Let Them Go One by One All Day...

This was a totally random idea that popped into my head earlier this week.  It is inspired by a line from the song "One By One All Day" by The Shins.  It's a clever way to give something folded, and also a neat gift for your fondest fellow craft nerd.

Gifts given at random for no occasion are the best by far.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

I made this mostly from materials I had lying around.  I had to buy the paper for the large snail and the music note paper at Michael's. ran me less than $2.00 for both 12x12 pieces. 

Hardware:

-Compass
-Eraser
-Mechanical pencil
-Fine point black marker
-Utility knife
-Colored marker of your choice.  (mine is an orange Copic marker)
-Scissors
-Folding Tool (optional but helps a lot)
-I used the binder clip to help me take the pics, at times it also helped hold the model while the glue dried.
-glue stick
-Tacky Glue
-Graphing ruler
-French curves
-Circle steps
-Some kind of surface to cut on


Software:

-Vellum
-Thick artsy paper (this came off an ink print I received as a gift and had to trim so I could frame it)
-A 3" square of origami paper
-Thick cardboard
-Green felt with adhesive backing
-Cool music note scrap booking paper
-Brown scrap booking paper with neat text
-Graph paper

Okay lets have fun.

Step 2: Fold Some Friends.

I liked the idea of a big and little snail.
The large one is folded from a 6 inch square sheet and the small one from a 3" square.

The snail pattern is from "The New Encyclopedia Of Origami And Papercraft Techniques by Ayako Brodek.
I'd safely say the model is of moderate to advanced difficulty.  But that of course will vary from person to person.

Pan over the boxes in the pictures for step by step instructions. 
I tried to be preemptive, do your best to make the model look like the picture that follows after the numbered steps.

Step 3: Snail Base Design

Moving on to the base!

Once again this step is picture driven but fairly self explanatory.
My cardboard was roughly 1/8" thick and ended up making a base almost 3/8" thick when completed.

Begin by busting out your graph paper, your pencil and compass.

Step 4: Base Finishing Details.

This part was The most fun for me to do.  I enjoyed covering the cardboard base with the note paper!

I decided to use the vellum to try and achieve a glassy, waxy look over the colored art paper.  In hindsight it's probably a superfluous detail, but it didn't turn out too bad.

The spiral on the snail graphic is done on the underside of the vellum and the writing at the front is done on top.  Doing it this way gave the shell a slightly glazed look and the writing came up crisp.

It's pretty straight forward from here on, You're almost done!

Step 5: Final Assembly.

Now all that's left to do is to seal up your project with clear gloss, glue on your snails and affix your felt.

I hope you have fun making this or something like it!

The poem in the second to last photo is from the every first episode of Ananth Panagariya and Yuko Ota's webcomic Johnny Wander. 

www.johnnywander.com