

Light Up Earrings

My daughter has been making some really impressive earrings using Sculpey clay and earring hooks and studs sourced from Michael’s.  Lighting them up, like these studs, would take it to the next level.  Light up earrings present an interesting challenge, as size and aesthetics constraints conflict with a battery holder, light, and wiring.

We built a simple design we found on YouTube which uses painted googly eyes to hold the battery and a small container with sparkles to diffuse the light.  There is room for improvement, but they turned out OK – they look great in a darker room or from a distance, but crude up-close.  We may refine them further.

LED Earring
LED Earrings

Happy Valentine’s Day

I had fun making light-up Valentine’s Day cards this year.

Valentine's Day Cards
Valentine’s Day Cards

They’re built from a patterns I found on Sparkfun’s website.

My design is much simpler, and requires fewer parts.

Paper Switch for LED
Paper Switch for LED

Once the card is opened, the person receiving the card simply pulls out the paper, turning on the light.  The LED and battery assembly is glued to the card with a hot glue gun.