DIY: Magic Rose Cube

In spirit of preparing to improve my SuperForest-ness in 2009, I decided to hand craft my mom’s birthday gifts this year. And a part of those gifts included one of these…

A Magic Rose Cube

Now I know what you’re thinking, “What’s so magical about it?” It’s a fair question, at a glance, this may look like an ordinary flower created out of paper but what makes this rose box special is the fact that it transforms!

Here are a couple videos that will help you make on of your own!

Gotta love that accent. Here are two friendly suggestions that will make your lives much easier if you decide to try this out.

1.) Make sure your folds and creases are perfect. I guess this is a given with any sort of origami art but for any beginners out there, it will definitely save you from possible problems.
2.) Don’t use construction paper like I did. The thick paper makes it difficult to fold toward the end.

And there you have it, a magical rose cube. Now, it took me a while and a whole lot of patience (being my first origami creation ever) but I was finally able to complete mine and if I can do it, you can definitely make one too.

(Here’s where you can find the videos and other how to guides that can kick start your own SuperForesty 2009)

Love to All,
Carla

Dollar Bill Origami

Won Park is a dollar bill folder. He has the amazing talent to turn one of these…

Into one of these…

What a gifted artist! To see more of Park’s work and several other mind bending origami pieces, click here!

(found via BOOOOOOOM! via ffffound!)

The Designboom Cassette Wallet is Awesome (Plus, Four Ways to Make Your Own!)

I just stumbled onto designboom's cassette wallet, and it is good. Real good. Each one is handmade by an artist in Italy named Marcella Foschi, which is a very nice name.

From the mighty 'boom:

"retro wallets hand-made from cassette tapes

as every 'cassette wallet' is hand made,
each design is a one-off. once its gone its gone!"

Righteous. The cassette wallet is 43 smackers Amero. (39 plus S&H)

If you have the means, give signora Foschi the gift of a sale.
If you're more the DIY type, here are four ways to make your own.

instructables.
craftster.org.
threadbanger.
lifehacker.

Of course, quality and difficulty levels will vary, but who doesn't like a challenge?

If anyone makes one of these, do be so good as to snap a picky and send it to: superforestnyc(at)gmail(dot)com. Wheeeee!

Fun!

foldUScandidate

What would be more awesome then presidential candidates? Right! Foldable presidential candidates!
And that's where foldUScandidate comes in. The website hosts pdf files containing templates of respectively: the candidates (Obama and McCain), their wives and the running mates (Biden and Palin). For the Clinton fans they also have a file for Hillary, yay!

So the idea is that you download a file, cut it out, put some glue on the destined lines and fold your candidate! After you've crafted a few you can do fun things with it. For example hold your own debates, use them in your puppet theatre, or you can let them... dance!

How awesome. There's also a flickr photostream where users from around the world can share their presidential-puppet-creations.

-jdh

Amazing Recycling Book For Kids! (And Growns!)

Hello All,

Today I was given an amazing book. It's called "Recycled Crafts Box," by Laura Martin. The R.C.B. is a instruction guide for making wonderful and whimsical toys out of recycled materials.



Ms. Martin has thoughtfully broken each chapter down by material, so if you have, say, a big stack of paper that you were otherwise going to put in a landfill, why not use it to make this!:


A little house! My favorite part is the cotton ball chimney smoke. Ingenious!

And look at this! A timeline of Trash!


A mere two hundred years ago, almost all of our trash was in some way recycled, either by reusing things, composting things, or using household scraps as animal feed. Now, we simply pile it up, cover it with dirt, and there it sits.

This book cleverly shows many ways of not only reducing our waste stream, but also having a good time learning and creating in the process, and by doing that, you'll be taking steps to protect your fellow humans.

I will be using/referencing this book often in years to come.

Go on Amazon, buy this book, make things with your children.
amazon.com/Recycled-Crafts-Box

Huzzah to Ms. Martin, who is today's recipient of the SuperforestNYC Rad Person Award!



Love to all,

Jackson