Non-Lite Brite

As a child I received a Lite-Brite for Christmas. Once the package was opened so was my imagination. I was able to use templates to create rabbits, characters, even words. The best thing was that I could create images all day long as the little light bulb lasted forever. At night I could leave it on for a colorful night light.

In this Instructable you will learn how to make a Non-Lite Brite. Since I
am not high or even low tech I did not want to have to figure out how to make this a light up project. I am taking a class on Makerspaces and was challenged to create a project for our final. I am a children's librarian and wanted to create something that my grand kids could play as well as children that come to the library.

***This project is in no way intended to have anything to do with the
Hasboro Corporation's Lite Brite product, licensing, or copyrights, and any resemblance to such product, licensing or copyrights is purely coincidental, subjective and likely false.***

1 Peg Board cut to 3 feet by 14" 3 panels (Lowe's cut the peg board to size for free) Lowe's Peg Board

1 Package Panel Foam Insulation board Lowe's Panel foam board

500 Assorted colored golf tees 2-3/4" Amazon Golf Tee's

18 Assorted colors nylon-cable ties Amazon Cable Ties

Hot glue gun

Glue Stick

Box cutter

Tape Measure

Wire cutter to cut plastic ties (scissors would work)

Cut foam panel to same size as peg board: 3ft height by 14" wide using a box cutter.
The cleaner the cut the less flaking. No matter you will still get a jagged edge.

Once together you can go back and press down the foam.

The web link below gives a tip on smoothing panel edges:

Smooth Foam Panel edge

Cut a 2-inch square scrap piece of foam panel. Rub the cut edge of the
scrap piece against the cut edges of the Styrofoam project pieces.

This will sand and smooth the rough-cut edges.

Rub the scrap piece of Styrofoam against sharp corner edges of the cut Styrofoam project pieces to round, blend, taper and shape them.

Glue foam panel to peg board with hot glue gun.

The best way to do this is to glue the top and bottom sides first

and then glue sides by sticking the nozzle of glue gun in-between layers.

Note: if you stay too long on one side the foam starts to melt.

Bigger note: watch fingers, glue doesn't wipe off!

Once panels are done, join each panel with nylon cable ties, I used 6 per side with a total of 18.

I started at the top and put one tie into 7th hole all the way to the bottom.

Finish by attaching the two boards together.

This was the hardest part as I wanted the cable ends to be inside the triangle.

I was able to cut each tie from the inside so they would not rub against the foam.

This is optional, but after looking at the finished project I thought it would look nicer with darker edges. I painted the sides black since I didn't have any brown paint. I used a regular sized paint brush, which was a bit too small but it allowed me to get in the nooks and crannys.

Because I am doing this for a library program I wanted to make a top with signs so that people knew what it was. I found some old Lite-Brite box photos and made a top to display with cardboard. I just glued the photos to the cardboard and will tape to top of my project.

This is the completed project. I really enjoyed making it and I hope children and adults have fun playing with it. I was surprised at how easy it was to put together, once I made time for it.

I may tackle a lighted version one day but for now I think I'll have fun creating new images.