This year at work there was a contest to make the best ornament for the Christmas tree. We, the IT Department, almost never participate in these activities. Well, this year we did. At work I was shown a star cut from a computer motherboard by Robert. Amanda asked, “Hey, can you put lights on this?” I said “Yes, I can use an Arduino”. I took the star home to made a prototype.
The prototype took a couple hours to cobble together and program. The program makes the lights dim, get brighter and blink using an Arduino UNO some LEDs and resisters. I brought this back to work and everyone liked it. A few more holes were drilled and given back to me with a CPU glued into the socket.
Below it he back of the ornament I ended up with…
The finished ornament! There was no hole for the LED on the leg with the power plug, so I brought the LED around to the front of the star.
My workstation on the kitchen table with a $5 soldering iron.
The ornament did not win the contest at work.
OC Mini Maker Faire 
great tutorial 🙂 I love http://www.boomsnews.com/category/arduino