The Earth Genesis Rainbow: a Subtly Animated Double Sided 'Evolution of the Earth' Picture Light Box.

Hi dear reader. Today we will be looking at making a rainbow inspired art/display project which I call...

'The Earth Genesis Rainbow'.

The Project:

This DIY project is a representation of the beginning of the Earths evolution, shown in a six tiled image, and displayed in an illuminated double sided picture box. This project uses a few easily accessible and inexpensive materials, a few basic tools, and if you wish to make your own rainbow inspired art piece, your wonderful imagination. The box is made from some scrap MDF, clear acrylic sheets, some LED lighting, and of course the pictures. I created the pictures on my laptop with a PC draw/paint program, and designed the box as a four sided wooden frame along with some white vinyl wrap and LED lighting to illuminate and subtly animate the pictures. But why a double sided picture box? Well as you have probably already seen in the pictures, I wanted to make a Symbolization Key. This key gives a brief description of the first six evolutionary stages of the beginning of the Earth, and the reasoning for my chosen colour themes for each tile, all written on a rainbow coloured backdrop.

A six tiled picture showing the journey of Earths evolution using a rainbow colour to best symbolize each tile, along with a rainbow coloured description for each tile and the reason for the colours used, displayed in a double sided light box with an added subtle animation effect.

The Inspiration:

I good friend of mine had a birthday due and I was racking my brain for what to buy or make for her. She loves colours and does a lot of art and decorating painting as well as knitting with bright vivid colours. She also loves everything science, but I was struggling for ideas for something unique. While I was treating myself to my regular browse through Instructables, I saw the "Colours of The Rainbow Contest" that was currently running which started giving me a few rough ideas for using colour as the main theme. Then the idea of incorporating science and colours by the way of making a six tiled picture depicting the birth cycle in six sections and using the main colours of the rainbows, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple that best represented the six cycles along with a personal description key, displayed in a double sided picture light box with a flickering light effect behind each tile.

The Making:

1. The Main part was the pictures. Each tile of the main picture I made uses many different shades of a single colour to make the image. The other picture would be a simple rainbow coloured themed background displaying the Key text. These were made using Microsoft Paint 3D.
2. The 4 sided box frame was made from some MDF cut offs from a previous project which would be vinyl wrapped during assembly.
3. The inside of the box uses white vinyl wrap maximize and disperse the lighting more evenly.
4. As for the lighting, I used LEDs because of their low power consumption and low heat dispersal. I used a 1 meter Cool White LED strip to illuminate both pictures, and around 15 light flickering white LEDs mounted to a clear acrylic sheet to give the six picture tiles the subtle illusion of movement.
5. This was all finished off using four sheets of 1mm clear acrylic, two for the outside of the pictures, and two on the back side of the pictures covered with a thin white vinyl sheet to evenly distribute the light from the LED strip. Some coloured filter gels were also added to make the colours of each tile really stand out. The box was also designed so the pictures and acrylic sheets could easily be removed for maintenance. And as an added bonus, when lit, the box produces a nice backlighting effect from behind the box onto a wall. The video and GIFs don't really do the pictures and animated effect justice as the look much better in real life.

So put on your preferred chillout playlist for this is relaxing, chilled out, fun and rewarding build.

Lets get to it...

Having a feline assistant is optional!

Tools:

1. A pencil
2. Marker pen
3. Ruler (preferably a metal one to use as a knife cutting guide)
4. Hobby knife (an Exact 'o type knife was my choice)
5. Pair of scissors
6. Cutting board
7. Tape measure
8. Wood glue (my preferred internal glue is Titebond 2,)
9. Hot glue gun
10. Nail gun (or hammer and nails)
11. Hammer
12. Vinyl wrap/window film squeegee (or any small, flat, smooth item like a credit card)
13. A saw to cut sheet wood (I used a Jigsaw, but a circular saw or hand saw is just as good)
14. Hacksaw
15. Drill (with bits the diameter of the LED strip cable, and diameter of rocker switch)
16. Wire cutters
17. Computer
18. Colour printer
19. Woodworking corner clamps (optional, but useful)
20. Small tip soldering iron (to make the LED mounting holes in the acrylic, or use a drill bit such as a 'Step drill bit' for making holes in acrylic without cracking it)

Materials:

1. A4 white paper (or a picture with a white back so light can shine through)
2. MDF wood (or similar material of your choice)
3. White Foamcore card
4. 1 meter LED strip lights
5. Fifteen 3v to 12v prewired white LEDs with flickering effect (The link is for reference as it goes to a U.K store, so check your own local suppliers to save on shipping costs)
6. Wire connecters
7. 5 x 1mm clear acrylic sheet, A4 size
8. Rocker On/Off switch (or similar) and a small length of wire
9. A length of "L" shaped 90 degree profile strip
10. Clear sellotape
11. White vinyl wrap for the inside of the box (or you could use paint instead)
12. Patterned/coloured vinyl wrap for the outside of the box (again, you could also paint it or leave it bare)

OPTIONAL: A pack of coloured lighting gel filters (coloured transparent card). Placed on the back of the inside acrylic sheet, this enhances the colour of the 'Earth' picture tiles when illuminated. The pictures themselves look good without the gels, and although I say it's optional, adding them makes a big difference so it's recommended.

As I mentioned previously, to make the pictures the now depreciated Microsoft Paint 3D was my weapon of choice and is what I will use as the example in this, and the next step. I have used MS Paint/Paint 3D for years ever since they became available, so I'm pretty well used to how it all works and what can be achieved and generally use it for drawing up my project design plans as well as other things too. MS Paint and Paint 3D stopped being supplied on Windows computers when Windows 11 was released, but I managed to retain a copy of it to use on my Win 11 laptop. But anyway, with some patience and some lateral thinking you can achieve some pretty cool stuff with it, although I am well aware that there are better and more feature rich painting/drawing software products out there. So, onto the design of 'The Earth Genesis Rainbow'.

For reference, "Side A" is the 6 tiled picture side, and "Side B" for the symbolization key picture.

1. The idea I came up with for side A was the six tiled picture, each depicting the six stages or Earths evolution and the colours of the rainbow which best symbolize each stage, and a 'key' or list to go on side B which would give a brief written paragraph explaining each colour choice...
2. RED - The Fiery Birth
3. ORANGE - The cooling Crust
4. YELLOW - The Spark of Life
5. GREEN - Photosynthesis and Oxygenation
6. BLUE - The Water World
7. PURUPLE - The Rise of Complexity
8. The size of the light box would be dependent on the pictures. To make it a nice portable size but not too big, I decided A4 would be a good size, (especially since A4 was the biggest paper my printer could handle).
9. Next was how to display them. A wooden frame, top, base and two sides with some "L" shaped 90 degree profile strips attached to the top and bottom edges of each side of the box frame so the pictures/acrylic panels would slide and sit in between.
10. The clear acrylic sheets would sandwich the pictures. The inner side would be covered with a thin white vinyl wrap, thin enough to let light pass through. Corresponding coloured filter gels would also be attached to these inner sheets. The outer sheets simply protect the pictures from the outside.
11. The inside of the frame would be covered with a white self adhesive vinyl sheet to reflect the LED lighting strip. The LED strip would run around the inside middle of the frame to evenly light both pictures.
12. The flickering LEDs would be situated directly behind the tiles on side A, mounted to a clear acrylic sheet. Being directly behind the picture would give a direct point of light making flickering bright spots that would be visible over the brightness of the main LED strip. The light flicker would give the images a subtle sense of motion like heat vapors from the sun or rippling water.
13. All of the lights would be connected together in parallel to be powered by a 5 volt USB power supply.
14. An On/Off power switch would be added to one side of the box connected to the lights. The cable would run through the bottom of the box, which would have little feet attached, so the box can easily be turned around to view the other picture without having to move the cable very much. A small handle fixed to the top of the box would also help turning the box, as well as carrying it.
15. With the plan in my head, I drew up some design plans with an Order of Operation list on my laptop using MS Paint. With that done, it's time to gather tools and materials, and start making.

So here's the breakdown of how I made 'The Earth Genesis Rainbow' picture tiles and symbolization key picture. I started with the red fiery birth image which I will use as an example in this step.

1. Open up MS Paint 3D (or your preferred drawing program or method), select 'New', then make your blank canvas size to match A4 sizing. 3508 pixels wide and 2480 pixels height worked pretty well for me as an A4 to pixel conversion. For safety in case of unexpected program closures etc. save this and name it "Main Picture".
2. Now open up a second instance of Paint 3D (this means having two Paint 3D programs open at the same time). Now make another blank canvas the same A4 size, divide it into 6 equal squares using the Line tool, select and crop one of the squares to make a single tile. You can zoom in to make it larger to make it easier to work on. As above, save this as "Tile 1". (keep saving your work regularly throughout your drawing).
3. Now you can start making your first tile. Draw backgrounds first, then adding layer after layer of foreground drawings and shadings to create perspective. As you can see in the pictures above, I started with a black background, then a large orange circle for the sun, then used different tools, thicknesses and transparency levels to draw the volcano formations and heat vapors mainly using reds and oranges. Normally I would make my drawings with black pen lines first, but for this project I used the darker hues of the colour in question, red in this instance. Then it was just a matter of using the RGB colour picker to change the shade of red and dark oranges, with some blacks thrown in for depth and shadows. I found that the Crayon, Spray Can, and Paint Brush tools were the best ones to use, sometimes using the Pen tool as well.
4. Once this picture was finished, to complete it with some faint colour tinting. I chose the Square tool and drew a square to cover the whole picture, then chose both the 'Border' and 'Fill' colours as red, and then lowered the transparency level to give the whole image a red hue, but not dark enough to loose the image details or make it washed out. For the six individual tile images, the colour transparency levels differed for each image.
5. With the Arrow tool selected, select the whole image, copy it, then switch to the other Paint 3D instance and paste the tile onto the blank A4 sized canvas, drag and align it to the top left corner, and save it.
6. Jump back to the Paint 3D instance with the tile, draw a filled black square over it, hit "Save As" and name it "Tile 2". Repeat the above processes until you have all six image tiles made, tinted and pasted/saved onto the A4 canvas.
7. Print the image off, checking the print preview first to make sure your printing in landscape, colour, A4 sized, a high quality image set, no borders set, and to make sure your new artwork is correctly showing in the preview pane. If the picture is cut off or too small with large borders, go back to Paint, select the image, resize it, the save it keeping MS Paint 3D open as this will enable you to keep editing the images while being able to undo anything with the Undo tool. And using the print preview will save valuable ink, paper and frustration.
8. The next job was to make the Symbolization Key image. With a new Paint 3D project open, and again using a blank landscape A4 sized canvas, I simply made six equal sized rainbowed coloured blocks using the Square tool with the border and fill options the same colours. Each box's transparency was dropped to 70% and slightly overlapped each other. Then after the text was structured, I used the Text tool and wrote down the six symbolization paragraphs over the corresponding coloured boxes. This was then saved and printed. Both pictures were then set aside in a safe, flat place.

The font name I used for the key was 'Frank Ruhl Hofshi', the font size was 22, and text colour was black with the headings in bold. Below are the Symbolization Key paragraphs, please feel free to copy and use them if you like (they are in U.K spelling as that's where I from)...

1. Red - The Fiery Birth. This phase symbolises Earth's violent beginnings - a molten world shaped by cosmic collisions and relentless volcanic eruptions. The red reflects the searing magma, flowing lave, and the raw elemental energy that forged our planet.
2. Orange - The Cooling Crust. As the planet began to cool, Earth transitioned from fire to form. The first solid crust emerged - volcanic rock and mineral foundations glowing faintly like embers. Orange reflects the lingering heat, the warmth beneath the surface, and the slow formation of the planet's first skin.
3. Yellow - The Spark of Life. With a stable crust and emerging oceans, conditions ripened for life's origin. Yellow embodies the sun's nurturing light, the energy driving chemical reactions in Earth's primordial soup. It was the golden age of microbial potential.
4. Green - Photosynthesis & Oxygenation. Life learned to harness sunlight - photosynthetic organisms flooded the seas, transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen. Green represents not only chlorophyll but the first whispers of atmospheric change and global transformation.
5. Blue - The Water World. With oxygen and time, Earth's skies and seas turned blue. Oceans deepened and expanded, stabilising the climate and cradling biodiversity. Blue captures the serenity and power of water, the element that would define life on Earth.
6. Purple - The Rise of Complexity. Purple symbolises wisdom, transformation, and the unfolding of advanced life. Forests grew, ecosystems flourished, and intelligent species emerged. It's the colour of imagination and evolution - a nod to Earth's future as much as its past.

With the artwork finished, it's time to make them a new home.

Top Tips:

If you don't want or are unable to open two instances of MS Paint 3D, you can make the individual tile pictures and save each one as a separate file. Then you can simply insert them one at a time onto the blank A4 canvas. But having two instances open helped me with the people/animal silhouettes in the purple tile as I could draw these separately on a white canvas, then use the 'Magic Select' tool to basically crop them and directly copy the image, swap to the other instance and paste it on to the tile. I tried to colour fill the people/animals with a dark purple but it just didn't look right so left them black, but the Magic Select tool left a faint white outline around them which I actually liked as it defined their shapes better.

Although I mentioned that I selected the 'No borders' option for my printer, I did actually make a small boarder in Paint 3D to take into account the thickness of the MDF frame as the pictures would sit on top, not inside of the front/back of the frame. This was so the edge of the frame wouldn't obscure the back lighting shining on the actual pictures/tiles.

And don't forget to use the Undo and Redo tools, your best friends in drawing programs I think.

The box is based on the size of an A4 sheet of paper. A4 in landscape = 297mm long x 210mm high, and the MDF I used is 12mm think.

1. Measure, mark and then cut 4 MDF pieces, two pieces at 297mm long x 145mm wide (for the top and base), and two panels at 186mm long x 145mm wide (for the two sides). Lightly sand to clean the edges.
2. On one of the side pieces, evenly spread wood glue on one of the 145mm edge. Put the other end on your work surface then lay the 145mm wide edge of the top piece onto the glue. Making sure the two pieces are evenly square to each other, nail the two pieces together (use the other side piece at the other end of the top piece as a support while nailing). Wipe any excess glue away. (the joins of the wood should be visible on the sides of the frame, not the top or bottom as the length of the top and base pieces are the exact same length of the A4 acrylic. See the pictures for an example).
3. Continue with the other side piece, flip the box frame over and attach the bottom piece the same way.
4. If you have corner clamps, clamp these in all four corners of the frame while the glue is still wet, as this will help make the frame square. Leave them on for an hour or so until the glue dries, then remove the clamps. If you don't have corner clamps, hold the frame against a 90 degree area like a floor and wall and put some weight on the other end.
5. Lay out, measure, mark and cut some white vinyl sheet that will cover the inside of the frame. You can make it longer so the two end over laps, and slightly wider so you can trim the excess off with a sharp knife when wrapping is finished (this helps to get full coverage without trying to line the vinyl up while applying it).
6. Peel the wrap backing off a little bit, put the vinyl inside the frame, and start attaching it from the middle of the base. Then, using a vinyl/window fil squeegee or even a credit card, slowly pull the vinyl backing off while sliding the squeegee over the vinyl, sticking it to all sides. It's a fiddly job, but the further you get, the easier it gets.
7. Using a sharp blade like an exact-o knife with new blade fitted, cut off any excess vinyl and go over the whole surface with a clean cloth ensuring its is all stuck down.
8. Now turn the frame up side down, measure and mark the centre of the base, the drill a hole the same about the same diameter as the LED strip cable. Hold of clamp a piece of scrap wood on the inside of the frame where you are going to drill for a nice clean hole.
9. Now turn the box onto its side then measure/ mark a hole for the power switch, then with the scrap piece of wood on the under side again, drill the hole. I used a Forstner drill bit, but any sized drill bit or a spade drill
10. bit the diameter of the switch housing will do depending on the size switch you use.
11. If you are vinyl covering the outside of the box frame, follow the same procedure when covering the inside of the box (this will be less fiddley) to cover the outside of the box. Use the knife to cut out the small piece of vinyl from the power switch location. And this step is now complete.

