Blogger / 6 February, 2019 / Nanny Anita

Simple LED Circuit Valentine’s Card

If there is one thing I was never particularly good at at school, it was physics. I was great at biology, and pretty good at chemistry (except for balancing equations).  But physics, ugh, that was not my topic.  I think the only thing I took away from my GCSE class was how to wire a plug.  For Christmas EC asked for electronic kits! Last year I tried to help him set up a circuit, it was a disaster. Eventually I told him to ask his Dad for help.  This year is a new year, and I thought I would try to get over my lack of skills by learning how to create a simple LED circuit Valentine’s card.  I have to say, it wasn’t a complete fiasco.  After a couple of false starts and some major muttering under my breath, I think that we did okay.

Make sure you follow my Valentine’s board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make a simple LED circuit Valentine’s cards you will need:

• LED diodes
• Copper tape
• Card stock
• Cell coin batteries
• Pens
• Tape
• Bull clip (optional)

Did you know that LED diodes have a + and – side? No I didn’t know that either.  It would have saved me a lot of time if I have known that before I started.  The longer pin is the + and the shorter one is the – .  This will come in useful later.

Before we get started on the circuit you need to draw the design on your card.  Plan where you are going to have the light sticking through.

When the card has been designed and written in, it is time to start on the circuit.  We made ours on an extra piece of card that we then taped to the back of the front page.  Looking back on it we could have just made the circuit on the card itself rather than a separate piece of paper.

The thing that you need to remember is that positive goes to positive, and negative goes to negative.  This means that the positive side of the battery needs to be connected (by tape) to the positive side of the LED.  The same goes for the negative side.  Rather than trying to explain how the circuit went, I would look at the picture above.  I’ve folded over the side where the battery and switch should go.

Go over the drawing of the circuit with the copper tape.  Use the back of your nail to smooth down the copper tape.  When it was all done we folded over the part when the battery went and used to tape to secure it down.  It is important to make sure that this well secured or the circuit wont be complete and the LED wont light.   A bull clip also does this nicely.

Use something sharp to make a hole where the LED will come through the card.  Then gently push the LED through.  If you have made the circuit on a separate piece of paper use tape to fix it into place.

Once everything is in place check it works.

Of course when I did this with YC she wanted to use 2 light!  Thankfully it didn’t take too much figuring out.

If you enjoyed making these simple LED circuit Valentine’s card be sure to check out my Hama bead heart mobile and invisible ink cards.

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