Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
And Rainbows have nothing to hide

So we've been told, and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

- Rainbow Connection, Kermit the Frog

Make a beautiful rainbow colored glowing bottle lamp with fairy lights inside. You don't need to catch actual fairies, or chase down a real rainbow, but it will look as though you did! Decorate it with your favorite stickers and place it on your windowsill, and I guarantee you it will attract both rainbows and fairies into your life.

We decorated ours with an Ada Lovelace sticker. Ada Lovelace is famous for being the world's first computer programmer - she wrote computer programs before computers even existed! I think she deserves to have some art made for her.

Difficulty Level

This is a very easy beginner project that's perfect to do with kids who are interested in learning about making things light up. The assembly is easy enough for kids as young as 4-5 (with a little help from an adult). Kids that young can also pick their own colors with the MakeCode drag-and-drop app, and slightly older school-aged kids will have fun coding the whole project by themselves.

If you're a Grown Up Kid like me who still loves rainbows and fairies, this is a great place to get introduced to programmable lights, and you'll end up with a stunning piece of art when you're done. Let's get crafty and make stuff light up!

Supplies Needed

From the Adafruit shop, you'll need a Circuit Playground Base Kit and a strand of fairy lights. There are also a lot of fun stickers to choose from for decoration! I've linked to my favorite, a sticker of Ada Lovelace, below. Search in our shop to see all the fun options.

You'll also need a bottle. Frosted bottles look the best, because the frosted coating will diffuse the light and make the whole bottle shine with rainbow lights. You can find these online or at craft stores, or get creative and re-use wine bottles or barbecue sauce bottles or whatever you can find. 

If you found the perfect bottle but it's not frosted, look at your local hardware store or online for "Frosted Glass Spray Paint". There are several brands available, and one can is enough to frost dozens of bottles. 

This project uses MakeCode to light up the project. MakeCode is a free web-based app that lets you control the lights on your Circuit Playground board. Choose your colors, make the lights move (this is called "animating"), control the motion speed and brightness and much more.

Go to https://makecode.adafruit.com/ and select "New Project".

Download Code

Let's test to see if it's working. 

1. Plug your Circuit Playground Express into your computer with a USB cable. 
2. Click the reset button. 
3. Green lights will appear on the Circuit Playground's face  and it will appear in your list of devices, called CPLAYBOOT. 

If you don't see this, try double-clicking the reset button instead of single-clicking.

Click the pink Download button on your MakeCode screen and the code you just made will download to your computer.  Drag it onto the CPLAYBOOT device.  

Plug the light strand into power and you will see a pretty rainbow animation.  Hooray!

If you want to change something, no problem. You can reprogram your Circuit Playground as many times as you like. Experiment and play around, and see what you can get it to do! 

Things to Try

• Make two animations play, one after the other
• Make your favorite color lights come on for a few seconds, then play an animation
• Look under the INPUT tab to make your Circuit Playground change when you shake it or shine a light on it, or clap your hands. This board has a whole bunch of cool sensors that can make your lights interactive. (This is a bit more advanced but there are lots of guides in the Adafruit Learning System that show how to do this!)

If you're having trouble or are getting frustrated, no worries. Here's the completed project that you can play with directly. Just click Download and drag it to your board.