I discovered this project in a magazine and J, my husband, instantly jumped at the idea of using it for a Christmas card...

What am I talking about?  It's best told via video:


This was our holiday card - 3 holiday wishes, 4 "faces", and a puzzler to figure out how to work it.  It's the first card that I've sent that needed instructions.  

Technically, it's a flexagon or flexagram.  Per Wikipedia,
"In geometry, flexagons are flat models made from folded strips of paper that can be folded, or flexed, to reveal a number of hidden faces. They are amusing toys but have also caught the interest of mathematicians."

Though full of math references, the history of flexagons profiled on Wikipedia is quite interesting - they even created committees to work on them!

So, how'd I do it?  I started by creating the 4 faces.


Then, I went to work in Photoshop.  First, I sized each face to 2.5" square.  These squares were busted up into quarters using guidelines and each mini-square was pasted onto the master page, which I then printed on my Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-In-One printer.



It took several prototypes to figure out which mini had to be where, which back went behind which front, which had to be right-side up vs upside down.

After printing, I cut each strip.



Fronts were glued to backs and the resulting double strips fold square over square...



You end up with one "L" that has a grey square upper left and one upside-down "L" with the grey square lower right.  The grey squares get glued and lodged behind the respective pieces of the other "L" to give you ...



... the final piece.

I found that it helped to test each card - sometime there are edges needing trimming, tabs needing more glue, and it helps the user (though maybe they don't appreciate how much) to pre-crease the folds (you can see on the video where I struggle to crease with one hand on the way to "Peace").

I used these for holiday cards - but I envision all sorts of fun uses - think of the things you can use 4 faces - 2 of which are totally hidden at first glance - to say.  Invitations, announcements, cute little notes, morphing images...
Just realize that if you're doing them in volume, it's a lot of evenings in front of the fire.

- Aprille Byam

Last month TGIIF featured a few contests that were running with Kodak All-In-One Printers as prizes. The Brickfish contest came to an end and the winners were fantastic!

BEST BLOG

Top 10 uses for your old, ink-hungry printer:

10. Replace ink with Folgers Crystals to see if anyone notices.
9. Put printer in a box of Cracker Jacks. No, wait! Those prizes are supposed to be cool!
8. Two words: Amish doorstop.
7. Keep using as a printer, but only if your first name is "Bill" and your last name is "Gates".
6. Enter printer in eating contest. It devours ink, so why not hot dogs?
5. Give as door prize and earn instant spot in the "Crappiest Door Prize" Hall of Fame.
4. Dress printer as a baby and hope it's adopted by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Maybe they can afford to "feed" it.
3. Donate printer for use at local prison. But that might be considered "cruel and unusual (and expensive)" punishment.
2. Glue clock on printer to entice Flavor Flav to wear it as a necklace.
1. Nothing. It's useless now that the Kodak EASYSHARE 5300 is here!
Submitted by Ted

BEST DRAWING/PHOTO

Darth Printer
Description: Use those pricey printers as movie villains!
Submitted by Vince

BEST VIDEO

The Helping Hand
Description: Just plug it in and the built in mechanics of the printer can do the work for you. You can stir cake batter, eggs, or whatever you need to.
Submitted by Samuel

Congratulations to the winners! If you would like to see more of the submissions you can view them here.

And if you too would like to enter to win a Kodak All-in-One Inkjet Printer, (signed by Donald Trump no less) go check out this post!

The lucky studio audience at The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Nov. 30 got two big surprises - they had their photo taken with Ellen for her holiday card, AND they got a new Kodak EasyShare 5500 All-in-One Printer! And I had the honor of representing Kodak on stage with the funny and fun Ellen.

What a cool experience! After meeting Ellen in rehearsal that afternoon, I wasn't nervous at all... until they told me I'd be climbing a huge ladder on national TV to take the photo of Ellen and her audience! When I didn't fall, the rest was a breeze.

The best part was the audience's reaction to the giveaway - they were thrilled! And we were happy to have so many people learn about our new multifunction printers and the great value you get on everything you print.

After I exited the stage, the Kodak team got to work. We had 10 printers set up in the Riff Raff Room, where fans who couldn't make the studio audience hang out during the taping. We copied the photo to USB drives and set the printers to work, cranking out 4x6" prints in less than 30 seconds each. We then slid them into specially created holiday cards for everyone in the audience.

Other guests that day were "The Bachelor" Brad Womack and Keith Urban. But my personal favorite was the interview with Miss Puerto Rico, Ingrid Marie Rivera. Ellen squirted her with Silly String and cracked a fake bottle over her head!

Thanks to Ellen and her great crew for a wonderful experience.

Ellen's holiday card


Kodak and Ketchum Team - Back row:  Claire Castillo (Ketchum), Barbara Pierce (Kodak), Michael Tien (Kodak), Brooke Wilson (Kodak)
Front Row:  Lindsay Ulrey (Ketchum), Shannon Monroe (Kodak), Rod Eslinger (Kodak), Anthony Benedetti (Kodak)


Kodak Printers in the Riff Raff Room


Kodak Engineers, Michael Tien and Rod Eslinger - ready and able

After the show, Brooke Wilson (Kodak), Lindsay Ulrey (Ketchum), Claire Castillo (Ketchum), Barbara Pierce (Kodak), Anthony Benedetti (Kodak) - tired and happy!

Ellen gives away Kodak EasyShare All-in-One Printers to her audience

- Brooke Wilson

(do not adjust your calendar... it isn't Friday yet... we just couldn't wait 'til tomorrow!)

In case you haven't heard, Kodak is going to be on the January 17 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice!

We are so excited about this that we are giving away three Kodak All-in-One 5300 Inkjet Printers signed by Donald Trump himself!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post with your name and email address explaining what you would do if you won a Kodak EasyShare AiO Printer and could begin saving up to 50% on everything you print.*

Would you use it to start your own entrepreneurial business that would make Donald proud? Would you wallpaper your walls with printouts of The Celebrity Apprentice contestants? You tell us and a panel of top-flight printing experts here at Kodak will choose the three winners.

The contest deadline is January 16, 2008. Here are the contest rules (PDF). Sorry... Kodak employees are not eligible (big SIGH!)

* Savings based on home printing of documents and photos using average ink costs of comparable consumer inkjet printers. Actual results may vary.

This contest is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered. Check back later to see the winners!