I had a brainwave after I uploaded my recent stained glass votive lanterns. Based on my liking for edge-lit acrylic, why not use those tiny lights to make some tiny edge-lit acrylic signs?
I tried three different designs: one based on the box shape of my stained glass votives, one based on a living hinge that hugs the tiny votive light, and a third which is a minimalist, acrylic-only design:
These are incredibly inexpensive to make, especially if you buy the lights in bulk. The only thing I don’t like is the yellowish color. I do have a small sack of LEDs in various colors, so I might take these apart and solder in some LEDs more to my liking.
something i’ve been thinking of…i think you could make a delightful set of christmas village houses, or similar, by engraving onto veneer and gluing it on top of these acrylic pieces. judicious use of colour on top could go a long way, too.
If you added some perspective effects to narrow the bottom edge of the buildings, you’d have a nifty “House on Haunted Hill” halloween effect then the color is perfect. Or laser cut Jack-O-Lanterns
Update: I just got back from Michael’s (craft store in case you didn’t know) and found that they have color-changing votives!!! With my 40% off coupon I got a set of 4 for less than $1 apiece. They look really cool with the edge lit acrylic–highly recommended.
You can open the votive and take off the little plastic flame and then it’s usually a white LED under it.
I really like the Happy Birthday version - the round living hinge base is a nice look. Might put black felt or construction paper inside to keep the light from leaking out with white LEDs.
Nope. All the ones I’ve taken apart have clear plastic flames and yellow LEDs. Actually, you have to take those plastic flames off to get these lights to work as edge-lit ones. In any case, I’m recommending the color-changing votives (see my message just above yours), they look a lot better!
Cynd11, Those are amazing! To express how amazing I think they are, just know that I have been a lurker for 425 days and read 38.5k posts (so says the stats page) and I have never posted before this! Nice job!.
These are really great!
And I know you don’t like the yellow color, but I find it quite warming. It definitely lends itself to the houses.
Man… I’m gonna have to up my Michael’s game.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Maybe some kind of modern interpretation. I am confident that this time I have my glowforge ready for christmas time (maybe halloween). With 2 or more layers and some WS2812 + esp32 pixies we could create a “falling snow” effect?