Papercraft

The Canary

Today we went to work a half hour early to make up some time missed by Donna for a follow up doctor’s appointment (mouth healing nicely, thank you very much.) Seeing as I didn’t have any time to make up, I used this extra time constructively in paper, by doing another Desktop Gremlin. I love these little things, one sheet, no glue and in about 15 minutes…

I am working on a papercraft project that is little more difficult, perhaps 2nd grade level, and is a slight departure. Instead of printing everything on one sheet of paper, this one has several pieces layered on top of each other to give the object a bit of depth* and it is taking a little while to do because I have to cut out the pieces during breaks at work where there is more light and fold and glue at home. It should be finished by tomorrow, so try and remain calm.

*Well, as much depth as can be achieved with something .010″ thick.

Started up, still up.
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Many-mimmo

I know what you’re thinking, “He’s gone off the deep end.” Sorry already been off for quite a while.

These little fellows are a cute as puppy dogs and I couldn’t help but make more than one. Then I thought maybe they needed a momma to show them the way of the world, so I made one twice as large grafting two pieces of card stock together. If I made 6 of the small guys every weekend, how long would it take to fill up my 9′ x 9′ x 3-1/2′ high cubical?

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
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Vinivimmo

Meet Vinivimmo, the lizard cousin to Minimimmo and produced especially for buddy Mark (Hi Mark!) who is a fan of V.

Started up, went down, still down.
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Sandcrawler

This bit of folded paper is kind of crude compared to the cute Minimimmo and not nearly as slick as The Alien, but the Star Wars geek in me just had to make it. Trouble is, it is not so recognizable as to what it is. My wife who has seen A New Hope as many times as I have, thought it might be from Firefly. Of course when she said that I thought, “Oooh, oooh, maybe somebody has done a papercraft Serenity.” Sure enough, someone has, and the plans are on the God-blessed Internet. Unfortunately what I have been doing so far in no way prepares me to make that model. I’m just graduating from Papercraft Pre-school and this project is Graduate School level. It is approximately 80 pieces cut from thirteen 8-1/2 x 11 sheets with instructions consisting of 14 jpeg images.

From IMDB’s trivia page for Star Wars:
While George Lucas was filming on location in Tunisia, the Libyan government became worried about a massive military vehicle parked near the Libyan border. Consequently, the Tunisian government, receiving threats of military mobilization, politely asked Lucas to move his Jawa sandcrawler farther away from the border.

Started down, went up, still up.
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Hostess Truck Version 2.0

This model is recognizable by the Hostess logo on the back and the rearview mirrors that I didn’t have time to put on the first version. I’m thinking for Version 3.0 I might have the rear door open with hundreds of tiny Sno-Balls tumbling out of it. I did this one at home using Elmer’s Glue and I’m not that happy with the results. At work I have a glue stick that works a lot better, but more importantly I have a very well lit area that makes it easier to see the cut /fold lines. The glue stick is an easy fix, but I’m not sure what to do about the lighting.

First up today was the usual Saturday breakfast at DD while reading the Weekend Edition of the WSJ they get. We enjoy reading it so much we thought about getting it home delivered, but you can only get the weekend paper if you subscribe to the Monday through Friday editions as well. Those we probably wouldn’t read, so it would be a terrible waste of paper, plus the cost was more than we wanted to spend for a newspaper for one day a week ($119 a year.)

Then we went out in the 27° morning and did a few local and semi-local caches. We found the first two we looked for and then it went down hill from there, ending up finding just three of the next seven. We were about due a few DNFs as we hadn’t had one in three weeks and 30 caches.

We finished out the day at Olive Garden with friends. We always go out to eat early to avoid the crowds, but that plan didn’t work tonight. We arrived at 5:15 and ended up with a 50 minute wait for a table. If it was just Donna and I we would have just walked next door to Wendy’s, but we had Rudy and Patti to share stories with while we waited, so while the wait was long, it was pleasant.

Started up, still up.
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A Day Late


The Alien

Today’s art project is so simple a caveman could do it. No tape, no glue, no tabs and no xacto knife needed, just scissors and a steady hand.

Mark wore his new Zombieland T-shirt to work today and took every chance he got to show off his sartorial splendor and rub in the fact that I was wearing nothing but a plain green shirt. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, the shirt I ordered several hours before he ordered his, was in the mailbox when I got home tonight.

So what did I do, you might ask, well, I didn’t even open it up, I wrote return to sender in big red letters and stuffed the overstuffed envelope back in the mailbox.

OK, not really, I eagerly ripped open the bag and I’m wearing it now and plan on not taking it off. Ever.

Truthfully, I put it in the hamper to be washed. I have this phobia about wearing anything brand new, it has to be washed first.* Amateur psychologists, feel free to pipe in with a diagnosis.

*Actually, that would make a nice Z-Land rule. #33. Always wash new clothes. Because you never know if a zombie has tried it on before you.

Started down, went up, still up.
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Minimimmo

My latest fixation, started in the usual manner, a random blog post on a random web page. Now I just can’t help myself, I just have to cut something out of card stock and glue, insert tab into slot or press it together to create “art.”

Today’s papercraft piece, Minimimmo, is from Italy and hopes to colonize the world. These boogers are just so cute, I might just make a hundred of them, starting a southeastern US outpost. Good thing there is a video on the web site as the downloadable instructions were only available in Italian.

No package in today’s mail. No failed attempted delivery notice. Some rat bastard postal worker is wearing my Pacific Playland T-shirt.

Started up, went down, still down.
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