Paint the walls!

Do you ever feel the urge to draw on the walls? Now you can! I tried my hand at colouring the jungle pattern and it was a great deal of fun. But it was a bit time consuming, so I might need to name it a work in progress. But I don't mind the spot of colour on my wall, could be nice to watch it grow. The perfect thing with the A4s is that you can colour it while being comfortable at a table and attach it to the wall later. Perfect!

Metallic papers that bling your world

So you only have a black and white printer at home? No problem! Once you've started experimenting with printing on different coloured papers, you will have so many things to try out you will forget you ever wanted another printer.

In this post I will show you just how exciting metallic papers can be.

First you need to find papers to print on. I was tight with money and apparently had too much time on my hand so when I found this cheap and beautiful wrapping paper I decided to use that to print on. This of course meant I had to first cut it up into A4 sheets for it to fit into my printer. The result was pretty but I don't recommend it. Save yourself some trouble and buy paper already cut into A4s.

A lot of cutting...

Once you have your A4s you can start printing, and papering!

Nice right?

How to light up the jungle

There is no reason why the Pattern Printer Project should be limited to your walls. Especially when it is this easy to fold your own fab origami lamp. Who doesn't want their own glow in the dark tiger? The origami design is shamelessly stolen from www.reintroduced.nl

You'll need:

24 patterned A4 papers.
3 long sticks, bamboo other material
1 lampbulb with fitting (make sure it is a low energy lamp that doesn't get too hot)
paper glue
knife, ruler and cuttingboard (or scissors)
Some string
Folding bone (if you have one)

1. Cut of all the edges. I opted to cut just inside the white bit and not using the cutting marks. You'll need the overlap created for gluing on.


2. Take eight papers and glue them together two and two.


3. Shift the papers so that the repeats match up and glue them together. Putting the tiger in the middle means it will have a central position on the lamp.


4. Cut off the excess paper and move it to the other side to even it out. Glue down.


5. Touch up the edges and you end up with a nice big paper full of exotic fantasy.


6. Time to start folding! Start with folding the big paper in half, leaving a little extra margin for glue. Continue to fold the paper into eight parts. Every A4 should have a crease down the middle. Use the folding bone to get extra crisp folds.


7. Time for some diagonals! Fold first the paper one corner to half the paper, make four more parallell folds. Turn the paper and repeat.


8. Now to the tricky part. You should now be able to fold the paper to create the lampshape. The diamond shapes are supposed to go out and the vertical folds in. Don't give up! You can do it!


9. Congratulations! You've made one section of the lamp! Now make two more :-)
Glue the three pieces together.


10. Use the thread and needle to gather the top and bottom of the lamp. Glue the last edges together and whoop whoop! You are finnished with the lampshade!


Now it is time to channel your inner scout. Lets make a tripod for lamp legs! Grab your three sticks, fasten the string and start "weaving" over and under them. When you've done this for a while, do a few tight rounds between the sticks and fasten the string. Break the legs apart and put a litle piece of blu-tac under the feet so they won't slide on the floor. Fasten the lamp at the top and pull the lampshade over it! Voila! Magic!