Weddingbee boards

Trying to find an inexpensive way to light paper lanters without having to deal with cords or batteries?  Look no further... 

I'm no expert, but this weekend at Joannes fabric & crafts, I ran across the Bright Spot Submersible LED Accent Light.  They seem to solve lots of annoying paper lantern-related problems.  I bought a pack of 10 for $16, but they are available at www.aqua-gems.com with a pack of 12 for the same price.

These LEDs are completely ready to go.  They have batteries already, and an on/off switch.  If you are using them dry, they can last 100 hours!  There is a small little plastic loop that slides onto a hook on the metal frame of the lanterns I bought with no problems.   

Compared to the throwie option ($0.25), they are a little pricier ($1.60-1.33), but in terms of your time & effort I think its a great compromise.  Similar LEDs from pearlriver or lunabazaar.com seem to run about 3-5 dollars apiece!

I bought some throwie makings and decided that i would be ripping out my hair, sanding tiny little bits and figuring out how to fit making them without them burning out before I needed them to shine. I started thinking, there are led lights out there...... how much are those?  I found 9 LED keychain lights. They sell them at the dollar tree for 1.00. Each one requires 3 AAA batteries. I then ordered batteries online, but they might have been a smidge cheaper if I had bought them at the dollar store. (41.56 is what I paid for 120 AAA batteries). I ordered my lantens online from justartifacts.com. I ordered 40 in total. 27 24inch ivory and 13 16inch ivory lanterns.

I tested the batteries and they lasted 9 hours before dimming significantly.

I sanded the plastic face of each keychain light to diffuse the light.

The light is VERY BLUE!!!! My ivory lanterns look light blue. I am okay with this. I think a way to get around this might be to color in the plastic face of the light with "stain glass" paint after sanding to create a gel like they use in theater lighting.

After sanding all the faces i wrapped a rubberband around the light so that i can easily attach it to the wire of the lantern. (the part that would attach to your keys is not in the center, if hung from that the light would not cast straight down.) I did all of this now so that when we get closer to the time, we can pop those batteries in (batts loose life if in something, so keep them out of intended object till a week of so before for maximim light out of them.)

All together I paid 5.35 a lantern!

They are going to look amazing!