Swirly Sheep Instructions

Overview

Get your daily dose of fiber with this swirly sheep! Anyone can put together this quick and easy kit, no special skills or tools are needed. This crafty decoration is created by twisting together a simple circuit with your fingers. In each kit we provide the following, all you'll need is a phillips (+) screwdriver. Full instructions are here!

1 - CR2032 Battery
1 - Battery Holder
2 - Yellow, 3mm LED
2 - Green, 3mm LED
2 - Blue, 3mm LED
3 - Red Wires
6 - Blue Wires
3 - 470 ohm Resistors
2 - Wood Screws
1 - Swirly Sheep Ornament

About the Kit:

This super cute artwork is by Maria of A Needle Runs Through It, who also provided artwork for our Sock It To Me and Sweater Weather ornament kits.

With this kit, we're bringing back old-school breadboards! You assemble it by sticking the LEDs through the board, wire-wrapping around them with the provided wires, wrapping the same wires around 2 screw posts, and also twisting the battery holder wires around the screw posts. This is a great activity for those new to electronics, or for old-school hacks that just want to have a bit of fun with a project that's quick and gratifying.

A Note on Battery Life:
It is very difficult to balance a love for All Things Blinky with small unobtrusive battery sources. We've provided a CR2032 battery and holder with this kit precisely because it's small and can't provide a ton of current (and is therefore much safer when accidentally shorted than a rechargeable lithium ion). But this means there's not a lot of overhead for the blue in each of the RGB LEDs. They start out very bright and rainbow-flashing, and then blue and magenta colors fade relatively quickly. Red, green, and yellow stick around for a lot longer, and then it diminishes to all red at the very end. Since these are holiday-themed, we were OK with this behavior. One CR2032 will generally last about 15 hrs until it completely goes out, so we recommend leaving it on for a few hours in the evening, instead of all day long. If you'd like longer battery life, you can use 2 AA or AAA batteries instead. You'll need a holder for them like this or this.

Swirly Sheep Ornament Kit

14.95

How to Build

Printable Instructions

Unpack your Kit

Each kit has the following items included:

1 - Battery
1 - Battery Holder
2 - Yellow, 3mm LED
2 - Green, 3mm LED
2 - Blue, 3mm LED
3 - Red Wires
6 - Blue Wires
3 - 470 ohm Resistors
2 - Wood Screws
1 - Ornament

Screw screws into holes

Give each screw about 3 twists. You don't want them falling out but you want to keep enough room to wrap wires around them.

Place first 2 LEDs

All LEDs get the same resistor value so you can choose where you want each color LED. *Note: you will want the long leg of the LED to go through the top hole and the short leg to go through the bottom hole on each LED. Once the LEDs are through bend the legs to secure.

Attach the Resistor and Red Wire

Wrap the resistor around the long leg of the LED closest to the screw. then wrap the red wire around the same leg. Once both are attached bend the leg over to secure. Wrap the other end of the red wire to the long leg of the other LED. Once wire is attached bend leg over to secure.

Repeat Steps 3 & 4 with the remaining LED colors

Attach blue wires to short LED legs

*Note: We found it easier to wrap the LED leg closest to the screw on the right around the screw and not use the blue wire. An extra blue wire has been included in your kit if you wish to use it.

Wrap the blue wire around the leg. Once wire is attached bend leg over to secure.

Attach Positive battery wire & resistors to screw

Take the red wire on the battery holder and pull off the insulation. You should see a cut in the insulation, pull from there to expose wires. Gather the 3 resistors and battery holder wire and twist together. Wrap around the screw about 2 times. Tighten screw to secure wires.

Attach Negative battery wire and blue wires to screw

Take the black wire on the battery holder and pull off the insulation. You should see a cut in the insulation, pull from there to expose wires. Gather all the blue wires and battery holder wire and twist together. Wrap around the screw about 2 times. Tighten screw to secure wires.