help needed designing lights for custom prop sizes

[hoosierdoc]

I'm looking to make a large Rgb pixel star, Christmas trees, and some other simple props. When designing these, do you make them to fit the light strands you have, or cut the strands to fit the prop? Or do you just keep wrapping until the whole strand is used?

The star i built followed someone's idea but it used an 18' rope light and really has about a 17'5" border. Looks good, but I'm intending to make it out of pixels. The strands I got seems to be about 12.5' long (not here yet). Can I use two strands and cut the second one when I've used enough? They are ws8211 12v ones. I've seen where if you cut a strand you need to add a resister to account for the lost voltage drop from losing loads, is this true for pixels also?

i have a lot of balls in there air trying to figure things out and physically creating the prop is the next hurdle. 

Any suggestions appreciated!

Edited December 7, 2017 by hoosierdoc

[Mr. P]

Pixels you can add to or take away all you want as long as you don't overload the port. Just make sure you solder everything correctly and also be advised that pixels are directional. The data only flows one way so make sure you know the data in and the data out.