Most of the stuff on this site is about papercraft, so this post may come as a bit of a surprise. Anyway, if you (or your kids!) are interested in a nice little casual mobile game, this might be for you: I have created a game called "Riverly"
The calendar is basically a grid of 7 x 8 cells. Each cell contains a cube corresponding to that particular day. The cube has a red and a black and white side. You can indicate the current day by turning the cube to the red side. For a new month,
Here is the 2024 update for the dino calendar. For 2024, I have also added a new color scheme for the dino – dark gray with lime green highlights. stegosaurus_dark_grayDark gray theme for the stegosaurusstegosaurus_dark_gray.pdf259 KBdownload-circlestegosaurus_2024_monthsMonthly calendar cards for 2024stegosaurus_2024_months.pdf295 KBdownload-circlestegosaurus_
Here is the 2023 update for the dino calendar. I wish all of my dear readers a happy and prosperous year 2023! stegosaurus_2023_monthsMonthly calendar cards for 2023stegosaurus_2023_months.pdf293 KBdownload-circlestegosaurus_2023_weeksWeekly calendar cards for 2023stegosaurus_2023_weeks.pdf414 KBdownload-circle
Here are the brand new 2022 calendar pages for the dino calendar. My sincere apology for not updating the calendar for 2019 through 2021! This was an extremely busy time for me, with a lot of personal things I had to attend to, and I just didn’t find the
So my son had his tenth birthday recently, and what with the Coronavirus induced shutdown and self-isolation/quarantine, a real birthday party with his friends was of course no option. Thus, I set out to organize a virtual birthday party in Minecraft instead. What’s the difference to just playing
Some of you have already asked when the 2018 update for the dino calendar will go online. Well, ask no more, because here it is: The 2018 edition comes as a plain white template – ready to be colored in by you. A lot of you folks have asked recently about
My friend Mina Braun, who designed the 'Can I Have A Kitten' book where I contributed the papercraft templates, together with Whitney Stewart created a very beautiful deck of cards of mindfulness activities for kids: Here is more on the ‘Mindful Kids’ deck for you, f you have
Now, here is something for scifi movie aficionados: K’s toy horse from Blade Runner 2049: And here is the infamous inscription of the date 6/10/21: When Blade Runner 2049 came out, i was both excited and skeptical. Excited because of course am I a big fan of
About ten years ago I joined my wife and in-laws for a trip to the attic of the old family house. This was an attic close to what you would expect from a mystery thriller: Dark, extremely dusty, barely protected against the elements, with wind and light coming in between
For those of you who are fans of Donald Duck and/or papercrafting, here is a huge collection of vintage papercraft templates which were part of the monthly German ‘Mickey Mouse’ magazine. The site’s name is Seite 42, which translates to ‘page no. 42’ – the place in the magazine
A lot of you have asked for a 2017 update for the dino calendar. Well, finally here it is. In case you don't know what I am talking about, this is it: A nice little stegosaurus, which holds monthly or weekly cards, where each card’s tab doubles
3D Printing
Ok, so the big promise of 3D printing is that I can get whetever item I need at any moment, in whatever shape I desire, which would be very handy for repairs and replacements. As anyone dealing with 3D printing can attest, the truth is that it is not always
3D Printing
Recently my kids inherited a very old children’s microscope, which had been used in elementary school. As these low budget microscopes go, it’s resolution and chromatic fidelity were abysmal, and despite featuring a decent nominal magnification of x500, it was more or less a glorified magnifying glass. It’
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For a kids’ church activity, my wife recently asked me whether I could create a Baal bust (don’t ask!). This is what I came up with: It looks surprisingly good, considering that it is made entirely from cardboard. I used gold-colored acrylic paint, which turned out excellent, and makes
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When buying a new lock for your front door, smart people consider buying a lock with a turning knob on the inside, like this: Photo by user BlastOButter42 on Wikipedia It allows you to lock – not just close – your front door with a turn of the knob. Well, I didn’
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Remember my miniature airplane display case? Well, I recently received a custom order for the design of new airplanes. Turns out the requested airplanes are some of the most interesting ones ever engineered. It was great fun working on the models and reading up on the background of these planes.
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For my daughter’s last birthday, we had some of her friends for a sleepover party. Before bedtime, I wanted to use this opportunity to do something that only works after dark: A scavenger hunt in the dark. In preparation, I requisitioned: * A blacklight flash light * A UV marker pen
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A couple of days ago I received in the mail a copy of a new 2017 calendar - the theme is 'hand-lettered and artsy alphabets', published by Amber Lotus Publishing. The calendar features - among other very nice artwork by other artists - my papercraft alphabet on the
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I realize it has been a long while since my last post. This has been due to a few things happening simultaneously in my life which kept me very busy. A couple of projects came along, and at the same time I took on a full-time project that by definition
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Some of you may remember the series of business card holders (butler, scientist, sheriff, beaver) I did some time ago. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make them: Start by cutting out along the contours of the template: Fold along the edge of the base, so that the
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scratch-catcher has implemented a virtual version of the cryptograph, using MIT’s Scratch. For those of you who do not know it, Scratch is a very easy to learn visual programming environment, tailored towards kids. If you and your kids are interested in programming at all, in a playful way,
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Here is a brand new card game I designed, helping you (and your kids) to practice your arithmetic skills. Math monsters is easy to play but challenging, and great fun. At the moment, I am having Math Monsters professionally printed as a high quality, glossy 55-cards deck. Currently, there is
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You may remember the miniature paper airplanes from the airplane butterfly case: In case you were curious how these are made, here is a time lapse video detailing the complete process, from printing to cutting (with a Silhouette Portrait) to assembly: