Homemade Marquee Signs
I've had this desire for a while now to make a light-up marquee sign. You've seen them - those signs sold in craft stores that have large letters with light bulbs inside of them. They easily run $60-$100 each.
Before our wedding, I wanted to create some marquee signs to hang around our reception room. The signs would say things like "LOVE", "H", "MR. & MRS.", and so forth... In an effort to make this happen, after Christmas 2013 had passed, Home Depot had Christmas lights at drastically reduced prices. So, I bought several boxes of the Christmas lights and then ordered small lamp light bulbs online for them. Unfortunately, the wedding came and went and that project was shelved for a time. It would have been too time consuming considering all the other things that needed to happen!
Our "Craft Room" has a few items around it that light up, and ever since we moved into our new house I had this thought that the word "CREATE" needed to be on one of the walls. And it needed to be made of marquee letters with light bulbs in it. Since I basically had all the supplies I would need, I went for it.
In the midst of that idea, my wife and I stumbled upon a marquee we both liked at Michael's (an image of this can be found in the picture folder below or HERE). The marquee said, "EAT" and had the smaller, half inch Christmas lights in it. We thought this would look so cool in our kitchen. Something I tend to say is, "I can make that myself"... So with that, I made the sign from scratch. What does that entail you say? Well, it entails smaller, old Christmas lights we already had, foam core, frame matting, hot glue and a hammered silver spray paint. It turned out great!
Now, back to my "CREATE" sign. This sign was a little larger and more involved. It required more letters than the "EAT" sign, obviously, and larger lights. I made it basically the same way I made the "EAT" sign, using foam core, frame matting, hot glue, the Christmas strands intended for our wedding, bulbs from online, and bright, glossy-red spray paint. The matting took a few coats of red to get it just right. I added a dimmer switch to the mix because the sign is pretty bright otherwise. I did this to the "EAT" sign too.
I found just the right place for the "CREATE" sign and hung it up by a support I added to the back of it.
Check out the process I went through to make these signs in my photo album below. I hope it helps you better understand how to make your own light-up marquee sign!
-The Media Buff
