Introduction: Bookmark / Book Light

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Make a bookmark that lights up and can act as a book lamp!

Step 1: Materials Needed

  • Card stock
  • Conductive copper tape
  • Conductive paint (shown in this project is Bare Conductive)
  • LED stickers (shown in this project is Chibitronics)
  • 3V battery

Step 2: Plan the Front of Your Bookmark

  1. Cut your piece of card stock to be a bookmark shape. Fold over about 1/4 of it to eventually become the "switch," leaving the rest for decoration.
  2. Text works well, but anything that can be made into a continuous line (like cursive!) will work.

Step 3: Add Copper Tape

We'll use the paint for the actual word/decoration in a bit, but the copper tape works well for laying out the long-ish track needed for the rest of the circuit.

  1. Beginning at the left end of your word or decoration, lay down the adhesive copper tape moving away from the word.
  2. Go over the fold and around the edge of the card stock to the back of the bookmark.
  3. On the back of the bookmark, approach the fold, but leave a gap.
  4. Repeat from the other end of the word, bringing the copper tape again around the back of the bookmark and leaving a gap.

Step 4: Paint Your Decoration and Add an LED

  1. Use a conductive paint to connect the two pieces of copper tape on the front of the bookmark. Leave a single small gap that your LED sticker can span. Be sure that when the sticker is in place, it is ultimately all connected in a single line--we're forming a circuit!
  2. Let the paint dry quite thoroughly; I waited at least 20 minutes.
  3. Add your LED sticker to span the final gap on the front of the bookmark. Be sure that the metal contacts on the back of the sticker each touch the paint.

Step 5: Attach Your Battery and Light It Up!

  1. On the back of the bookmark, the place the battery on one end of your copper tape. When the other piece of the bookmark is folded over, the circuit will be complete and your LED should light up.
  2. I kept it simple and secured my battery with scotch tape, leaving a little gap in the middle so that the other piece of copper tape could still contact the battery.
  3. Light it up! When folded, the bookmark acts as a book light. Unfold it to conserve battery and use as a standard bookmark.