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Christmas Trees, Hot Glue, and LED's...

11/9/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
Video Below:

The holidays are always an interesting time to think about different kinds of craft ideas and I must admit that I sometimes just get too busy with other projects to make the time to construct something unusual. But, this year I wanted to try a new approach to the traditional Christmas tree concept.
The idea for hot glue Christmas trees stems from my original method of making color hot glue sticks (YouTube video here) and the fact that hot glue does not form an adhesive with parchment paper; this is due to the fact that the parchment paper is coated with silicone and can withstand temperatures of around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. So, it seemed like a good candidate for some experiments using a parchment paper cone as a template.
The best way to light the resulting trees was to use LED’s (light emitting diodes) of different colors and effects. They are easy to obtain and by far the easiest is to find dollar store items that use LED's and simply use them. But, there are many sources on the web and I have bought many of mine from the Electronics Goldmine here. This is not an endorsement; just another surplus electronic site that has been a good source for my needs. So enjoy the video and add comments and questions about the project.


1 Comment
Martha
12/24/2016 04:13:22 am

The small electronic tealights are pretty cheap too, although they're only white, I think. However, it seems you could maybe put some of the simple colored plastic bulb inserts into the holes you 'punched', which would mean that a simple white or clear light would show colored through them. And the tealights are sold year-round, at the dollar stores and almost everyplace else, so buying early might even be cheaper.

For your base construction, you could probably also use freezer paper or the backing from sticky labels. One caution - there are cheap parchment papers and some similar products called "patty paper" that are thinner than the regular parchment paper. The glue wouldn't stick to it, but the heat resistance is lower. This was discovered when I had some polymer clay items baking at 275 deg F, and my toaster oven had some flaming issues... a lot of them, causing the death of one toaster oven. Unplugging didn't help, the paper was in full flame, since toaster ovens don't seal air out. I'm not sure how hot the hot glue gets, but perhaps the 'cool glue' glue guns would work without issues. Just a caution, that's all.

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