[SpiderMonkey]

I've bought the hockey puck looking LED lights a few years ago - they were made by a company called "HB". I don't think they are around or at least have changed names and similar lights are running anywhere from 6-9 bucks each. I need at least twelve lights; so I'm cringing at the thought of spending over $50 for lighting. I'm going to use lights in foam pumpkins that I've carved over the years.

I wondered if anyone might know of some cheaper lights suitable for foam? Tea lights are cheap enough but not very bright.

Appreciate any input!

 

[Sharonr3106]

I use the single balloon light LEDS in my pumpkins, they last for ages and are very cheap and come in all colours and are very bright. I have just got some off Ebay ten for £4.00, you can have them either static or flashing

 

[Blarghity]

Dollar Tree has some hockey puck type LED pumpkin lights right now, but they are strobe-like, with red, blue and yellow LEDs flashing in a very rapid cycle.

Dollar Tree also has Halloween LED candles. They are tall, with a printed filter pillar, a color-shifting LED at the bottom (fades between red, blue and green) and a standard yellow flicker LED at the top. You can remove the pillar material and just hot glue the yellow flicker LED to the white plastic base at the bottom and tuck that into your pumpkin (or remove the yellow LED altogether if you don't want the flicker)

My personal trick is a DIY "fire flicker" LED. I start with a standard tealight LED candle, take the top off and add a second flicker LED matching the one already there, then a third flicker LED of a different color. Two amber and a red end up making the pumpkin look like a candle fell over in there and the thing has caught fire. Use green or blue instead of red for a poisonous pumpkin on fire. I've even done some using the color shifting LEDs I've scrounged from dollar store pillar candles.

Side note on scrounging LED pillar candles for spare parts - the pillar sleeve is a type of theatrical light diffusion filter material. I use it to tone down the harshness of strobe lights.

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

Last year I used LED flicker votives in several pumpkins and they worked well. This year I switched to using the heads from cheap LED solar landscape lights and it's working out well so far. No switches to turn on and no batteries to worry about. The only drawback is that the light is bluish white instead of orange, but I'll figure out that one sooner or later.

 

[Blarghity]

Last year I used LED flicker votives in several pumpkins and they worked well. This year I switched to using the heads from cheap LED solar landscape lights and it's working out well so far. No switches to turn on and no batteries to worry about. The only drawback is that the light is bluish white instead of orange, but I'll figure out that one sooner or later.

You can use theatrical color filters(known as color gels) which give you a selection of several hundred colors you could change that blue-white LED light to. $6 to $8 for a sheet the size of a standard cookie baking sheet (way back when they were first invented, they were mass produced by baking a nylon fiber and gelatin mix in ovens on baking sheets). One sheet is enough to provide color to dozens of those solar LED lights.

If you search of it online, search for theatrical color gel. If you search for just color gel, you'll get mostly fingernail polish results instead.

 

[Oddlittlefellow]

I like to use the bottom part of those Febreze flameless luminaries. Thing is, they've been discontinued and they were kind of expensive. I was able to find them on Amazon for a lot cheaper than they originally sold for when I couldn't find them in stores anymore. I don't know if they would still be available even on Amazon but you could look. I really like them because they give a very good flicker effect and they're bright enough to light up the pumpkin.

 

[Chaserbug]

They have those "puck" light at Five Below for $1 a piece! I bought a bunch of them.