Let It Glow Holiday Cards

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Contributors: Gella
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Introduction

Craft a glowing card for friends and family this holiday season with paper circuits - no soldering required! This tutorial will guide you through how to create simple paper circuitry using only copper tape, a coin cell battery, a LilyPad Button Board, and an LED, and it will leave you with a basic understanding of how circuits work.

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Paper engineer and pop up book designer Robert Sabuda allowed us to adapt some of his free templates for use with electronics. We'll be covering the electronics build in this tutorial and linking to Robert's instructions for the pop up cards.

Why Aren't We Soldering?

You may have seen Nick's awesome Father's Day Card tutorial and are wondering why this one is different. In classrooms or homes where supplies or budgets are limited, using tape and craft supplies helps keep complexity down. The drawback is that the connections aren't as sturdy/permanent with tape vs solder. You can always use these templates and solder components to the copper tape if you have the supplies on hand.

Suggested Reading

If you are brand new to working with electronics, here's some helpful reading to check out: