DIY Solar Power Vintage Arrow Light Up Marquee!

This was a super fun project to do with my
 11 year old scout in just a few hours!

 Do-it-yourself Marquee sign!
Nothing quite as awesome as a vintage style arrow in comic book red!

 I wanted to do a marquee sign for a long time...
but didn't want a sign I had to plug in...find wall space for...
or deal with cords and plugs.
Then I discovered Solar Power lights!  Yay!

So that was my only cost in this project, about $20.
You could use Christmas lights...or other string lights.

 We started with a scrap piece of plywood we found on the street.
It was about a foot and a half tall and 4 feet wide...

 I used some kraft paper and cut it to fit the board...

I folded it in half and then sketched out my pattern.
I cut it while it was folded so it would be symmetrical!

 like this!

 Then traced the arrow pattern onto the board.

 like so!

 Then my son used the dremel and we began cutting it out...

 The dremel wasn't cutting it well enough...or straight enough
 so we switched and cut it with the tablesaw!
(note: jigsaw is now on my list)

 Then we sanded all the rough edges...

 Marked where we wanted each light to go

Got a drill bit large enough to fit the green part, but not the bulb cover.

 And drilled 29 holes!
(yes, one of our lights is hidden...so the solar panel would sit above the sign)

 Sanded it all smooth and set it out to spray paint!

 Comic Book RED of course!

 After it dried...we roughed up the edges a bit...

 and went over them with stain

 like this!

 Took all the bulb covers off the lights,

 and stapled the lights on the backside of the wood.

 Then attached the bulb coverings--I love that they are plastic!

  Screwed on some screw eyes and wire for hanging!

 Like this...

 And, then, if I had a darling front porch...this would be the perfect little addition.
But our porch is small and ugly, so it's going on the back fence!

 With the solar panel exposed so we can get some sun!

 Great at as a photo prop too!

 Perfect-o!  And only a few hours in the making!
Pretty good for an 11 year old scout project!

Linking up to THESE parties this week!