Light Up Floating Pennywise the Dancing Clown

This Light Up Pennywise has glowing orange LED lights and articulated head and legs. He floats suspended inside a glass jar. When you add a battery his eyes glow. Shake the jar lightly and he dances!

1. Pennywise printable template courtesy of YouTube, STICKYArt Channel, How To Make new "IT" (Pennywise Template Download) Dancing Clown Puppet. Pennywise will be approximately 8" tall when assembled."

2. 2-strand electrical wire, only thin wire is needed. 12" long

3. 2 Orange LED lights

4. Tape (I used basic scotch tape)

5. 1- 3V Lithium battery #CR2032

6. Glue Stick

7. (Optional) 2 Sheets- 2mm thick 9"x12" sticky back craft foam sheet

8. 1 Sheet- Heavyweight white poster board with minimum dimensions of 8.5"x14"

9. Large clean glass jar with metal lid. I used a 10" tall jar.

10. 2 Sheet Legal size white printer paper

11. Scissors

12. 3 Colored Pencils; white, red, orange

13. 3- 1/2" brass paper fasteners

14. Krazy Glue

15. Hammer

16. Small nail, big enough to make a hole the electrical wire can fit through.

17. Exacto Knife

18. Hole punch hand tool

19. Wire stripper

1. Click the YouTube link given in the supply list. In the text field you'll find a link to the Pennywise puppet template. Please be sure to read the artists comments regarding usage.

2. Once you've opened the Pennywise template, add Legal size paper to your printer and setup your printer to print Legal size. Adjust the "Fit" to "Shrink To Page." This creates a nice size completed Pennywise. You can use smaller paper and a smaller jar if your supplies are limited.

3. Allow the print to dry before touching.

4. Add a coat of glue to one side of the piece of heavyweight white board using your glue stick. Make sure to apply an even coat over the entire piece, lightly, without any goopy or lobby pieces.

5. Line up your newly printed image and place the back side of the paper directly on the glue prepped whiteboard. Pat down the paper onto the whiteboard making sure to eliminate any wrinkles and bubbles. This step allows your puppet to be far more rigid and durable than a puppet made of basic printer paper.

Pennywise is easier to color first then cut out. Use the Orange colored pencil for his hair, the Red colored pencil for his facial makeup, nose, lips, puff ball buttons and the puff ball on each shoe. Lastly, use the White colored pencil to color in his gloves and brighten up some of the darker shaded areas. This helps make him more visible in the jar. Don't worry, he will still be creepy!

1. Cut out each individual puppet piece staying as close to the outer edge of the image as is possible.The more neatly you cut the nicer the puppet.

2. Use a Hole Punch hand tool to punch out the white dot on the top of each leg. You'll insert the paper fasteners through the holes in a later step.

3. Use the Exacto knife to very carefully cut out the inside of each of Pennywise's eyes. Be careful so you don't make the eye holes too big! A tiny opening is enough to let the light through.

You'll notice in the first pic I've Krazy Glue'd the brass paper fastner directly to the back of Pennywise's head. I tried to get it about level with where his mouth is on the other side. In this image, I've also wired together 2 LED lights. Twist the long leg of one LED to the long leg of the other LED. Wrap that piece with tape. Then twist the short leg of one LED to the short leg of the other LED. Wrap that piece with tape so it doesn't touch the other twisted wires you did first. Now, use Krazy Glue to attach one LED behind each eye hole.

Take a look at the 2nd pic. I attached the head before doing the LED's, so I had to take it back off and add the lights. Don't do that! :)

Ok. Back to picture #2. Attach the brass fasteners for the legs to the back of the body using Krazy Glue. You'll have to eyeball it and decide how high or low you want the legs. Also, Make sure the glue is dry before you put the legs on the brass fasteners. If the glue isn't dry, it may dry to the legs and keep them from moving freely.

1. Use the hammer to tap two small nail holes through the top of the metal lid. Tap one hole as close to the center as possible and tap the second hole about 3/4" away.

2. Using the wire stripper, strip 1/2" of coating off both ends of each wire.

3. Remove the tape you placed on the twisted together longer legs of the LED's. Twist an exposed end of the red wire together with the longer legs then add a fresh piece of tape, wrap it around the twist and ensure it's tight and that the three twisted wires maintain contact. The long legs and the red wire are the POSITIVE lead.

4. Remove the tape you placed on the twisted together shorter legs of the LED's. Twist the exposed end of the black wire (obviously the same end of the wire you just used for the red side). Anyway, Twist the exposed end of the black wire into the two short LED wires you already twisted together earlier. Make sure they are all contacting and wrap tightly with a fresh piece of tape. Again, make sure they stay connected under the tape. Since it's Scotch tape, it's easy to see. The short legs and the black wire are the NEGATIVE lead.

