Light Boxes for SLPs

Instagram is dangerous. At least, for my wallet.

I've been seeing all these fabulous teachers on Instagram with Heidi Swapp lightboxes. And I'm thinking - I think I have a lightbox from my scrapbooking days! But of course, Heidi's is just awesome. It's a marquee, and after seeing all the wonderful teacher ideas, I had to have one. I mean, our school's theme next year is Rock Stars. The marquee is a NEED, right?!? At least that's what my sister tells me.

After a trip to Michael's with my friend and $40 later, here's what I have. To be clear, the lightbox was 40% off of $40, and I had my teacher ID for 10%, so it was half price! I bought two sets of letters, some glitter tape, and some Tim Holtz scissors. For the non-sale price of the marquee, I got even more!

The marquee is a nice size. It runs on either C batteries OR a USB port (brick not included). Heidi provides storage for the cord, which makes me soooo happy!
The cord storage is super easy to open - no breaking of fingernails. The battery compartment is at the bottom. Here's the closed view.

A few notes:
* The letters do NOT come in alphabetical order, which is basically my librarian sister's nightmare. They also have a clear plastic film on them. Go ahead and take some time and organize them.
* Each set includes 50 letters, but the package doesn't tell you which ones. Both of my sets had 3 of A, E, I, O, and U; 2 of B, C, D, F, G, H, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, and W; and one of J, K, Q, V, X, Y and Z.
* The width of the letters varies slightly. For example, the I is not as wide as the W tile.
* The letters and slides go in from the right side. Lay out the letters and then slide in to avoid misspellings.
* I'd like to see some punctuation - a slash for speech/language or an ampersand for Speech & Language and an exclamation point after Rocks!
* You will need a brick if you decide to use the USB cord.
* The visual instructions at Michael's instruct you to cover the side with tape. I bought mine but I haven't put it on yet. My friend reports the tape is not positionable - it's pretty sticky. Also, the USB port and on/off switch are on the side, so the tap doesn't go all the way around the box.

Here is my friend's sign. No, that's not a misspelling, it's a play on her name.

Did I mention our school's theme is Rock Stars? I decided to try my hand at my own design! You can use transparencies for your printer, but they were $1-2 per page at my local stores, and I didn't want to wait for an online order. I went with vellum from Michael's for $3.24. Here is what the sign looks like on regular paper - the light still shines through. The paper is more visible but not distracting.
Vellum is pretty good. Be sure to change your printer settings for paper to lightweight. The vellum did come out with a few smudges, which must have occurred during the printing process. The ink was dry once the paper came out. The vellum is a little more transparent.
Guess what? This sign is a freebie for you! Just go to All Y'all Need, download, print, and trim along the lines!





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