For Valentine’s Day I created a light up card themed towards Batman vs. Superman. I started by making giant cutouts of both logos using Sharpies and yellow construction paper. I used a special tool to punch holes around the inner rim of the design for my surface mount LEDs to shine through.
Batman logo cutout with hole punches.
Superman logo cutout with hole punches.
After those were done I traced the outline of both the logo and the holes so I knew where I needed to place my LEDs. Then I started to construct my paper circuit. I used copper tape to run along the outer and inner side of the LED marks to create a parallel circuit. I needed to put the tape as close together as possible without it touching so the LEDs would have plenty of coverage when set on the tape. Since the LEDs were so small, I used a conductive double sided adhesive tape on each point where the LED would go so I wouldn’t have to deal with taping or gluing them down. Since the tape is tricky to handle I would cut little squares and place them adhesive side down and make sure they were really stuck before pulling off the backside and placing the LED. I made sure to test each LED as I was going around the circuit. I had to re-tape a few of the LEDs since the tape didn’t work well with the bends on the corners of the logos. It took a lot of tweaking until I could finally get all of them working without having to constantly press down on each one.
Conductive adhesive in place.
Batman logo completed circuit with LEDs in place.
Surface mount LED in place.
Working surface mount LED.
Here’s a better look at the battery placement.
The green squares indicated the negative side of the LED.
Since I had two logos I had to make two different circuits. Each circuit led to the corner of the page so I could fold the positive side over onto the battery. I could have easily made it on one circuit but putting the tape across the fold of the paper can lead to tears and loose connections.
Once all of the LEDs were placed I took advantage of the double sided adhesive and stuck each logo over my completed circuit. I’m glad I was able to make it so only the tape leading to the battery was showing.
Completed logos!
After I finished the logos I went on to decorate my card. I came up with the rhyme:
“Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If I had to choose between Batman or Superman,
I’d choose you!”
Written in rhyme (I tried to write in blue but it looked more like black).
It looked so cool in the dark!
After I finished the inside I added hearts with a smaller logo and glued them to the front of the card. Then I added Happy Valentine’s Day and it was done!
Happy Valentine’s Day from Batman and Superman!
This was a very fun project but did take time. Plus those LEDs were extremely tiny and had to be handled with tweezers. I really like how it came out and I’m excited to put together more paper circuits.
Engineer with a Twist 