4. Feed the other end of the wires up through the bottom of the cap into the holes you placed in the lid. The black wire should go through the center hole and the red wire through the other hole.Pull the wire up through the holes and hold the lid up, lifting Pennywise in all his awesomeness, and continue to pull the wires up until you like the distance between Pennywise and the Lid.

5. Do a quick test and place Pennywise down into the jar, setting the lid in place while looking in from the outside to see if you like the height at which Pennywise is displayed. Adjust the wire up and down to get him to 'float' where you want him. My jar has a nice curved top and I placed Pennywise to where his face is visible in the curve of the glass as I walk by. This creates an optical illusion that makes it appear that his head and eyes move as I look at him. I can't guarantee your jar is the same or that you can create this illusion, but have fun with the placement and see what you can create.

6. Once you are happy with the placement, place a piece of tape over the wires where they come out of the top of the lid. This will hold them in place so they don't shift while you lift Pennywise back out of the Jar.

7. Lay Pennywise, face down as shown in picture 3 above. Lay the lid bottom up and place a piece of tape across the wires at where they enter the bottom of the lid. Again, this helps keep Pennywise from shifting.

1. Let's test everything!

2. Gently turn over your lid to the top side as you gently turn over your Pennywise to face upwards.

3. Grab the 3V battery from your supplies. The top of the battery is the POSITIVE and will need to make contact with the red wire. The bottom of the batter is the NEGATIVE and will need to make contact with the black wire.

4. Hold the red exposed wire to the top of the battery and the black exposed wire to the bottom of the battery.

5. The Orange LED's will light as soon as contact is made.

Troubleshooting: Make sure you are holding the red wire to the top of the battery and the black wire to the bottom of the battery at the same time. If it still doesn't work, check the wires you twisted togehter on the back of the head. Make sure the long leg from each LED is twisted together with the red wire and taped tightly and maintaining contact. Make sure the short leg of each LED is twisted together with the black wire and taped tightly and maintaining contact. Make sure bare wire is connected. The metal must touch. Otherwise, try a new battery.

6. Once you have seen that both LED's light up, cut off any excess wire above the cap leaving only 1/2" of the red exposed wire above the cap and 1/4" of the black exposed wire remains above the cap. This should not change the depth of Pennywise, as you taped the wire on the bottom of the cap as well so it doesn't move.

7. Fold the center exposed wire (black) down onto the metal cap at a 90 degree angle so the wire maintains direct contact with the metal lid.

8. Leave the red exposed wire free. It's still taped on the underside of the cap and that's the only place it needs secured.

9. Set the lid/puppet contraption and battery aside for now.

Optional: I also found an image of the sewer from the movie, printed it on a sheet of legal sized paper, trimmed it down to the image and got rid of the white border, then glued it inside the jar as a cool background for Pennywise. This added to the creepy factor, but is completely optional! If you decide to do this, you'll have to do it before you add Pennywise to the jar and screw the lid into place.

Optional: I added sticky backed black foam around the outside of the jar so Pennywise is only viewable through a small open section in the front. If you decide to do this, place Pennywise in the jar and screw the lid into place before adding the foam so you know where to leave the opening. You want to be able to see all of Pennywise from the front. if you opted for the creepy image in the jar option, make sure you do it before you put Pennywise in the jar and add the foam to the outside.

Optional: I also fashioned a lid out of foam to cover up the metal jar lid. No specific pattern, I just made it up, my dudes.

Optional Option for the Options: If you opted for all the options, the foam on the outside hides the glue back of the sewer image. The sticky back black foam attaches completely clear so it looks nice inside the jar and on the outside.

1. Carefully lift the lid and Pennywise puppet. Place Pennywise down into the jar and screw the lid into place.

2. Place the battery, negative side down, onto the negative wire in the center of the lid....that's the one you bent over at a 90 degree angle and placed against the metal lid.

3. Hold the positive wire, the red one, onto the top of the battery. It will light immediately.

4. Use a piece of Scotch tape to hold the positive wire on the battery and the battery in place on the negative wire.

5. Remove the battery when you want to turn it off.

Just a few pics of the final product!

DON'T FORGET THAT HE WILL MOVE WHEN YOU GENTLY MOVE THE JAR!! Remember, Pennywise The Dancing Clown. Oh, and "we all float down here."

Enjoy your floating light-up dancing Pennywise in a jar with his sewer background!