All you need is love...

Since my retirement last summer, I've picked up small teaching job and am volunteering at our local high school ag department. This week I met with five students and we have two IBC containers that we're getting aquaponics started in for the semester. If my experience is anything like in the past with aquaponics, that number of interested students will grow quickly!

However, the latest craze we have been exploring are using SMD LEDs to create holiday cards. We created a few for Christmas...but with Valentine's Day on the horizon we wanted to do something a little more impressive {if you're going to give your Valentine something, it's worth the effort to look good, right?!}. Check it out! Our technology experience is growing, too.

We even made a GIF.

For real.

We're getting pretty savvy around here...

via GIPHY

To make this card yourself, you can get our step-by-step directions by clicking here, or I can give you a rough breakdown. Basically you need three pieces of paper or cardstock, some SMD LEDs, (we used four in our example), copper tape, a coin battery, and some creativity!

Decorate your paper in any card style you'd like. On one piece, you'll need to decorate the "outside" to make a card, on the other, you'll decorate the "inside" and leave the back side blank. These will be fitted together at the end.

Run your tape to create a parallel circuit. Place your LEDs and battery in place, testing your LEDs as you go along. Take your third piece of paper, cut to fit over the copper wiring. Punch holes on that third piece of paper so that you can see the LEDs. We also cut a heart out of the middle so the lights really shine through! Tape the inside message to the outside message, fold, and send to your love. Full step-by-step directions can be found here.