Flexible Inter-Changeable Bookmark Book Light

Turn your favorite paper bookmark into an inter-changeable book-light with just a few easy steps.

After a few too many times of falling asleep with my bedroom lights ON while reading a book at night and having to put a book aside right when things got interesting, because the person next to me on a flight wanted the overhead light OFF, I decided to turn my favorite bookmark into a trusty-aide book light.

Ideal for regular travelers, night-time readers and just about any readers in general.

• Bookmark of your choice
• Conductive tape

• Hot glue gun with glue stick or Super glue

• LEDs (Adafruit LED sequins preferred)

• CR2032 battery

• Battery holder

• X-acto knife (scissors can also be used)

• Magnet (preferably neodymium, 1/2 inch diameter and 1/8 inch thickness)

• Optional- Soldering gun and solder

• Optional- Multi-meter to check connections

• Cut a rectangle in the center of your bookmark, as shown in the images.
• Make sure the width of the rectangle is just a little wider than the width of the magnet, you are using.
• Only cut 3 sides of the rectangle, do not cut the side closest to the top side of the bookmark. This little flap will be used to create the stand to keep the book light up-right.

• Stick the magnet, using glue, to the bottom of the rectangle that you just cut.
• Add conductive tape as shown in the picture. Make sure the tape covers the magnet. This is the positive voltage line of your circuit.

• Add conductive tape to the front side of the bookmark as shown in the figure.
• Connect the bottom strip of the 2 parallel strips (highlighted by the red box in the picture) to the strip on the backside of the bookmark. That's the positive voltage line of the circuit.
• The other strip that goes on the outer edge of the front side of the bookmark is the negative voltage line of the circuit.

• Place 4-5 LEDs on the parallel strips as shown in the figure.
• Make sure that the plus (+) sign on the LEDs are connected to bottom strip and the minus (-) sign on the LEDs are connected to the top strip.
• Secure the LEDs in place with more conductive tape. You can also additionally use glue to make the LEDs stay in place securely.
• Optional- solder the LEDs onto the conductive tape. This make the connection a little bit more secure.

• Remove the positive terminal of the battery holder (highlighted by the red circle in the image). It can be easily snipped off with a sharp pair of scissors.
• Alternately, covering the terminal with a lot of hot glue will also work. We essentially, do not want this piece of metal touching the conductive tape onto which we will be placing the battery holder.
• Now place the CR2032 battery (coin cell), into the holder.
• Stick the battery holder to the bottom of the bookmark with glue. Just place the glue on the center plastic part of the battery holder.
• Now, secure the negative terminal of the battery holder to the conductive tape (not the terminal that we snipped off or covered with hot glue previously).
• Secure the negative terminal by placing hot glue on one of the edges of the terminal. Make sure you use very little glue, so you don't cover the entire terminal with glue as we still need the metal part to be touching the conductive tape to make a solid connection.
• Now add more conductive tape to connect the negative side of the battery to the rest of your circuit.
• Alternatively, you can use solder to connect the negative terminal to the conductive tape (instead of glue and tape), to make a more secure connection.

• To convert the bookmark into a book light, pull on the rectangle with the magnet and snap the magnet onto the battery, the LED lights should turn ON.
• The book light can be converted back to a bookmark by snapping the magnet off of the battery and flattening it back to form.

Note: If the LED lights do not turn on when you snap the magnet onto the battery, check the connection of the battery and LEDs and make sure it's secure.