Artistic Embellishment With Circuit Scribe

For a simple makerspace project, I wanted to embellish thrift store artwork using electronic kits. This project uses Circuit Scribe & basic kit components to embed an LED in artwork to create an interesting and simple effect. While more cost-effective solutions exist for an LED embedded art project, Circuit Scribe components are easy to pick up and start playing with.

This was created at the Tech Valley Center of Gravity using a Circuit Scribe provided by the Instructables Build Night program.

Start with the Circuit Scribe base kit and a paper-based piece of art to embellish.

You'll also need a blank piece of paper & a regular pen/pencil.

For this project, I used the blue to red LED, the battery component (pictured above), the circuit stencil, and the magnetic backing board from the Circuit Scribe kit.

Place the blank piece of paper on the magnetic board provided with the kit. Use the circuit tracing tool to trace the circuit you'd like to use. Initially draw the circuit with regular pen/pencil until the underlying elements line up with the artwork overlay you working with.

For an artwork embellishment, line up the embedded LED in the center of the circuit with the area in the piece of art you'd like to embellish. The artwork lays over underlying circuitry so sketching out the background work can be a little bit tricky.

You'll notice that for this circuit, the position of the LED is marked by an "X" (in normal ink) and the contacts are drawn with the Circuit Scribe ink.

When you're confident that your underlying circuit will light bring the embellishment you desire to your artwork, use the Circuit Scribe pen to lay down a layer of conductive ink.

When your Circuit Scribe ink has dried, line up the contacts on the circuit. Here I used the magnetic backboard that comes with the kit to help stabilize my work. The magnetic backboard really simplifies the process.

Turn the battery powered switch to "on" and confirm that your LED lights up.

Lay your artwork over your components, as designed. The LEDs will glow through to add embellishment to your artwork.

If you're working with heavier card stock, you may need to modify the overlay with pinholes to allow the light to filter through pleasingly.