Cube My Life

-Kata124 is Kenny Katayama. He likes playing bass, fencing, and occasionally posting on shitty blogs.

-Kata124 is heading out to UCSD in September to be a silly freshman.

-Kata124 is really happy this cube thing is over. He enjoyed it but I mean, seriously, two years?!?!
Kata124's 3x3:

1. Listening to: You're a Woman, I'm a Machine by Death From Above 1979 / Chat and Business by Ikara Colt / The Eternal by Sonic Youth
2. Watching: Inception / Primer / How I Met Your Mother
3. Reading: Connected by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler / Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley / 1984 by George Orwell

YAY!

I'm finally at the point of no return where I move on from the first layer of cubes to the second. In case anyone plans to build their own tower of cubes, here's the quick trick I used to make one cube stand on top of the other:

I got myself some staples (IMAGE 2 IN SLIDESHOW) and bent them as seen in IMAGE 3. I then took two of these bent staples and stuck them in the rump of top cube (IMAGE 4). There's a gap on each side of the cubes in between the flaps that works really well and doesn't remove the glue. The other ends of the staples then go into the bottom cube (IMAGE 5) and voila! Everything should fit back into your stand very nicely like in IMAGE 6.

Cheers,

Kata124

Today, I'm pointing out two great websites that you can go and visit today. Not only do they offer some innovative and useful papercraft ideas. You can also easily customize their designs to fit what you want.

The first one is iPapercraft.com. This site is famous for its papercraft iPod skins. You can take any picture on you computer and turn it into a printable skin that gives your iPod a great look. Recently, the creator of iPapercraft came out with something even cooler called the paper wallet generator. Using four pictures or just text, you can print yourself an awesome wallet that, when cut and folded, is thinner and more practical than those expensive wallets you find in stores.

Here is one I made that has 4 comic strips from Matt Furie's, Boy's Club on it. I love this wallet and always carry it around in my pocket:



The second site is papercdcase.com. Do you ever find yourself with too many CDs compared to CD cases? Well if you want a case but don't want to drive to a store, just visit this site and print out one of these paper CD cases. You can even print a playlist of your songs on the cover for a music CD.

I decided to make myself a CD case for an album of 5 obnoxious songs I composed a few years ago. (You can hear my music here.) Instead of just making a playlist on the cover, I played around with their PDF and figured out the dimensions for where the cover image should go. This is what it looked like when it was folded:



Alright. I think I'm done with advertisements for the day :)
In case you want it, here is my version of their model:



Make sure your picture fits in the big square at the center. When you print it, you will have to play around with the dimensions. I hope you guys enjoyed this post. I'll continue to keep you updated on the cubing of my life.

Okay, the first thing you want to do is save your model image onto your computer. Next, you can go ahead an open it with pretty much any type of image software. Now, you're going to need to print your model. The easiest way to do this is to right click on the image and click print or hit CTRL+P.

Note: remember what program you are in when you print your sheet! If you want to make more models in the future, the only way they will all be the same size is if you print them the same way!

Regarding paper, I recommend cardstock because it's a lot more solid than computer paper while still being easy to bend (SEE IMAGE 1 IN SLIDESHOW). Cardstock is ideal but you can use pretty much any type of paper as long as it's in a uniform color.

Materials (IMAGE 2):
All you need is a pair of scissors and some glue. Get a glue stick because liquid glue is extremely messy. The exacto-knife isn't necessary but it helps clean things up.

The Stand:
Okay here are the instructions for making the stand. Remember, the stand really isn't necessary. You will need two copies of Stand Part A, Stand Part B, and Stand Part C. These can be found here.
First, you want to take Stand Part A and cut around it's border. Make sure you cut the little triangles labeled C that are on the inside of the border as well (IMAGE 3). Once everything is cut (IMAGE 4), go ahead and fold along the lines the same way I did in the image (IMAGE 5). You should be able to figure out how things go together at this point so just glue the corners and you have Part A covered (IMAGE 6). Next, go ahead and cut out Stand Part B. This piece is a lot simpler than Part A but just to make sure, check out the images (IMAGES 7 & 8). Once you have both parts A and B done, all you have to do is fit one into the other and glue the edges together (IMAGE 9). And voila! You're on your way to completion (IMAGE 10).
Remember, you need 2 copies of the above construction so go ahead and repeat these steps until you have two parts to the stand (IMAGE 11).
Part C is the easiest it gets. Cut out the two copies you printed (IMAGE 12) and fold them as seen in the image (IMAGE 13). Then, simply glue the two pieces together to form a column (IMAGE 14). No more gluing is required at this point, just put the column in between the two bases (IMAGE 15). That's it. You have a completed stand.

The Cubes:
The cubes are real simple. First, cut your cube out (IMAGE 16) with the triangles on the edges cut the same way as (IMAGE 17). Fold along the lines inwards so your cube looks like (IMAGE 18). Then, glue the tab at the very end to the back of your character's face (IMAGE 19). Glue the tabs on the right and left (IMAGE 20) and your cube is complete!

I went and made my first two (IMAGE 21) and they fit perfectly into my stand (IMAGE 22).

Here is the basic layout of the stand that will hold my 80 cubes.
This is the most confusing of all models that I will ever upload to this site so don't worry. It will only get easier from here.

Unless you plan on making 80 cubes as well, I don't recommend constructing this. You never know, so I'll post it below and eventually add pictures of the procedure to make it.

Stand Part A - You'll need two of these. They attach to Parts B.

Stand Part B - You'll need two of these. They attach to Parts A.

Stand Part C - You'll need two of these. These two pieces fit together to create a simple column.

And that's it. Click here for instructions on how to build this as well as pictures to help you through the steps.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me.

Or reach me at my AIM account.


I am open to any ideas or requests so please let me know if you have some.