Need to celebrate a birthday with someone from afar during COVID-19? Or planning on sending cards for Passover or Easter (or whatever the closest holiday might be?). In this age of social distancing, here’s a card that will literally shine through, even over Zoom!

This card works on the exact same circuit principle as the graphite circuit Travis made recently. But first we needed to make a pretty card! Since ours was a birthday card, we chose heart-print scrapbook paper and glued a felt heart to the front. Make sure you cut a hole where your LED light will shine through.

Of course you could go in so many directions with this card, whether one for Easter (a light-up chick or egg?) or just a fun theme to say hello like a UFO beam or fire truck siren. You can use stickers or cardstock cut-outs for the decorations.

Inside, make a rectangle from three strips of aluminum foil and tape down, leaving one corner that still flaps open. Also leave a gap at the top where the LED light will go. Tape down the legs of the LED, one to each side, making note of where the positive and negative sides are (Hint: the positive leg is longer).

Now tape down a 3V battery in the corner where you’ve left the foil loose. When the flap of aluminum foil folds down, the circuit is complete and the card lights up!

Here’s mom’s amazement, even if it was a little old-hat for Travis.