Background lit window card

I made this happy pig card light up by putting the LEDs on the front panel instead of the back as I would normally do. That way the light reflects off the back of the card, it gives it another kind of effect. I added glitter to the background too so it shimmers when lighting the card.

As I always do I started by drawing how to make the circuit with the help of the plastic template. It makes it very easy to see where the LED stickers will fit. I have prepared the front panel and the background and taped down the little piggies using Micropore tape. It’s great when you want to be able to draw on top of it. To make sure there was enough light reflecting off the background I put two LEDs on each pig.

I then just followed the lines with the tape and added the LED stickers on top. I taped down the battery using micropore tape to hold it in place while finishing the card. I cut one of the copper tapes to place a sliding switch there, shown on the side. I added foam tape to the back of the slider and made it a bit thicker than for the rest of the card, making sure there would be a good connection by having it pressed down a bit.

Here’s the card with the foam tape added. I know some are afraid of adding tape on top of the copper tape. I have never had any troubles doing it this way, with one exception. When you stick everything down and there is a bad connection somewhere so you have to take the backing of it might rip the tape too, so that might be a reason to be careful.

I added a thin layer of extra foam tape on the back of the battery and the switch to make sure they press down more on the copper tape and keep the connection. Make sure to keep the backing on the switch so it can slide freely, I also kept the backing on a section of the tape on the side to make a space for the switch to slide.

The pigs are cute without light too but adding the light to them is such a fun detail. I added a punched out circle with the words slide me to the switch and a glitter hard for decoration (and to cover a big glue blob that I couldn’t get rid of).