Like probably every other mother my mum loves getting photos for Christmas, but in my opinion normal photo cubes or books are a bit boring.
Being fascinated by instructable member golics "Unbelievable! White Or Black. Crazy Paper Cube", I had the idea of combining it with photos. The pictures work as hinges, so that you can unfold more of them on the inside of the cube.
Every year we are celebrating Christmas with my whole family (including cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents). My mum organizes everything, so I took photos from last year, to thank her for that.
To get a better idea, have a look at the video:
Being fascinated by instructable member golics "Unbelievable! White Or Black. Crazy Paper Cube", I had the idea of combining it with photos. The pictures work as hinges, so that you can unfold more of them on the inside of the cube.
Every year we are celebrating Christmas with my whole family (including cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents). My mum organizes everything, so I took photos from last year, to thank her for that.
To get a better idea, have a look at the video:
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Material
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Self-Adhesive Film to produce stickers (Avery® White Full-Sheet Labels for Inkjet Printers
)
sdudley suggests in his comment to use adhesive-backed laminating paper, which sound like a good idea to me, in order to use them you will need a laminator, I tried this and liked the result, but this only works with cubes bigger than 4cm, else the cube will not close properly.
mastover was so kind to document his efforts, so if you don't have/ can't effort a laminator or the Self-Adhesive Film please take a look at step 5.
- 8 wooden cubes (best is a side length between 3 and 4 cm)
- Printer
- Box cutter
- Ruler
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You have to be really good about it not sticking to itself and the bubble, but it's a lot cheaper than the sheets and gives a really nice presentation. Waterproof too. (I started using it on recipe cards when I figured that one out!)
Love the spray adhesive idea, too!
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-3850-Heavy-Duty-Packaging-Tape-2-x-55-yards-Clear/15140648
And I have different sizes of adhesive printing paper. (Avery printable labels.)
But I have no time to get the adhesive-backed laminating pouches. (Not sure how much they cost either.)
I am wondering if this will work: First, I can print the photos on the adhesive Avery labels, then laminate those printed labels in a pouch, then try to cut off the back part of the laminating pouch by slitting it at the edges. (The 3mil laminating pouches are inexpensive and on hand; I'm not worried about wasting them.)
Here is another option that might help someone who doesn't have a laminator. Before I had a laminator, years ago, I used to use Clear Contact Paper to "laminate" many papers and prints. I think in this project I would apply it to the whole photo before cutting the seams and trimming to size with an X-acto knife.
But for this project, I really like the packing tape idea. Simple. I never thought of that before. Since this seems simple compared to the laminating pouch-adhesive label process, I am going to try it first.
[Hope this is not a repeat. I thought I'd commented a couple of days ago but don't see this idea anywhere. Maybe I forgot to post it.]
We did try applying the boxtape to laminate the little pieces of prints. It's just tedious because each little square has to be trimmed afterward, but does give good results. So I thought it would be so much easier to laminate my whole printout at once.
Before, I had wondered if I could "...print the photos on the adhesive Avery labels, then laminate those printed labels in a pouch..."
I experimented with this briefly tonight. Took a scrap of adhesive label (Avery 8165) and a scrap of a 3 mil laminating pouch. Cut a piece of the laminate (only one side of the pouch) which was smaller than the label, placed it inside the margins of the label and ran it through the laminator, plastic side up. Worked fine. I suppose there is an inside and outside of the pouch; they felt different to me and I made sure it was oriented correctly.
[Note: I feel sure the one-sided laminating method would work on my regular 24lb printer paper -- or card stock-- just as it did with labels. I'm not sure what would happen though if the laminating plastic were left bigger than the paper -- not going to risk the machine roller.]
Voila -- a laminated adhesive label. Afterwards, I cut the label with an xacto knife and applied it to a test cube.
Issues to work out:
1) I am not sure if the adhesive on my labels will be strong enough to make a really good long term bond with the wood. The spray adhesive might be a better option. (But maybe my scrap was old and the adhesive weak.)
2) We're finding it's better to pre-crease the laminated prints at the "hinges" before applying to the wood. With the backing paper on the Avery labels, once the prints are laminated, it's hard to get an accurate crease. (The backing paper is thicker and bunches up.) But we can't really crease the labels after the backing paper is removed, it all sticks together. So it seems easier to work with laminated paper than to work with laminated adhesive labels.
I'm wondering if it would yield better results to apply printed adhesive labels to the cube, which would be thinner and easier to work with, and then use the box tape to laminate the sides of the cube -- once the cube is constructed.
We'll keep experimenting... I should probably try the spray adhesive. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Mastover used spray adhesive, he says, that the bond is really good, but it hard to get a good result, because once applied you can't move the photos any more, so you will have to get it right the first time.
My bond between the wooden cubes and the adhesive isn't to good as well, but I haven't had any problem so far (you can easily fix the corners with glue if they don't stick properly).
Mastover is doing exactly your final suggestion, we will see how it goes for him.
Please keep informing me, I'm sure, that we will find the perfect way and please show me a picture of your final result.
I wonder if we should follow your method and then simply use a spray protectant instead of trying to make this laminated. Or as I suggested, use your original method and then use something like boxtape after the cube is finished to protect the photos.
We can always resort to that if these other methods fail. First we'll try what is on hand.
On one inch cubes, the adhesive just did not stick well enough. Probably, as BrittLiv said, these cubes are just too small to give a good sticking surface. Maybe my stock is old; maybe it was affected by the heat in the laminator. (But the leftover edges of the adhesive seem to work fine as normal stickers onto paper.)
Maybe the cubes I got need prepping more to give a good gluing surface. (Warning, the cubes we bought are not SQUARE or dimensionally accurate. We played with them to find an arrangement that would make a good cube. Maybe more critical with the small cubes.)
