by David Landis on May 2, 2012
Wow, time flies when you’re having fun! I just about to wrap up my 8-week papercraft class at The ArtHaus in Richmond, Virginia. I am so proud of the work done by the kids in the class. It’s an 8-session class for kids 2nd to 5th grade. Are you in the area and would YOU like to take part in this class? Visit The ArtHaus website for more information.
Here are some photos of some of the projects we worked on.
“Quilling a flower” -Lucas
We covered a lot of territory! Character creation, tall-structure practice, toy creation, creepy crawlies, cars, quilling and even cardboard. Want to see more?
CLICK HERE to see more photos from the class!
by David Landis on March 31, 2012
by David Landis on March 16, 2012
So for two days in a row, my free papertoy download site www.DesktopGremlins.com goes down at about 4:00 PM EST. Are the monstrous mischief-makers to blame? No.
But so frustrating. I have been hosted by Network Solutions for about 10 years and I’ve never seen my site go down. Then on one of the most important days in the history of my site, it goes down for hours at a time. TWICE!
Makes me imagine that my papercraft monsters are running wild and shoving huge corks into the internet pipeline. But this is no joke.
So please, my loving audience of Desktop Gremlins… please forgive the site being down on the day that I invited so many of you to download my latest work. Hopefully Network Solutions will get to the bottom of this quickly and get the Desktop Gremlins site operating perfectly as it has for so many years in the past.
(But just in case it helps, I’ve sent a Shadow Eater to Network Solutions to resolve this.)
by David Landis on March 5, 2012
What the heck is this going to be?
This is a sneak peek at some advance work on my latest ORIGINAL paper toy at Desktop Gremlins. I have already done illustration and final paper tests and it looks great! Going to take some photos of the finished product and get the construction sheet going. Keep your eyes peeled and subscribe to my newsletter so you know when this thing goes live!
by David Landis on February 28, 2012
This was a fun accident! My son received two LEGO Minifig Series 6 mystery packs for his birthday. When we opened them, we were thrilled to discover that we actually unwrapped an exclusive LEGO set for the movie Cowboys & Aliens! I could not help myself after the kids shouted out this revelation and I had to make a poster for it.
Comments? What other movie posters could I make with minifigs (that are out of the ordinary?)
by David Landis on February 27, 2012
Ever since the birth of my first child (and his first birthday party) we’ve tried to make the kids’ birthday parties extra-special. Over the years, crazy party decorations have become a tradition in my house and I enjoy hearing the children recall previous birthday party themes and talking about which ones were their favorites. I’m often disappointed with the off-the-shelf options you find at your local party store. While I usually start my shopping there for certain items, much of the time, decoration creation veers into some unusual territory.
This year, my son turned eight and we thought about what he liked best of all for dessert — Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. I knew I wanted to make him a custom t-shirt to wear at the party (another tradition) featuring the Swiss Roll, but for the decorations on the dinner table, I decided to expand the theme to “The Astonishing Candy Factory!” My objective: to make a visual explosion that is every 8-year-old’s dream come true.
Click here to see all the photos and learn how to use real-world materials to create a great party theme!
by David Landis on December 5, 2011
“It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights…”
Those words mean a lot to me. The Muppets mean a lot to me. I was one of those kids that grew up with the Muppets on TV and it was a family event in our house to watch it. As I grew older, I fell in love with other works by Jim Henson and consider many of his films to be some of my favorite movies of all time. (Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, the original Muppet Movie, etc.)
Click here for my spoiler-free thoughts on the movie.
by David Landis on November 30, 2011
Hi Gang! I started posting some pictures up on my facebook page the other day and started thinking I should do a more in-depth feature on the blog about the process. This is part one in the Zixie (The Adorable Zombie-Pixie) behind-the-scenes series! Feel free to post comments and questions and I’ll add more posts here to the blog as I progress. I have a few different papercraft in the works, so this will be on a leisurely timeline, but Zixie has made it VERY clear to me that she wants to be made. (And I plan to fulfill her wish as soon as I can.)
So let’s get started and discover where this idea for a new papercraft came from.
You don’t want to miss this, so click here to read on!
by David Landis on November 14, 2011
Hello gang! Just posting a quick review for you to make sure you don’t overlook some fantastic content on the first edition 2011 LEGO® Club DVD. The arrival of the LEGO Club magazine is always an exciting event in our house and we were even more intrigued when we spotted the enclosed DVD in the November-December 2011 issue. I was assuming this would be full of advertising and clips of LEGO shows, BUT there is an amazingly wonderful selection of features on the DVD that every LEGO fan should see.
Honestly, I can’t believe these features are not better-promoted on the DVD sleeve or in the DVD menus, so I’m going to cut to the chase and discuss what I consider to be must-see content.
Click here to see what I’m talking about!
by David Landis on November 8, 2011
I stumbled across the film Between the Folds (Exploring Origami) while on Netflix the other day and naturally it caught my eye. I have never really tried origami myself (apart from the random attempts to fold a dollar bill into some interesting shape) but I certainly enjoy the aesthetics of if. I also respect the rules of origami: no glue, no tape, constructed from one sheet of paper and no cutting.
Click here to unfold the full review!
