Here is a video tutorial on how to use our 3D papercraft patterns with your Glowforge.
Thank you!

In the world of papercraft we see all kinds of things, and we also see giant things! If you’ve wanted to try to make a bigger size papercraft for a long time, but weren’t sure how to, here are some tips.
Here is my journey: Little by little I researched the ways to do it and especially the necessary tools and materials. The rest is easy.
When I say easy, let me explain: Once I've equipped myself with the right paper (130 lb cardboard) and a large format printer, the rest is a matter of DIY. 
​You can use our Kits (already printed on the right size and thickness paper). Here is what you will need to get you set-up!

​Gluing Method #1 :
Also, lately I changed my technique and use double sided tape with a
double sided tape dispenser. It's a bit more expensive with a value ranging from about $50 to $75. I also bought 'heavy duty' tape. 
For most projects, regular double side tape works but bigger needs stronger tape. The cost of the tape is significant and I bought that at uline.ca
 

​Gluing Method #2:
On the other hand, a stick of glue at $4 does the trick too! My favorite is the red, the pritt. Here you will have to tape your seams once the glue dries (from the inside with packaging (clear) tape). This is the less expensive method and it takes a bit longer but works!

And that's it, the rest is manual but simple. You have to do a little every day or set-up a weekend aside. The pattern pieces are cut and 'scored ' (I take the back of the knife with a ruler and I slide on the dotted lines.) By the way, scoring the lines to fold is an important part. 
A bit annoying but folding will be much better!

The rest, well, it's like a mix between making a puzzle and painting by number. Just find the numbers that go together, so 1 with 1,   2 with 2...and glue them! 
HERE is the result: breathtaking every time!!

You can harden your models with resin epoxy ( see our other post) but you can also stuff them like you would a plush fabric toy. You can use plush or you can also use crumbled newspaper to add strength. In the photo below, I added polyfill to the legs of my flamingo. It stands without but some of the models will be used as model displays so I reinforce them.

A visit to my old blog has reminded of all the years I have put in to this ‘Sofs’ adventure. Such a fun trip. I wrote about many fun projects like how to make a tunic with your photos! Go check it out —> http://sophiemarcoux.blogspot.com/

So if you are gere its most likely that, like me, you looked online to see if someone had done this experiment yet and found very little. I did find lots of poeple asking and talking about evwrything else they tried except this! Lots of people layered cement and epoxy but not actually mixed it. I did find one helpful video by a link here on youtube, thank you. That gave me enough to keep going with his experiment.

First I tried approximately ( everything is approximate!) 65% epoxy resin ( art resin) and 35% cement ( cement all quick setting) I mixed my epoxy first as per instructions and then I added my cement powder right in. (no water added) It worked super well. It came out darker and it sort of look like wet cement. It feels more like resin then cement and took a good 24 hours to fully cure.

For m second try, I used the reverse so 65% cement and 35% resin. This time I mixed my cement as I would have normally except I kept it on the dryer side (a bit less water then I would normally). Then I mixed my resin as per instructions and mixed both substance. Again here it worked like a charm! This time it looks a but more like cement would and took a bit less time to dry although it still takes much more time then just the quick setting cement all. See picture above of the 2 resin mix with cement experiment. Darker more resin looking is the first try and second is this new ratio.

I finally tried with even less resin to see if I can get that real cement feel ( grainy and sand feel versus the resin with is more plastic). I tried a 90% cement versus 10% resin ratio. It made the casting strong enough that my object did not break when I pulled it out of the mold and it feels like cement. Yay!! Here is a picture ( below) of the 3 different ratios although I don’t think it really shows.