Image00

Greetings all,
At a recent art and craft show a vendor had pictures with small lights somehow mounted behind them. It made the picture look as though lights were on in a house, lights on a special Christmas tree out in the woods, a star shining, real Northern Lights.....has anyone seen these or know how to make them.....the vendor was not available for questions.....
Thanks for your info! :-D :-D

amma

you drill holes in the pictures where you want the lights and poke them through from the back. We used a clear flexible caulking to hold them in place. Make sure you get it around the plastic, not around the inside of the socket. We put burnt out bulbs in the areas of the string that did not show. staple the wires down to keep them in place too. Make sure you buy the strings of lights that stay on when one bulb goes out. You may want to make a shadow box for these, so that the lights in the back don't show on the sides of the paintings. The little LED lights would work well or the smallest twinkie type too... sometimes it is fun to use two strings so that some twinkle and some don't. :D:D:D

amma

Another way is to drill holes, cover them on the back with colored cellophane. then you can put a small sting of lights behind and the lights will shine through too. you build a shadow box for this way also.

Image00

Amma, thanks so much....the picture looked so real ...one could almost wonder.....what was going on inside the little house.....and the bear was sitting in the snow at the wonder of the Christmas tree out there in the middle of the woods....amazing....thanks again!! :D :D

amma

Some of the aspects of the pictures could be cut around, like a person sitting in a window, leave the person, cut around him, leave the curtains if there are any, put gold cellophane behind that so it looks like the house lights are on behind him... You could fix a light to spotlight on the bear...add some opalescent glittery paint to the snow around him....
There are so many different ways of doing these type of pictures :D:D:D

grammatjr

I have seen those at Hobby Lobby, and was fascinated! I am now doing an art quilt, where I will have lights. I planned to just do a tiny buttonhole type hole (securing top, batting and back fabrics) where I want the lights to show through, then sew a sheer fabric under the opening, and pin a string of lights in place behind (I want to be able to remove the lights in case ever I need to wash the quilt). For the lights, I purchased a blinking necklace after Halloween. One thing if you want to buy this: the lights are not something inside a casing, where you can remove the outer casing to expose the light, it is all one piece, so you would want to get a color that will work for you. I bought one jack-o-latern and one ghost, so they would show through the sheer yellow fabric slightly different if I used both on one quilt. After Halloween Walgreens had these necklaces for about 50 cents. They can be steady or blinking. Good luck with your project, be sure to add pics!

Shemjo

Thanks for sharing this information.