@jackintheshop give baking parchment paper a try as a diffuser. I've seen it work wonders on LEDs. It's also widely available, not particularly hard to work with, and relatively cheap. It also looks good and resists heat as some LEDs run hot.

@jackintheshop Idk what would be involved, cuz I'm not a boss like you - but edge lit might be a viable option?

@admin Yea. I would have liked it to be more diffused. going to have to work on that for the Christmas cross I am working on now.

also pretty, have you considered a diffusion layer to break up the points of high intensity?

That explains what you were gonna do with the LED strips.