Rhinestone Earth, Twinkling Stars: Bright Fun With Faux Gems! (by Emily Brooks)
“Be humble for you are made of earth, be noble for you are made of stars.”
Have you tried diamond painting? It is such a soothing, relaxing craft where rhinestones are kind of like pixels making up the dots of the image. I had leftover gems from a couple of kits so I thought it would be fun to see what kind of designs I could make with the colors, and decided on an outer space scene with Earth. Of course, I thought it could be enhanced with some White Blink Animating LED Stickers for some twinkling stars!
What diamond scene would you light up?
Materials
- 12” x 12” black cardstock
- Assortment of clear, white, green, and blue rhinestones
- Double-stick Gudy adhesive
- 6 White Blink Animating LED stickers
- Chibitronics Conductive Fabric Tape
- Chibitronics Conductive Fabric Tape Patch
- 3V coin cell battery
- diamond painting stylus
- Sharp tool for pin prick holes (I used an embossing tool)
Step 1: Create Card Base
The first step is to create a card base.
Fold 12” x 12” black cardstock in half from top to bottom, and then fold that again from left to right to create a 6” x 6” card.
Cut a circle of double-stick Gudy adhesive and adhere to the front of the card.
Use your stylus to place the rhinestones onto the adhesive in the shape of Earth and add some clear rhinestones for stars.
Step 2: Add Circuit
The second step is to create the circuit.
Open up the card to create circuit on the inside square across from the back side of the front cover.
Create a winding path with the Conductive Fabric Tape as the negative track of the circuit.
Place the coin cell battery negative side down on top of the tape.
Use another strip of Conductive Fabric Tape to tape down the battery and start a new positive path.
Leave a break in the path to be connected with a “switch”.
Use a long strip of Conductive Fabric Tape and without crossing paths, create the positive track on the inside of the original path leaving enough space to avoid a short circuit.
Place the White Blink Animating LED stickers along the path so that the larger side of the stickers connects to the positive and the smaller side connects to the negative.
Add an Conductive Fabric Patch upside down to connect the positive path to the battery and then fold down the card to allow the fabric patch to stick to the opposite layer.
Punch small holes in the front cover of the card to allow the lights to shine through.
Step 3: Test Circuit and Enjoy
After you’ve created your circuit and switch, the last step is to test it out.
Press down on your switch and watch the stars twinkle in space!