Top tips:

If you get air bubbles or creases while applying the vinyl, you can remove bubble by piercing them with the tip of the knife and smoothing them over. But don't worry too much about it as it really doesn't matter because it's not going to be seen by anyone and the vinyl is only there to reflect the light.

When using a nail gun, do not put your hands anywhere near where the nails travel area. Blowouts and rapid double fires will turn them little fiends into blood seeking projectiles, going to places where they shouldn't. And if your hand is anywhere near, once them nails taste blood, they will want more. So please be careful.

And if you don't want to use vinyl wrap, leftover white paint works just as well.

A two stage step for the clear acrylic sheets. Four sheets of A4 sized (297mm x 210mm) of clear acrylic are used here, two sheets for each picture. The pictures are sandwiched in between the two acrylic sheets. The sheet that goes behind the picture is for light dispersal and added colour. The sheet that goes in front of the picture is to simply protect it, just like a standard picture frame.

1. Clean your flat work surface area then remove the protective film covering from the acrylic sheets.
2. Using one of the sheets, lay it flat on the work surface, cut a length of white vinyl sheet slightly oversized to the acrylic sheet.
3. Lay the vinyl upside down, peel a small amount of backing paper off and fold it flat, turn the vinyl over, line it up with the acrylic and start to attach the vinyl. Make sure the vinyl overhangs the acrylic on all sides.
4. Slowly pull the backing paper back while using a squeegee to smooth over and attach the vinyl. Take care not to pull and stretch the vinyl too much to avoid creases and air bubbles.
5. When vinyl is fully attached, smooth over the surface with a clean cloth, flip the sheet over and place on a cutting surface. Go around the edges with a knife cutting off the excess vinyl.
6. Flip the sheet over again and remove any air bubbles by piercing them with a pin or the tip of the knife. Slowly smooth over the area with the squeegee then give it a firm wipe over with the cloth.
7. Set aside and follow the same procedure on the second acrylic sheet.

Skip this following section if you choose not to use the coloured filter gels.

The pack of filter gels I had didn't have orange or purple filters. So for the orange picture tile I used yellow which worked well, and I used a clear purple document file (although the natural purple of the picture showed up quite well illuminated, on its own). You can see in the last two pictures of the Symbolization Key with and without the filter gels. The second to last is with the finished filters added, and the last picture is with just the white vinyl covered acrylic on the illuminated box. The picture looks good, but the colours looked a little washed out which is why I decided to add filters to this picture as well.

1. Measure the size of one of your equally sized picture tiles, then draw out and cut a paper template.
2. Hold the template against a corner of a filter, the cut the filter square out. Do the same with the other coloured filters with the exception of the yellow filter. As there is no orange filter, cut a yellow one as a rectangle, double the size of the other squares.
3. Remove the protective film from the filters and set aside. Now place one of the covered acrylic sheets on your work surface, white vinyl side up (the filters will be stuck directly to the vinyl).
4. Starting with the red picture tile, place the picture on top of the acrylic sheet so it's perfectly lined up, then flip up the pictures corner and mark with a pencil of pen where the top right corner of the picture lays on the white vinyl.
5. Now place the red filter onto the vinyl, with the top right corner lined up with the mark and making sure the filter is lined up square to the edges of the acrylic sheet. Now cut a short length of sellotape and attach the filter to the white vinyl. The follow up by attaching the rest of the coloured filters.
6. Now place the picture onto the acrylic sheet on top of the coloured filters, then place a clear acrylic sheet on top of the picture. Put to one side for now, or lay the box frame on its back, lay the LED strip inside (see 'Top tips' below), put the picture on top of the frame and test it.
7. Now grab the other white vinyl covered acrylic sheet, lay it on the work surface vinyl side up again, and follow the above procedures to cut and attach filter strips for the Symbolization Key picture. Time to move to the next step.

