Light up lantern cards, Chibitronics

Hi, it’s Wei Wei here today, and I have two lantern cards to share.

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. On the night of the Lantern Festival, people traditionally carry lanterns, eat sweet glutinous rice balls. Answering riddles is another traditional activity.

Sky Lantern Festival in Pingxi, Taiwan is one of the important events accompanying the Lantern Festival. In Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, people write their wishes for the coming year on paper lanterns and release them into the sky. This festival is very popular but I think the remains of the paper lanterns pollute the environment. So I prefer to make light up lantern card rather than fly lanterns into the sky.

Here are my cards:

For the first card, I started by creating the night background with distress inks.

Next, I draw the circuit on the red cardstock and applied the copper tape over the pencil lines, and then stick the LEDs. For the switch, I used the great idea from talented Eiko.

As you can see I placed the white foam over the circuit. And don’t forget to cut holes to make the LEDs light through. I then adhered the inking background over the foam. Of course, I also cut four holes for the LEDs.

The lanterns and little squirrl are designed by myself. After coloring with markers, add them to the back and the card is done.

Here’s a tip: In order to make the LEDs light through the paper without cutting holes or adding vellum, you can choose thinner paper and don’t add deep coloring.

For more details, you can check out a tutorial here or click my youtube channel that shows you how to make this card.

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For the second, I also started by creating the night background with distress inks.

Here’s the closeup my circuit. I used one penny to make sky lantern into a spinner. Since penny is made of copper, it is also a great conductor of electricity! When you slide the sky lantern up to the sky, the penny behind the sky lantern can conduct electricity, so the sky lantern can light up!

I didn’t make a battery holder just like the first card. I directly stick the copper tape to the battery . In this way, the battery can be put into the card or put out the card. And you can change the new battery easily by detaching the copper tape while the old battery has run dry.