TETRIS lightbox decor made from Valentine's Day chocolate boxes #Decor DIY#decor#valentine's day Updated Oct 12 2015 (Posted Feb 9 2012) Guest post by Jessica Charlton Having a geeky wedding and looking for something to deck the bare walls of your venue? Try making your own simple, affordable Tetris lightboxes out of those candy boxes so easily found around Valentine's Day. What you'll need: candy boxes with lids, any size/shape (post-holiday clearance sales are an excellent time to grab these) pencil ruler straight edge X-acto knife spray paint drop cloth crepe paper tape small battery-operated lights push-in mounts (like OOK prong hangers) How you'll make it: Using your pencil, ruler, and straight edge, draw your Tetris pieces on the inside of a chocolate box lid. I made 2" squares but left about 1/8" space between each to make their division show up easily when the lightboxes are illuminated. (Note: candy box lids often have 3D elements or textures; if you can find boxes with two smooth sides, great. If you can only get your hands on the textured guys, do like I did and use the flat bottom as the "right side.") Grab your X-acto knife and cut the squares out. Always protect your working surfaces with something forgiving; an old magazine or a cutting mat like the green one I own. Lay down a drop cloth in a well-ventilated area (I also use boxes if I don't have a large space to work in). Spray paint the outside of the lid, fully covering any writing or pictures. Allow to dry overnight at least. Cut pieces of crepe paper to cover the cutouts and tape them to the inside of the lid. Play around with how many sheets of crepe paper to layer; lighter colors may require many layers while darker colors may require fewer. Attach your battery-operated lights inside the point of the heart, facing one way. My submergeable lights have convenient clips on them, but you can also use Velcro on lights that don't have that feature, so you can take the lights out as needed to turn them on and off. Grab the other side of the candy box and press a prong hanger into it near the top. Flick on the light and fit both sides of the candy box together. Hang it up and watch it glow. I made a few different classic Tetris shapes, and wish I had made even more still. Try and arrange 'em to get the most points! Jessica Charlton Jessica Charlton's weapon of choice has always been an embroidery needle; her work has been featured on mrxstitch.com and feelingstitchy.com. She produces and teaches crafts of many kinds, and notably taught two years in a row at maximumfun.org's delightful comedy podcasting sleepaway camp, MaxFunCon. Never able to focus too long on just one inspiration, Offbeat Bride allows her to work on diverse projects, and for that she is grateful. PREVIOUS The perfect Save the Dates for your Harry Potter-themed wedding NEXT Vintage snack: a look at one couple then and now Show/Hide comments [ 4 ] This is a great idea! I may try it out on some Christmas boxes. Reply This is brilliant! You could do all manner of geeky 8 bit love lamps with this idea. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! Reply This is SUCH a cool idea! It makes me want to play tetris. 🙂 Reply I can't put anything on the walls of my venue 🙁 but I LOVE this idea so much….I might make some to put around my apartment year round! lol Reply Join the conversation Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. Make sure you're familiar with our no-drama comment policy. Biz owners & wedding bloggers Please just use your real name in your comment, not your business name or blog title. Our comments are not the place to pimp your website. If you want to promote your stuff on Offbeat Bride, join us as an advertiser instead.
This is brilliant! You could do all manner of geeky 8 bit love lamps with this idea. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! Reply
I can't put anything on the walls of my venue 🙁 but I LOVE this idea so much….I might make some to put around my apartment year round! lol Reply