Top tips:

When attaching the white vinyl to the acrylic sheet for the light diffuser, if you have to use two strips to cover the acrylic sheet, don't overlap the vinyl as the overlap will show up through the picture when the lights are on.

If you want to test the lighting effect for the filtering, you can do what I did and temporarily stick the LED strip to the box frame with some sellotape, then remove the tape when you're done.

When you have attached the first coloured filer to the acrylic with a single strip of sellotape, you could test it not to make sure it is lined up okay. As I mentioned, place the box frame onto its back and drop the LED strip inside, turn it on a place the acrylic on top along with the picture. It's from here that you will see if the filter is aligned with the tile or if it needs slight adjustment. simply unpeel or cut the tape with a knife, and realign the filter. The first square will be your guide to attaching the rest evenly.

And instead of using the self-adhesive white vinyl, you can purchase and use frosted or opaque acrylic. I did it my way as the acrylic I purchased came in a pack of 10, and I had the vinyl in my storage cupboard.

As previously mentioned, for the main lighting I used a white 5 volt USB LED strip. The power cable has two wires, a red positive and a black negative wire. The flicker LEDs came prewired with red and black wires also, and all of the lights would be connected together in parallel. This is a solder free lighting system using wire connectors. The GIFs were converted from a couple of short videos for a test of the lighting to see how effective the flickering effect would be, and to work out how to get the best effect.

1. At this point you can now fit the power switch. Check to make sure it works, then simply press fit the switch into the hole on the side of the box frame. We will connect this in the next step.
2. Cut the USB power cable of the LED strip leaving a short length on the strip, but long enough to work with.
3. Strip the outer cover of the LED cable then strip the red and black wires. Now do the same on the USB cable.
4. Peel back the adhesive backing and starting from the centre of the base near the drilled hole for the power cable, attach the LED strip around the middle of the box frame, gently pushing the strip down to make it stick firmly. Avoid sticking the strip over the drilled power cable and switch holes.
5. Put the longer length of the power cable to one side for now. We will connect this later.

Top tips:

Some may know this, some may not so this may be helpful. Here is the differences between 'in series' and 'parallel' in electrical wiring: Using three 3 volt lights and a battery as an example, 'in series' is where the three lights are like a daisy chain. Parallel is like a tree, all of the branches join to the same trunk. Or another way of putting it, series is all or nothing, parallel is every man for himself.

Series: The positive wire from light 1 goes to the battery positive terminal and the negative wire from light 1 connects to the positive wire on light 2... The negative wire from light 2 connects to the positive wire from light 3... The negative wire from light 3 goes back and connects to the negative terminal of the battery. If one light fails, all three will stop working (3v+3v+3v = 9v battery needed but use the same current).

Parallel: The positive wires from all three lights connect together. The negative wires from all three lights connect together. All three joined positive wires connect to the positive battery terminal, and all three joined negative wires connect to the negative battery terminal. If one light fails, the other two will still work. (three 3v lights in parallel will still use a 3v battery, but the current increases).

Series shares the current... parallel shares the voltage.

Now we move onto the flickering LEDs which is a bit more involved than fitting the strip above, but it's not hard at all. What we are doing here is essentially making a light board with a clear acrylic sheet, where we position the LEDs directly behind the picture tiles to make flickering hot spots. The clear acrylic gives a nice solid surface to attach the lights to while still allowing the light from the LED strip to pass through. So here's how it was done.

