Marquee Letters

So I was in Michaels the other day and spied these metal letters (similar to what is shown below) that I really liked and picked up not sure what I wanted to do with them but envisioned me altering them in some manner.

Then over on the Feed Your Craft message board, Elise had mentioned in a post that she wanted to do some marquee letters, well of course I was very intrigued and thought hey I can do that with these letters.

I must confess I hunted around for my lights because I needed smaller than the typical lights found used for the marquee style of lighting..sadly I just couldn't find any smaller than what I purchased and I didn't want to use the smaller LED lights that others have used because I felt that it wouldn't look quite right, but I do like the fact that they were orange so what the heck I tried them out.

I did also enlist the help of my dh and his power tools, which he then pre-drilled the holes than drilled them to the size I needed but ack, they were jagged and not very pretty as you can see here.

He then used his drummel tool and made the holes prettier, sanding down all those jagged and ugly edges, making the holes well more like holes.

 

Once the holes were done I proceeded to use some Tim Holtz black distressed ink and darkened my letters a bit so they weren't quite so shiny and added in my bulbs (Yes they are just a bit too big)

 

All the letters combined

 

Then came the big test, to turn them on. I must tell you I was nervous because according to my dh I can not have the metal from the light bulbs touching the metal on the letters, and some of the bulbs didn't seem to fit all the way down as one hoped they would.

 

Fears averted and found that 3 bulbs weren't lit and then one decided in the last minute to turn on but two still weren't cooperating as you can see.

 

 

After switching a few bulbs and replacing another they final all lit. I love the overall look of these and know the perfect place for them to sit; in my kitchen on a window sill that adjoins the porch so all our night time visitors can enjoy them. 

 

Thanks Elise for the wonderful idea and have to admit I am thinking some colorful LED lights and perhaps making some box letters from chipboard would be a nice project for Christmas time.