Friendlins are the world’s first never-ending “social” papercraft toys! Above you'll see a multitude of unique FREE
Friendlins available for download. If you look carefully, you’ll discover that many of them look just like you and your friends!
Friendlins have a nameplate that can be "tagged" with names so you know which monster represents which person in your life. And
Friendlins have "link" slots so you can chain as many of them together as your heart desires! But that's not all! The
Friendlin base also has bonus slots for inserting special “charms” to display what type of relationship two
Friendlins have!
There are two different ways to download
Friendlins. You can download
Friendlins individually
and your construction sheet can also be used to make a papercraft CARD to send to your friends so they can start their own
Friendlin chain! The finished card will fit inside 4-3/8 x 5-3/4 inch envelopes (available at all office stores). Individual download sheets also feature some really neat ideas about HOW to present your card to your friends. If you're already familiar with how the
Friendlins work and you just need to add some monsters to your chain, you can download a 3-pack construction sheet that only contains characters (not a card).
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Contributed by David Landis
My name is David Landis, president and manager of Landis Productions in Richmond, Virginia. I started Landis Productions 15 years ago to provide expert creative solutions to clients in a graphic design "studio" format for local, national and international clients. I do a little bit of everything ranging from magazine layout, corporate branding and packaging solutions to web page, multimedia and product design.
Recently, I've been doing more and more illustration work in the form of character concepts, children's book illustrations and advertising cartoons. But where are these new projects coming from? And why, after 15 years of working in this field are these new opportunities suddenly popping up on my job list?
Because of the mischievous Desktop Gremlins, of course.What are Desktop Gremlins? Well, back in 2008, I dreamed up a web site to enable me to interact with my clients and friends in a fun way. I loved the idea of using the internet to form community around art and creativity. It also allowed me the chance to further explore design and illustration for the pure joy of the process. With these hopes in mind, I launched desktopgremlins.com and a companion
Facebook page so visitors could download and build paper craft toys of my original character illustrations - zany and fantastic creatures of fantasy called Desktop Gremlins.
I've been making paper craft ever since I was a young boy. I loved making paper craft vehicles for my action figures (sure was cheaper than buying the plastic versions!) In fact, I created my largest project when I was about 12 years old - a 6 foot long cardboard snow speeder that a friend and I could sit inside back-to-back! It was magical to create paper toys back then and I carried this love to adulthood.
Face it, we live in a digital world, but I really like the idea of shifting gears and doing something organic once and a while. Desktop Gremlins are my outlet to empower people to do this by printing and building ultra-cool paper toys.
What I love about illustrating for paper craft is that it combines so many of my creative interests. Of course, illustration is vital. But along the way, I get to explore many additional creative processes. I love thinking in terms of 3-d space - watching how an illustration changes when you look at it from different angles or the unique shadows that are created when the shape is under lights. Creative writing and story telling is also a huge part of the process - breathing life into the characters.
I created three distinct rules for myself to help me focus on wha
