Good grief, guys, where has the week gone?? We have somehow circled back to Throwback Thursday already...again.
Dang if that doesn't happen every week.
So, I'm throwing it back to the Superhero Gala, because I realized I never shared with you how I made the centerpieces.
I designed 4 different super sayings with 4 different shapes. We needed 40 centerpieces which meant 80 pieces total {a front and a back}. We had them printed at A - Z Signs and Engraving in Waynesville. {I highly recommend them if you are local!} The shapes were printed on black corrugated plastic and the image was a vinyl sticker that the printers attached to the plastic.
During our Gala's at Harrah's, the lights are turned down low. Each centerpiece has to look great from every angle and my goal is to always have them lit in some way to achieve the biggest impact. I wanted my finished centerpiece to look like a vintage lighted marquee sign.
The only problem was, we had to use battery operated string lights and they don't come as a 'big round bulb'. Trust me, I looked for those suckers for months...
{actually, I did find 1 company, but they were something like $40 a strand. yea, not happening}
So, I finally settled on these LED's. I ordered a 20 light strand that was spaced 6" apart and required 3 batteries. {We got a discount because we ordered 45}
I measured and marked 10 dots every 5 1/2" in a circle around each piece {that's as far as each light would stretch}. Using a phillips screwdriver, I punched a small hole through each marked dot. {You can see the holes in the yellow boom below}
Angie was an awesome assistant!
Then starting at the bottom hole, we punched the LED lights through each hole in one side and then punched them through the back 'mirror image'. {this left them connected}. You have to really work the light into the hole. You want it to be tight so that it doesn't slip out. Using electrical tape, tape the battery pack to one side, near the bottom.
To create the sides, I used {tons of} black poster board that I cut into long 5" wide strips. I hot glued them together, end to end, to create miles of continuous poster 'sides'.
This is where it gets real tricky. Laying one 'wham' face side down, we balanced a glass inside so that the other 'wham' side could have something to balance on while the 'sides' were attached.
The 'wham' and 'zap' signs were fairly simple shapes and we were able to follow the edges with the black sides. Using black electrical tape, we held the edge of the black strip perpendicular to the edge of the sign with 6" strips of tape.
The 'pow' and 'boom' are shaplier*, so we needed to tape those to create an interior circle because following those edges would have been a nightmare.
*When I asked my friend google this question:
This popped up:
So, I may or may not be making up the word. Thanks for nothing google.
anyhoo...
After the top gets attached, carefully flip it over and continue taping the other side.This takes a loooooong time. We left about a 3" hole open on the bottom so that we could reach the on/off button on the lights.
All finished and waiting to be put out on the tables at Harrah's.
If you want to see all of the details and pictures of the Super Gala, check them out here.
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Erica Lyons Crystalline 