1. Measure, mark and cut the clear acrylic sheet to the size of the inside of the box frame, about 273mm long x 186mm high. Cut the acrylic by holding a metal edge ruler along the cut line and score along the line several times with a knife with a new, sharp blade. Then lay the sheet on a solid flat surface and carefully snap the access off. If it doesn't break off, score along the line again a few more times then try again.
2. Lay the Earth Rainbow picture of the work surface facing up, place the acrylic sheet on top of the picture and use a marker pin to make dots where you want to mount the LEDs. Keeping in mind that the acrylic sheet has now been cut smaller than A4, so line the sheet up so it covers the picture tiles. (Placement and the amount of the LEDs used was dependent on the tile subject: as an example the more volatile red tile depicting the violent Sun used four LEDs behind the Sun and lava heat vapors, and the purple tile which was a more calming image only used one LED.)
3. Remove the acrylic from the picture and use the soldering iron (or a Step drill) to make your first hole in the acrylic. Start with a small hole and test fit the LED feeding the wires through first. If the hole is too small, make it a little larger, just enough for the LED to sit in, not go through. Use the same technique and do the rest of the holes.
4. Feed all of the LEDs through the holes, and place a small blob of hot glue to the LED and acrylic insuring the diode is facing straight. If your glue gun has a temperature setting feature, use the coolest setting to minimize the risk of damaging the LED. You now have your lightboard.
5. When the glue is properly set, flip the lightboard over and strip all of the wires. Remember, you will be joining 16 red (positive) wires together and 16 black (negative) ones (including the LED strip wires), so make sure you strip enough wire covering off to be able to join them all. When stripped, join the wires together including the LED strip wires, and fit the wire connectors. To pull the wires away from the back of the symbolization key (so wire shadows are not visible), use a length of sellotape to stick the wires to the back of the acrylic.
6. Now place the lightboard into the box frame, ensuring the lightboard is the right way up and the LEDs are in the correct position relative to the picture tiles. (At this stage it's advisable to temporarily connect the USB cable to the LEDs and lean the tile picture against the box frame and adjust the lightboard to find the best position. The LEDs don't want to be so close to the acrylic with the colour filters as the LED hotspots will be too visible, so they need to be set back a little, not enough to see the hotspot, but just enough to see the light flicker).
7. When you are happy with the lightboard position, to keep it in place, cut a few thin strips of Foamcore board, about 30mm or so wide and the length of the lightboard, then apply some hot glue and attach the strips to each side of the lightboard on both the top and bottom sides of the box.
8. Using a small length of electrical wire, strip both ends, crimp a spade connector, the size of the terminals of your power switch, to one end and connect it to the switch. Connect the other end to the positive wire connector and lock it in place.
9. Feed the USB plug power cable through the bottom hole of the box frame, outside inwards, and tie a not in the cable to create a cable stop to protect from the cable being pulled out, leaving enough cable length inside the box to connect the LEDs.
10. Now crimp another spade connector to the red wire of the USB cable and connect it to the switch. Then connect the black USB cable wire to the negative wire connector of the LEDs. Plug in and test the lights and power switch. If all is good, you can move to the next step. If there's an issue, disconnect from the power supply and recheck the wiring.

Top tips:

If you find an LED falling through the hole you made in the acrylic, it's not an issue as the glue gun will be your best friend here. Just use an extra blob of glue and hold the LED in position until the glue cools and sets.

The brightest part of the LEDs need to go behind the picture. The flickering LED lights I used has the brightest part on the tip of the diode (viewed from the top), not the sides. If the brightest part was from the sides of the diode, I would have mounted them stuck to the acrylic on their sides without making any holes.

To join the wires, I used Quick Spring connecters (see pictures), but you can use the preferred wire connectors of your choice.

Hot glue is like napalm... hot hot hot. If you accidently get some hot glue on your finger, very quickly rub your fingers/thumb together on the glue. This dissipates the heat from the glue very fast and stops it sticking to your tender flesh.

And if you get any hot glue tendrils on the acrylic sheet, try to remove what you can. But is some of it sets before you can remove them, not to worry. These won't have any negative effect on the light dispersal so won't be visible.

