Day 16: Something that goes over an eye

Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else’s).

Obviously the only thing that I could consider doing for this challenge was to make some papercraft Kanye glasses.

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Here’s how to make your own in five easy steps:

  1. Scan your sunglasses (for correct sizing later on).
  2. Create a cut-out image. (Source some reference images, scale to fit the scans of your sunglasses, and trace an outline.)
  3. Send the cut-out image to an electronic cutter. (Or print it off and then cut it out with a knife.)
  4. Assemble Kanye glasses.
  5. Adorn your eyes with said glasses and become infinitely cooler.

Here are some process shots:

Note: Day 16 was meant to be making unique prints by cutting up a potato or sponge, but we’re flat out of both of those items. So we’ve once more swapped days. Look out for potato prints tomorrow!

Day 14: How small can you work?

Make something microscopic. How small can you work?

I designed a very basic papercraft character a few months ago. My design focus was on simple cuts and folds, so it should scale relatively well. I wonder how small I can make it?

Behold, the incredible shrinking papercraft bearded man!:

animationObviously I completely lack any magical paper-shrinking powers and had to make a bunch of models in order to create the crude animated .gif above:

DSCF9603Each model is 50% the size of the next largest model. The smallest one probably doesn’t really count as a model though (since it’s barely holding together, and is rather grossly disfigured.)

Here are some process shots (including the original print-out with all the different sizes):

Day 12: Camouflage

Camouflage: Create or alter something so that it disappears into the environment

I made a mouse:

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Oh wait, it’s something disguised as a mouse:

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It’s a cat!:

DSCF9563It’s more disguise than camouflage, but I do like to imagine a cat dressing up in order to infiltrate a nest of mice.

Here are some additional shots:

Day 11: Work on the other hand

Work on the other hand. Pick a medium you’re comfortable with, then work with your non-dominant hand.

Just a quick one today, since it’s a Friday. I didn’t fancy handling scissors or a razor with my left hand, so manual paper cutting was out.

In then end, I decided that using Paper (by FiftyThree) for iPad was close enough to paper crafting, because… well, it has “paper” in the title… and I could sketch with my left hand while watching the news and flicking through channels with my right.

Anyhow, I ended up finger-drawing this old guy getting interviewed about guns (or something like that):

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Day 10: Water

User only water as your medium/inspiration today.

I started thinking that I would make a paper cup (to hold water) and then a Neptune paper toy (God of the seas), but I ended up just wanting to make something cute.

Working in a similar vein to the nectarine pattern from yesterday, I created a basic octopus pattern in Inkscape:

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I wasn’t entirely sure if the lengths/widths, but it all seems to have worked out:

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And here are a few more shots – enjoy!:

Day 9: Make something with your breakfast

Make something with your breakfast before you eat it.

By the time I read today’s inspiration, I had already eaten breakfast (a couple of pieces of toast and a nectarine).

Rather than miss a day, I figured that it was time to bend the rules again. I initially thought that I would recreate my entire breakfast in papercraft, but then decided to just focus on one element of it: a nectarine.

I’ve previously use multiple scans to produce papercraft versions of real objects, but I’ve noted that cutting an object before scanning it might yield better results. Bearing that in mind, I peeled a nectarine so that the surface would lay flat on the scanner:

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I then scanned it (covering sections with white paper to improve the colour reproduction – hopefully) and cut it out with some improvised tabs:

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Then it was a matter of using double-sided adhesive tape (an a handy applicator) to roll up the side and hold it in a 3D shape:

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Finally, it was ready to join the fruit basket. 🙂

DSCF9549Here are all the process shots:

I did eat the nectarine at the end. The real one, not the papercraft version.

 

Day 8: Transform an old book

Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing and  so on.

We don’t really have any old books that we could transform, so I used a WASO booklet that Amelia grabbed from the coffee table and proceeded to bend, nibble, and gnaw.

The inside cover features a wide shot of the orchestra standing to attendance, and I wanted to try making some of the figures actually stand out from the page.

So I cut:

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And folded:

DSCF9535I like how it kind of… flattens out the perspective effect – making it look like there are giants  amongst normal-sized people. It reminds me of The Lord of the Rings films.

I haven’t really mentioned it much before, but I’m keen to make papercraft-based games and this exercise has shown me that I could probably use very simple cuts and folds to create layered environments suitable for simple scenes. Good stuff.

Day 7: Make a stencil and use it in your work

We recently acquired a new coffee machine, and I was inspired to make a stencil that would turn an ordinary cappuccino into a cute cappuccino.

I started by sketching a simple chibi face using a brush-tip marker:

Scan 16

I scanned this into my computer, did a quick vector trace, and sent it to the cutter:

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Then it was a matter of (with Heidi’s help) frothing some milk and sprinkling chocolate powder through the stencil. Voila!

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Unfortunately, I’m not a big coffee drinker and Heidi always has a morning latte. So I’m not sure how much use this stencil is going to get beyond today.