There is nothing I love more than the combination of PAPER and LED's, so I'm prepping a huge batch of "Electric Embellishments" to adorn  NY Maker Fair (with TONS of flair!)

Electric Embellishments are a series of DIY light-up paper flowers and bows to deck out your clothes, gift wrap or party decorations. They're a quick and fun craft project to get your creative juices flowing!

I'll be offering these as a FREE activity at Maker Faire next week. I hope to engage a large group of young makers -- those interested in art & design and electronics & engineering alike -- and hopefully help create a lot of magical LED selfies! (Like this one of me! lol)

My best "Selfie" pose as inspired
by my 10 year old cousin, Samantha :p  

Here's how I made them:

THE FLOWERS

With every project, I always start with good 'old scissors and white paper. This helps me visualize what I'm trying to make in the real world before touching a computer. It's my version of sketching.  

Then, I hit the computer - I use Adobe Illustrator for the design. I printed a few of my favorite designs and cut them by hand again with scissors to pick the best ones. 

Next, It's off to my Silhouette Cameo I go! This nifty machine cuts extremely precise versions of my designs. Now I can see the flowers really take shape!

After picking my final designs, I got to cutting... and cutting... and cutting... until I had almost 1400... yes that's fourteen-hundred flowers ready for the faire!

THE BOWS / BOW TIES

The bows / bow ties had a similar process of starting with white paper prototypes then using illustrator to perfect them! If you look closely, you can see that each test bow is slightly different.

The final designs were tested:

And we're ready for MAKER FAIRE! We'll be in Zone 2 by the Craft Activities! Come say hi and make your own Flower or Bow Tie - can't wait to see you there!