My son was making this cube; it was late Christmas Eve and he resorted to a LOT of box tape to hold it together. The resulting photo cube was then really too thick to totally close when sitting alone.
If using box tape to such an extent, we might as well have skipped the laminating phase. And it would help to plan the box tape usage a little more, with any adjoining sides all taped in one pass. I'm sure he has several layers of tape on some of the sides.
So really, a good adhesive and the right size cube is important. He's going to make another and I'm sure it'll turn out better. I'll make a larger one. (But there is a charm in the small one, too. :) )
Having said all of that, the cube was a smash hit! :) The effort was appreciated and the whole concept is great, the photos of his cube mean a lot to both the giver and recipient. :) The theme is box art from computer games they've played through the last decade.
Thanks again for the idea and great instructable! :)
I've used the clear contact paper to laminate in the past too. It works great, but could get pricey. I found that for small things like this, the good packing tape works just as well (just don't use the cheap stuff as it's not really clear, it can be a bit opaque), and is less than 1/10 the price. I'm giving this a shot by printing the photos on photo-paper, laminating using the tape (tape will work as the hinge portion as well) and using the 3m spray to make them stick to the wood blocks (I already had some from a previous project). I did a test with regular paper on to the wood and it stuck like magic, but it also soaked through the regular paper. That is why I'm going to try it with photopaper. I'm hoping as it's thicker it will not allow the spray to soak through. I'll find out tonight. If it still soaks through, I'll use the tape on BOTH sides of the photopaper, then it should work fine as the spray can't go through the tape.
(This is just a test using fast draft photos on regular xerox paper, and double-sided tape applied to the cubes.)
We'd already decided to use a sharpie pen on the edges/seams before assembly in case the prints were not quite big enough. I think we'll do that and intentionally make the prints smaller than the blocks.
We would like to get more professional results. Any advice? Thanks.
So the problem is that you can't print it to the correct size? What program are you using? I've printed them a bit bigger and then used a box cutter, to cut them to the correct size.
I think using a sharpie pen is a good idea.
My printouts are from Photoshop at 300dpi. So the photos are 600dpix600dpi. I made a template which can be scaled up. We spent a lot of time editing our photos. I just printed FastDraft on regular paper to play with it.
I would prefer to "trim" in Photoshop for these images, then print as close to the right size as we can, rather than printing a bigger image and trimming to fit cubes. But it would be better to print a tad smaller and let the sharpie fill in edges than have the photos too big and interfering with the cube operation.
So it's the wooden cubes that are not exactly to size -- when going to the final product we will try to make sure they match. I knew better than to assume the cubes were exactly 1 inch -- just chose to ignore that for this quick test as we iron out the bugs.
Has anyone made a TEMPLATE of some type? (To fit the photos to the right size before printing on the adhesive paper?) We want to make several cubes, and I want to make it easy for my teen and myself to just pick photos, paste them in, and print personalized photos for each recipient.
So maybe, a template in a Photoshop or other graphics program, or in something like MSWord? Seems I downloaded and used a passport photo template in Photoshop which had the masks already sized and made, so the photos came out exactly the right size when I printed.
If anyone has a template, please let us know. Thanks!
1) Use adhesive-backed laminating paper (need a laminator). I use it all the time for all kinds of projects. It's awesome because not only do you get a great adhesive bond, but the laminate protects your original photo from fingerprints, etc.
http://www.jhlaminating.com/adhesive-backed.shtml
2) Try sticky dots. Below is a link to buy sheets of it. The sheet of paper is covered with little glue dots. You simply place the picture or item on the sheet, then peel it away. The glue dots will stick to the back of your photo turning it into a sticker. I personally have not used it but I understand it works great.
http://www.thermowebonline.com/dyn_prod.php?p=4051&k=86237
To show you how nice they can make your printed images look I am attaching a picture of a couple mini-arcade game cabinets I made using the laminates to make the decals.
I designed the artwork in my layout software, printed it to standard white paper and laminated it with the adhesive-backed laminate. Then I cut them out and applied like I would any other sticker.
They look great and are somewhat scratch resistant too. So if you have projects that will be used by kids they will hold up quite nicely.
I typically use the glossy laminate, but they make a matt finish also in case you don't want it to shine.
I think the laminates would work extremely well for a project such as this photo cube because people are always touching it and you'll never have to worry about the oil from the fingers messing up the photos.
I originally misunderstood what you meant by "bend". After looking further at your instructable and the comments I realized you were asking if the laminate is foldable.
So... to find out, I printed a picture and laminated it. Then I folded it back on itself it to see how well it works. Attached is a photo showing three images. The top image is one side, the middle image shows the fold and the bottom image is the other side.
I hope this answers your question.
If you are a hobbiest who likes to mess around with crafts and such, a laminator just seems to be a perfect addition to the toolset.
ich baue den Würfel schon seit geraumer Zeit, cool das es noch Jemanden gibt der den Würfel kennt und schätzt ;-)
Sag mal, wie hast du das mit dem Kleber gelöst? Was genau benutzt du da?
Ich klebe erst mit Ductabe den Würfel und dann klebe ich darüber Papier um dieses anschließend zu bemalen. Sieht auch nicht schlecht aus (ist jetzt nicht gerade das beste Bild, war ein Prototyp von dem Würfel).
Geile Idee mit den Bilder, hatte ich auch schon überlegt aber bin leider am "kleber Problem gescheitert"
Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch!
1)Spray the blocks, let em dry.
2)Spray the back of the photos(with or without lamination), let em dry.
3)Stick them together.
Super 77 is amazingly strong and flexible. Good for folding joints, textiles, whatever.
I am so going to try this 'structable! thanks!