Before people go asking who's music or what songs these are in this video, these beats are made

by my brother. :) You can visit his YouTube channel for more information and songs.

Step 1Materials & Tools

i To make this Music LED Light Box you can use many different things and build it different ways. In this instructable I'll explain how I made it, a very simple way. Materials - 12v Adapter (a battery can be used as well) - 3.5 jack headphone cable. - tip31 transistor (this is the key to the whole project) - $0.50 - 5mm LED's (the color or amount is totally up to you, 1 LED per 3v. I used 12v, so 4 LEDs) $0.28 - A4 acrylic sheet - 3mm thick (also known as 'plexiglass') - $2.00 - Fine sandpaper (I used 400) - $1.00 - Electrical Wire If you see a price above, that means I bought it. The rest I just ripped of some old junk. The 12v Adapter was from an old wireless headphone and the 3.5 jack plug is from another old headphone.

Tools - Jigsaw (also a Jeweler Saw can be used. But that's really hard to get straight lines) - Glue Gun (hot glue, other glue to glue acrylic is possible) - Drilling tool - Solder tool (optional) - Pen Ones you've got this stuff you're ready to begin!

Step 2Preparing the box

From the acrylic sheet we're going to build the box. 1. Draw out the plates for the box on the acrylic sheet (photo 1). My longer plates are 15cm x 5cm. And the squares are 5cm x 5cm. Of course you can use any size for a box you want. 2. Use the jig saw to cut the plates from the acrylic sheet. Be sure to do this as perfect as you can. Because all plates need to line up nice with each other (photo 2). If the plates don't turn out to be equal, you can sand the sides till they all fit nice. 3. Get the drilling tool and use a drill bit that is the same size as the thickness of the headphones cord (photo 3). Then drill another hole for the adapter to go though. When you're drilling, do this very carefully! You don't want to hurry, else you might put too much pressure on it and break the plate.

Step 3Frosting and Diffusing

To get the nice 'glowing' effect with the LED box, we need to have a 'frosted' look on the box and need LED's that are diffused. I only could get my hands on water clear acrylic sheets and water clear LED's. For all those who have the same, continue with this step. If you already have frosted acrylic (opal acrylic) and diffused LED's, then you can continue with step 4. 1. Get the fine sandpaper (400) and place it on a table, with the sanding side up. Get a plate and rub it over the sandpaper in a circular motion. If one side is frosted enough, turn the plate over and do the same with that side. Now you'll have a nice frosted looking effect we need (photo 1 and 2 to see the difference). 2. Do the same with the LED's. Sand the LED's until they get the nice diffused look (Photo 3,4 and 5). Photo 5 shows you 1 diffused and 1 water clear LED hooked on a 3v button cell.

Step 4Building the box

Now we've got the plates for the box, we need to put them together. Before you go and glue parts together, make sure first they fit nicely onto each other. We need all parts to fit nicely.

1. After fitting the plates get the glue gun and glue the first 3 plates together. If you have some

trouble holding the plates together before gluing, you can use some tape to hold them together. This way you can put the glue on more relaxed. After gluing the 3 plates you should have something like photo 2 2. After the glue is dried, it's time to glue in the side plates. First place them and see if they fit nicely. If not sand the sides a bit so everything fits nice together. Then glue them on their place. The last (bottom) plate will not be attached yet. We need to put the whole circuit on the bottom plate later and then put it in place. At this moment you should have something like photo 3 and 4.

