Fighting Ninjas Light Upon Impact!

Hi Folks! Kelly Griglione here to share a fun card with the My Favorite Things Ninja-Mazing Stamp and Die set. If you make the blue ninja (the good guy) jump kick across the card to attack the red ninja (bad guy), the impact of his kick will be illustrated by lighting up the swirl background. My boys are sleeping already, but I can’t wait until they wake up and try this card out! They wrestle and kick each other all the time, so this card is really speaking their 10 and 13 year-old language!

Let’s take a look at how this came together…

After stamping, die cutting and coloring the ninjas, I used Winnie & Walter Scenery: The Peppermint Zone Creative Screening to mark on my background panel where I want to cut. To keep the panel somewhat sturdy, I didn’t cut out every swirl, but instead sponged ink on the ones I didn’t cut. This way you still see the full swirl pattern.

Also, you may notice both ninjas are red in this photo. When I was coloring them in, I wasn’t thinking and just used red. But then when I was playing around with the ninja jump kicking, it struck me as odd a red ninja would fight another red ninja. Wouldn’t they be on the same team?!? So I did some stamp surgery, stamped another ninja on white cardstock, colored the bands blue instead of red and cut them out. You can see the blue strips in the top middle of this photo. Then I just glued them on top of the jumping ninja’s red strips.

Here’s the blue ninja, post-wardrobe change. After I cut the swirls, I place that panel on top of another panel, mark where the swirls will be, and cut out the track my ninja will be performing his jump-kicks on.

Here’s a close-up of the copper tape layout. The negative side tape is run under the battery, and then on the inside of the White LEDs. The positive side tape starts on top of the battery, and then stops at the track I cut for the switch to move the blue ninja back and forth. The tape starts over again on the other side of the track. The white switch is wrapped in copper tape on the bottom, so when it is moved all the way to the left, that copper tape will bridge the gap across the track, complete the circuit, and turn the LEDs on, as you see here. For extra security I also put copper tape on top of the LED contact points.

Then I put some foam tape in places that will be underneath the cardstock portion of the swirl. The whole panel is backed with blue vellum so the light will show through the cut portions of the swirl nicely.

Now it’s time to assemble the panel on top of the card base. I’ve cut a duplicate track in the vellum portion of the swirl for the ninja’s jump kick by laying the vellum on top of the card base, tracing where the original track is, and then cutting along those marks. In order to make a more sturdy switch (it had to be fairly narrow to move well along the curve), I stamped and cut out the body of a second jumping ninja and adhered it behind the small switch.

Now I’m ready to adhere the blue ninja on top of the switch and try it out!

Blue Ninja starts on the right side of the card, leaps high into the air, and …

… bam! Kicks the red ninja and defeats the bad guy! The crowd goes wild!!!

Here’s a little .gif showing the fighting action, just like in a cartoon!I really like how the vellum spreads the light around the areas that are cut.

These little ninja guys from My Favorite Things are pretty darn cute, and now with the jump kicking, and the lighted impact action, they have really come to life. Can’t wait until morning to show my boys!

Thanks for stopping!
-Kelly

Supplies:
Copper tape
White LEDs
My Favorite Things Ninja-Mazing Stamp set
My Favorite Things Die set
Winnie & Walter Scenery: The Peppermint Zone Creative Screening
Blue vellum