With the lightboard now fitted and fully operational, we can now put the finishing touches together to make out Earth rainbow lightbox complete. We will start with the brackets that hold the pictures in place using some "L" shaped 90 degree profile strips. Then some feet will be fitted. The feet are to keep the box from resting on the USB cable going through the bottom of the box. I used the housing of some battery powered tea lights which I had in my supplies cupboard, but you could use things like foam pads, scraps of wood... anything that would raise the box up a little. Then finally a handle to carry and turn the box around to see the other side I kinda 'MacGyver'd' this as a handle I though I had, I remembered I used on something else. So I used a bracket from a chrome loo roll holder and a ring from a keyring, but again you could use any type of handle you like. So here is how I finished this box off.

1. Picture brackets: Measure, mark and cut four equal lengths of profile strips the length of the box. Clean up the cut ends with some sandpaper of a sanding block.
2. Grab one of the pictures sandwiched with the clear and filtered acrylic sheets, remove the picture from in between the acrylic and replace it with a blank piece of paper (This keeps the original over thickness and save from getting any hot glue spill-out on the picture).
3. Place one of the profile strips along the bottom of the box, then place the acrylic sheets/picture between the profile strip and the box, then push the profile strip tight against the box (If the picture doesn't want to stay standing up on its own, rest something against it to keep it in place).
4. Run a line of hot glue along the middle (towards the outer edge) of the inner side of another profile strip , then quickly and carefully place the strip onto the top edge of the box, making sure it is centered and pushed back against the acrylic/picture as much as possible. Now slide out the acrylic/picture and completely remove it.
5. Flip the box over and repeat the process, this time sliding the acrylic through the already attached strip. Once done, follow the process for the other side of the box. Do a quick test to make sure the acrylic slides in and out okay, the swap the blank paper out from the acrylic sheets for the picture, and set aside for now.
6. Feet: Turn the box upside down, rest one of the feet in one corner just slightly in from the edge and the profile strip, and make a mark. Do this on all four corners.
7. Using a short screw the same length or slightly shorter than the MDF depth, drill small pilot holes on the marks, then screw the feet in.
8. Handle: Flip the box over right way up, then loop the keyring through the loo roll bracket.
9. Mark the center on top of the box (line up two corners diagonally, then the other two corners to find center), place the bracket on the center, mark the fixing holes, drill the pilot holes, and screw the bracket to the box again using screws the same length as the MDF depth so the screws don't go all the way through the box top.
10. Finally, you can now slide the pictures into place, Earth side where the flicker LEDs are and the Key on the other, the flip the switch for it's final test, put the tools away and a quick clean up... and we are finished.

Final top tips:

As I mentioned above, you can use anything you like to make the feet, handle, and even the picture holding brackets possibly using magnetic strips or use some screw-in corner brackets to hold the pictures in place.

Throughout the build after fitting the electronics on this or any other electronic build projects, always test them periodically to make sure they are all still working. There's nothing worse than finishing something then finding out that something isn't working.

The beauty of this project is that you can use a variation of tools, materials and picture ideas to make this. Instead of MDF wood, use plywood or even acrylic for the box... or using minimal tools, you could even make it out of Foamcore. Instead of the evolution of the Earth, think about other things in life you can use colours to depict with. Or even use an opaque monochrome (black and white) picture and use a colour changing or single colour RGB LED light to illuminate it. But if "The Earth Genesis Rainbow" is something you like and want to use, then please feel free to copy my design or print off a screen grab, I'm more than happy to share it, so please help yourself. I made the box 14.5 cm wide to make about 7cms of equal lights for each picture with the 5mm for the light strip, but you could always make the box narrower if you like.

For me, this was a nice, relaxing and rewarding project to do, no rush, no stress, no real expense, fun, enjoyable and happy with the results. The only hard bit was coming up with the idea... we've all been there, right? Oh, and by the way, when my friend opened her birthday pressie, she was over the moon with it and loved the idea of using the colours of the rainbow to depict the evolution to our amazing planet (I'm just glad she didn't come up with the idea and make something similar already... it happened once before lol).

And if you do decide to make your own, either making the one I did, or using your own art and build designs, please let me know as I would love to see how it turned out and look at any different ideas and techniques you used.

Thanks for reading, and happy making.

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