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I started out with only parts:

After a lot of trouble, including trying to get a broken soldering iron to work for about 20 min., I got my board and box in order.

Step 1:
What you see above is Step One. I got the LED to light up.

Step 2:
I wired three LED's in series and they did not light up. Using the multimeter, I measured the voltage from the positive prong of each LED to ground. The readings were 5.1V, 3.4V, and 1.7V. The voltage form the negative prong of the last LED in the series read 0. The LED's where lowering the voltage by about 1.7 volts each, which is a total of 5.1 (1.7x3)--that's equal to the total available voltage. There was too much resistance for the electricity to get through the LED's, and they didn't light up. I rewired them in parallel, and they all lit up.

Step 3:

I wired a 10k pot between into my circuit in series after the first 220 Ohm resistor. Turning the pot adjusted the brightness of the LED.

Step 4:

When I was a kid, I read in some project book how to make an alarm system out of a radio. It involved creating a tripwire out of clothespins and tinfoil. I took a clothespin and wrapped some tinfoil-like metal around the two halves that form the clamp. After gluing them there, I soldered a wire to the foil on each half. Now, if the clothespin is closed, the a cicuit is completed; open, it is broken.

Open:

Closed (Notice the lit-up LED in the background):

Now for the trip-wire. All that's needed is an insulator that will sit in-between the contacts in the clothespin. Attach a rope to the insulator, and when the rope is tripped, the insulator will pull out and the circuit will close. I glued two peices of plastic around some nylon line.

Voila! A tripwire!