video games have become so mainstream that there is no shortage of gaming
centric merchandise on offer I think it's really great to have so much to
choose from but I also think it's nice to personalize your game room with a few
DIY items rather than purchasing a Super Mario Brothers style light-up question
block I've developed a method to make my own
the basic how-to steps of making a paper box are covered on my website and in a
recent cubic box tutorial I posted but to make this light-up variation requires
a few non-obvious modifications to the standard design allow me to walk you
through the steps I took so you can make one of these for your own here's the
original box of this type I made on my first try I made a couple of oversights
and I realized that making a few small tweaks to the build would make for a big
improvement in the final result with that in mind I'll be starting over from
scratch and showing you all of the steps from the ground up to start we'll need
to find an internal light source I initially intended to use one of these
battery-operated tea lights they are crazy cheap but I decided against using
them for two reasons the ones that I bought at the dollar store produced
orange light which could possibly work considering the box color but secondly
they flicker to mimic candle light and that isn't what I wanted for this
project if I found something that produced white light and have a flicker
'less option I could recommend them but I have another decoration that these are
perfect for next I came across these LED accent lights they are just the right
size and brightness and they have other features that make them perfect for this
use I'll show you what I mean later in the video with the lighting settled now
we actually need to make the box this is a paper craft box and in the description
you'll find links to printable templates the image is too large to print on
standard paper but it was made so that the reduction percentage will reflect
the printed boxes size and millimeters I'm making this 80 millimeters so I'll
reduce it to 80% at the time of printing now let's talk about print medium the
first attempt was made on standard paper to allow as much light as possible to
shine through but when lit the bright LED causes the color to wash out more
I expected I then tried card stock thinking it might improve the color but
the difference was nominal I pondered this problem for a while and then the
true solution occurred to me print the design on both sides I printed the
template on standard paper then I reversed the image and the paper and
printed it again on the back this produces fuller richer colors I'm not
using a high-end printer so I had to set up everything manually and luckily my
two-sided prints have lined up well if they end up misaligned you might notice
some ghosting when lit but mostly just around the edges of the image if I
follow the standard directions to assemble this box lighting it from
within will cost the tabs and flaps to cast these unwanted shadows but I can
make alterations to the bill to account for this I'll use a hobby knife to
carefully cut out the side tabs the top box flaps and the closure flap this will
create some necessary negative space cut these a couple of millimeters away from
the box edges though this will help make sure your box's seams are fully covered
if you have any uncovered gaps the light shining out will highlight the mistake I
don't need to bother with the bottom flaps I can leave them as is once these
are all removed I'm going to laminate the templates the lamination will stick
to itself through these cutout areas and I'll have transparent flaps and tabs if
you don't have a laminator this trimming method will still work just trim them
back as far as you can but leave a few millimeters in each case to make it
proper fold possible the idea is to trim them back far enough so that the shadows
they cast will fall within the question block designs borders mostly masking
them from notice honestly the best lamination for a job like this is
self-stick laminating sheets but I still have lots of the less expensive thermal
laminating pouches left over from other projects so that's what I'm using
after laminating the Box will be cut out and folded up the thermal lamination
sticks well to itself but only partially to the paper surface when the boxes get
cut out the integrity of the lamination gets cut away and it is likely to
delaminate from the paper on my first box I neglected to account for this and
sure enough the lamination wants to peel away especially around the edges and the
folds this time I'll counteract this by using
I spray adhesive after lightly spraying both sides with the adhesive it has to
be carefully placed in the laminating pouch I trimmed around the edges of the
template beforehand so it'd be easier to Center in the pouch since both sides are
now sticky it's more likely that you'll encounter the lamination wrinkling a
thicker lamination like five mil should help this adhesive allows you to
reposition while it's still tacky so you might have to do this smooth it out and
try to work out any air bubbles and now it's off to the laminator alright that's
done time to cut them out I have to score the fold lines to remember near
these edges we left a paper margin the fold line is actually on the paper not
on the paper and lamination border be careful unfolding on these edges - to
fix these two templates together I'm securing them using a slot and tab
method I'll create two slits in this template and I'll cut up two these lines
to make securing tabs on this one I don't really need the side tabs to be
this long so I'm trimming them by about half it may seem like a lot of steps but
it's actually really simple to make this
if you are enjoying the tutorial you can find more in this playlist
now it's assembled drop the LED in and close it up the paper curls and causes
gaps at the connections but we can fix that with some tape even if you have to
tape the outside of the box it blends in seamlessly with the lamination okay and
we're just about done the box top is curling and creating a noticeable gap
I'll tape it closed but what about the light these lights have features that I
didn't show you yet they are remote-controlled and I can even control
them through the box these lights I found came 5 2 a package so you can add
more accent pieces to your game room all controlled by a single remote I have
links to similar light packages in the description below two sided printing
opens up other possibilities as well with a hidden image printed inside you
can achieve some neat effects here are a couple of sample images to show you what
I mean
the lights have a dimming function too
perfect for use as a decorative nightlight for instance
lastly they can produce color lights too with this in mind I tried these designs
this project has spawned a few ideas that I'm experimenting on for possible
future videos I want to do more experiments with lights and two-sided
printing I'm also planning on making different game room decoration videos in
the future if you have another design that would look good as a decorative
light up please let us know in the comments
this might not be a project that you would like to try but by watching I hope
you still learned something I have several other gaming projects you can
check out I love replying to comments so join in
the conversation below thanks for tuning in and I hope to talk to you later
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