Let There Be Light! How to Make a Mini Marquee
The sun is shining bright, Rihanna’s on tour, and Giants season has officially begun. What do all of these things make us want to do? CELEBRATE! And what better way to celebrate than with an adorably mini paper marquee?
Materials:
– download the CELEBRATE template here
– 6 colors of card-stock, 2 sheets of each color
– christmas lights
Tools:
– ruler
– hot glue gun
– quick hold glue
– hole punch
– scissors
– tape
When creating this colorful illuminated sign, we were definitely inspired by the ladies over at Oh Happy Day – we love all of their party props! For materials, we used bold, brightly colored paper.
Start by printing out our 6 templates on the card-stock and then cutting out the letters.
Next use the paper hole punch to cut out holes where the lights will go.
Now to make the sides of your marquee letters, take out your extra sheets of card-stock and cut them into 2-inch strips. Then mark them with a pencil at each corner of the letters where they will need to fold.
At each pencil mark on your 2 inch strips, fold and then glue on the letter. You can use a hot glue gun or the quick dry adhesive for this part, depending on your preference.
Repeat the marking and then folding to make the other side of the letter.
Glue the strip on. To make the E, repeat this process by cutting out a red 2-inch strip and marking it at each corner.
Continue marking at each corner on that strips, and then fold it at each mark. Measure off all sides of each letter before glueing any strips on. We recommend making each strip start and end at a corner, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Next glue one strip on. Then the other. To make sure you marked and folded it correctly, test it out by just placing the strip where it will go before gluing it on.
Repeat with all letters. Doesn’t it already look awesome?
Now flip all the letters upside down and put them in reverse order. Start at the top of the C and start poking one light in each hole.
When you reach the bottom, move on and start poking lights in the holes of the next letter (which is actually E since we are going in reverse order.) Paper hole punch the bottom side of each letter so there is a place for the wires to enter and exit each letter.
Continue until you have strung all the letters. To get the wires to stay in place, we secured them with a hot glue gun. You could also use tape or the quick dry adhesive.
Plug them in and be amazed at your mad skills!
We had so much fun playing with the placement of these letters. They looked great on a table by themselves, on a shelf, on a wall, and as the centerpiece of a party!
You could always use your own color of card-stock to match whatever purpose you have in mind for these.
How will you use your mini marquee sign to celebrate? Talk to us in the comments below!
