Vintage Marquee Letter gets updated with lights and masking tape

How I gave this vintage plastic marquee letter a serious update with masking tape:

I purchased this 2 foot tall letter S at the Funky Junk Antique's Barn Sale last summer. It has rusty spots and an odd assortment of holes. I had planned on painting it but could not figure out what to do with the extra holes, until I found the isle of bright colored Scotch Tape at Staples.

Sophie's favorite color is orange but she's 8 and I think it might change over time. Masking tape is a semi permanent solution. We can remove it if all of the sudden she wants a new color. Over lapping the tape in small sections working our way around the S provided the striped look that we liked and made it easy for me and my 8 year old to do together.

We really liked how it turned out but I thought it needed a bit more sparkle. So I purchased a small strand of 20 white Christmas lights and fed 6 of them through the already existing smaller holes.

The rest of the lights that didn't have a hole were taped down to the back side. I wanted to make sure the lights didn't rest on her wall so I cut a large glue stick down to 4 one inch sections and glued it to the back of the S to act as a bumper.

Since it had no hanger, I added a bit of ribbon to be able to hang it on the wall. I love how the 6 lights turned out but we both especially love how the back lights show right through the plastic and masking tape.

Here is how it looks in the dark. I will definitely be purchasing more of these letters at the antiques fair next year. I think need a big letter D for my office!