Step 5Preparing the circuit

Since I have no experience in electronics whatsoever, this was the toughest part for me to find out. Other instructables had no good explaining on this subject. So for everyone who's new to this electronics stuff and have no idea what they're doing, here is some explaining for the circuit. 1. How many LED's to use? The average LED needs 3v to work. If you are going to put the LED's in series (like I did) you need to calculate how many LED's you can use with your adapter. The formula you can use is adapter output voltage / LED voltage = Total LED's So if you use a 12v adapter with the 3v LED's its: 12 / 3 = 4 LED's You can also put LED's parallel in the circuit. But I'm not getting into this, just so that this instructable stays simple and easy to understand for everyone. Let's just focus now on the LED's in series. If you want to experience with more LED's, you can always calculate your LED's and resistors here. 2. The real voltage on a adapter. Before I went building this circuit, I thought it would be useful to measure the real voltage on the adapter. The sticker on the adapter (photo 1) says the output 12v. But once I hooked it up on my multimeter, it shows that the actual output is around the 18v (photo 2). So that means I can calculate the LED's again: 18 / 3 = 6 LED's. Since I'm going to make the LED's in series I can use 6 LED's in my circuit. 3. The 3.5 audio jack plug Which wire is what? That's what I was asking and trying to find out. As you can see on photo 3, the plug itself has 3 metal parts, and 3 wires in the black protective layer. On the photo I explained which wire is what.

Now with this information you can go to the next step, building the circuit.

Step 6Building the circuit

Many people get scared when they see all those weird circuits with those symbols on it. Having no clue what they mean. That's why I made a instructable friendly circuit image :) See photo 1. 1. Make sure you have all the materials to make the circuit. And enough electrical wires to connect all the components. 2. Before we build the circuit, we first need to put the audio cable through the whole in the back. 3. Build your circuit, and test it out. The best way to test it is through your audio output from your computer. Make sure the audio on your computer is set to 100% and then test it. Circuit: The positive pole from the adapter goes to the positive leg of the first LED. Next the other 5 LED's follow. Hook the negative leg from the first LED to the positive leg of the second LED. Hook the negative leg from the second LED to the positive leg of the third LED, and so on. The negative LED from the last LED goes to the center pin of the TIP31. Then hook the right pin of the TIP31 to the negative pole of the adapter. All there's left now is to hook up the audio cable. Hook the red or the white wire from the audio cable on the left pin of the TIP31. And connect the ground wire from the audio cable to the right pin of the TIP31. For better details please see photo 1, the circuit. 4. If your circuit works, solder all components together so the circuit stays together nice and strong and wont fall apart. When done with these steps it's time to finish up! If you have trouble getting the circuit to work, you can try to set it up first on a circuit board. Carlosserious was so kind to make a how-to video on making the circuit, click here for the video.

Step 7Finishing up

We've now got all the parts we need. All we need to do now is put the bottom part into the cube to make it a whole cube. 1. Use the glue gun again to put the connector for the adapter right behind the hole. Tip: Plug the cable in before gluing. This way the connector will always be on the right spot. 2. Sand the sides of the bottom plate so it fits snugly into the bottom. You just want the bottom plate slightly bigger then the hole it fits in. This way, once you put it in there, it will get stuck and won't let go while moving the cube. We won't glue the bottom, in case we need to open it for some reason. So make sure the bottom fits in tight.

That's it!! Now plug everything in and put your music on max and enjoy! You can change this project as much as you like. Use any LED's you want, create the box that fits the best on your desk, etc. You can also build the cube from my previous instructable. I used photoshop to show you how different colors would look like (photo 7). I tried to make this instructable the way so everyone can understand it. I'll try to answer them all. If you want to make one and get stuck, we'll try to get through it together. If you have any questions please don't be shy and let me know. How to make a t-shirt design that easily looks "retro" and "screenprinted" while being super-easy and much cheaper! (The photos are taken with flash and make the colors bolder than they appear in daylight; to the eye they are more worn and washed-out.) Note: I highly recommend reading the whole instructable before trying it, rather than "reading along." There are tips sort of sprinkled throughout because of my writing style, but it will be beneficial if you get them all ahead of time, causing less trouble for you! =)

Step 1Materials
For this project, you will need: --a t-shirt --craft/fabric paint --paintbrushes (most any style will work, though bushier is better at the moment) --cardboard --scrap cardboard/plastic --newspaper or wax paper

