We probably went way overboard with the led tape for this set design, but who am I kidding, it looked awesome! We created this set for a super short series I wrote called You’ve Got Talent which is available for you to purchase right now. In this series, kids will learn to love their talents, use them for God, and contribute them to the body of Christ. They will learn from Craft Lady that we should love the talents God has given us and not compare ourselves to others. The cost for this set design was a little higher than usual due to all of the led tape. I spent around $100, but you could definitely do this set design with a little less led tape to bring down the cost. My inspiration for this set design and series was the show, America’s Got Talent. For this series, we focused primarily on the main stage area, with a few ceiling decorations.
Let’s start with the giant arrows under the screen. I love these arrows because they look awesome and are versatile. You can definitely make them work for multiple series if you plan correctly. We actually created them for another series and repurposed them by changing the color of the arrows for this series. For the arrows, you will need some cardboard (sheets or a deconstructed box will work), an x-acto knife, a ruler, a pencil, duct tape, and led tape. Decide how big you want to make your arrows and create a template. I used a pencil and a ruler to make sure my arrow template was even and perfect. You will only need to do this for the first arrow. Once you have drawn your arrow, cut it out using an x-acto knife. Use the arrow template to trace as many arrows as you like and cut them out with an x-acto knife. If your arrows are bigger I would suggest 4-6 arrows and if they are smaller I would suggest 8-10 arrows. Next, you will need to cover the front of each arrow with duct tape. I chose to use red and blue duct tape for this series, but you can use whatever color or pattern you want. Try to keep the tape taut and avoid wrinkles. It’s not a big deal if the tape isn’t perfect because no one will be looking at it up close. You can choose to hang your arrows first if you will still have access to the back of the arrows, otherwise, you will want to add the led tape to the arrows before hanging them. I used one strand of led tape for each side, or for three arrows. I adhered the led tape to directly onto the duct tape covered arrows (the led tape has it’s own adhesive on the back). I covered the led tape that was exposed between the arrows with tape (I chose black since my curtain behind the arrows was black) so it wouldn’t be obvious from the audience that I used one strand of led tape for three arrows. You can choose to use the remote that comes with the led tape to turn the led tape on and off or if you are more techy you can wire it into your lighting system.
As if the awesome glowing arrows were not enough, we decided to string led tape from the ceiling to the edge of the screen on either side and we lined the front of the stage with led tape as well. We used eight strands of led tape in total for this project. This may seem a bit excessive, and it probably was, but remember you can repurpose some of the led tape and/or the arrows for other sets. If you would like to change the color of the arrows, simply buy new duct tape and tape over the original tape on either side of the led tape. No one will even know the arrows used to be another color! You can also choose to leave your led tape up around the screen and stage for multiple series because you can always change the color of the tape to fit the theme of the next series.
For the ceiling decorations, we kept it simple. We used pieces of poster board in red, blue, and silver and cut large stars out of each piece. Make sure you use the extra thick poster board or your stars’ edges will begin to curl. I like the poster board at Hobby Lobby for hanging decorations and they have almost any color you can imagine. You will also want your poster board to be colored on both sides since it will be hanging. You can create one star and use it as a template to trace for the other stars. Once you have traced and cut out all of your stars use a hole punch to punch a hole at the top of each star and hang them from the ceiling using clear fishing line.
If you loved this set design, make sure you check out the You’ve Got Talent Curriculum Series!