Monday Made It >>>> Marquee Letter!

My first ever Monday Made It link up project!!! (except that I made this last Thursday... ha!)

A few weeks ago I was wandering through Hobby Lobby and happened upon these marquee letter light kits. I thought about how great they would like in my classroom library to spell out "READ"... buuuttt I already have letters hanging that spell that out next to my bulletin board. So, that seemed wasteful. Still... I really wanted to do something with one or some of them....

It was only $12.99 for the kit.. which includes everything you need except the batteries. Oh yeah - IT TAKES BATTERIES! Only two AAAs.. which means you can put this baby anywhere you want! No restrictions to outlets or an ugly cord to hide! I pulled up a 40% off coupon on my phone, grabbed an 'M' for my last initial (Morrison) and I was sold.

It shows you on the back of the box that you can decorate it to look however you like because it comes with a template of the letter that you can decorate or use as a tracer and insert into your light. So, I grabbed a sheet of orange glitter cardstock (orange is my favorite color!) and headed to the checkout.

When I got home, I unpacked everything and got to tracing!

 Here's everything you get (minus the hole puncher....)

Here, I traced the 'M' onto the back of the glitter cardstock, cut it out and traced the circles...

But then, I encountered a DIY FAIL! My hole puncher would reach ANY of the holes. So, I had this beautiful 'M" but no way to get the lights to come through. I couldn't locate my xacto knife (I think it is sadly packed away at school.. sigh) So.. I put the project on hold until I got more supplies.

I finally made it to Target one day, and bought some Modge Podge and glitter. I decided instead to just use the template they gave me (that you can see above) and would glitterize it to put back in so I wouldn't have to worry about making those pesky holes.

Here are all of my supplies.. (the Modge Podge was only $1 in the Dollar Spot - just sayin'!)

I started with a small paint brush and just started covering the template in the glue. I didn't want it to dry too quickly, so after I covered the right half with glue I quickly glitterized it and then started to glue the other half.

After I glitterized the entire thing, some of it wasn't quite heavy enough on the glitter compared to other parts, so I touched them up with more glue and glitter... 

...and then finally decided to cover the spots and let the whole thing set and dry for a while.

It still wasn't as perfect as the glitter cardstock would have been.. but oh well, it's good enough!

Once it was dry, I put it all back together.. here are some pictures for you to check out of the finished product!

 from the back, installed and turned on..

A small shot of how it looks if you choose to leave it white... still looks good to me!

I know there are some teachers & DIYers out there who despise glitter.... I'm so sorry for you. I just LOVE glitter. I don't care if it makes a mess. I can vacuum and wipe it up a few times. The clean up does not out weigh the beauty of the sparkle. But, if you really feel that way and want to make one of these sans glitter, the box gives you lots of ideas. You can use duct tape, washi tape, spray paint, you could even color it if you wanted to! You can totally have fun with it and make it what you want!

My new glittery version is going to sit on my bookshelf in the classroom. I am going without a desk this upcoming year and saw a great bookshelf at Office Max that I can stand at with my laptop on the top, and keep my supplies down below. I am low on outlet space over there between my laptop charger, intercom, and CD player, so this battery operated beauty can sit anywhere I want and shine some orange sparkles on me :)

What did you make today!??