--thin cardboard or paper or a cuttable material --scissors or an exacto knife --masking or painter's tape (optional)

Step 2Preparing the Stencil

i For this project we are going for a "screenprinted" look for cheap, and the key ingredient here is a stencil. Using the thin cardboard or paper, draw out your design. Islands are possible if you understand that they may be difficult or nearly impossible to re-use. Using cardboard is sturdier, so the stencil can be re-used more easily; however, later on it may cause some difficulty while painting. I have successfully reused a paper stencil three times in a row without any tearing or warping issues, so that is up to your discretion. Before you cut out your design, lay out your tshirt (or other cloth you're going to paint on) and double-check that the design will fit and will look okay. Using the scissors or your exacto knife, CAREFULLY cut out your design. If you have islands that are relatively large and you want to re-use the design, make sure not to ruin them, and set them aside with the stencil.

On this stencil, instead of using islands we used a complete lack of filler or a connecting brace instead.

Step 3Setting up the Work Area

i First you should lay out some sort of covering to protect your work surface from spills, drips, or other mishaps. I use newpaper and wax paper, but most any big piece of material will do. Lay out your t-shirt flat and find a piece of cardboard roughly the same size as the area you want to paint. Put this inside the t-shirt, making sure it is centered and the material is not stretched. This will ensure that any paint that soaks through will not ruin the other layers of material. Take a piece of scrap plastic and pour just a half dozen drops or so of each craft/fabric paint onto it. This sort of functions as a pallette.

Step 4Getting Ready to Paint

When you set the stencil down to paint, you will have to do one of two things: --tape it down, or --hold it down without moving.

This ensures that your design edges stay consistent and you don't end up drifting to one area of the tshirt that you had not planned on working on. Center the design, and firmly hold or tape down the stencil, making sure your tshirt doesn't stretch. At this time you will want to tape down islands with tiny loops of tape or create an island completely out of tape (if you're willing to throw it out right away). Make sure your islands are lined up and your design is centered or in the area you want it to be!

Step 5Painting

i With stenciling, the trick to getting it to look screenprinted is a clean, defined edge. The trick to getting it to look "vintage" or "retro" is using only enough paint to make it look faded or worn. While holding down the stencil with one hand (even if it's taped!), use your fingers to hold down the edge you will be painting right next to. This will help the paint from getting under the edge and making it look a little messier. Use your other hand to dip the paintbrush into your paint. Using a scrap piece of cardboard, wipe just enough off so that there aren't globs, but there is still enough paint left to make a difference. This is similar to "drybrushing" technique.

Dab up and down with the paintbrush, making sure to keep it as clean or messy as you desire. More paint may be bolder (depending on the material the t-shirt is made out of), or it may soak in. Either way, usually two times going over the full stencil somewhat haphazardly gives a strong enough but still "faded and worn" look. Keep in mind your color will soak in and appear darker on just about any color except white. Other colors will also affect the stencil accordingly. (I have a video of this to add... I'm working on getting it up for you!) After you run out of paint each time, you can also go back to the scrap where you "drybrushed" to get some more paint, rather than going back to your makeshift pallette each time.

Step 6Finishing

When you are finished stenciling, carefully remove the stencil and set it aside. Make sure no paint escaped under the edges when you set it down! I have had no problem letting my shirts dry in a few hours, ready-to-wear. If you are worried, send it through the dryer before washing it. I've never had any problems with shrinkage, either, but that may be because this technique allows the paint to soak into the shirt more, rather than putting enough on that it sits on top. Don't forget to clean up your area! Washing your brushes immediately is a good thing, too, in my experience. (I'm no professional, though.)

Step 7Exploring Other Techniques

These other techniques tend to go outside the clean lines of faking "screenprint," but they still look vintagey/worn and are fairly easy to do. Check the tags of each photo for an explanation.