Create Your Own Slow Invasion!

So after watching this week’s Doctor Who episode, The Power of Three, I promptly decided that I needed to make a few black cubes to toy with my friends and co-workers who follow the show. You know, perhaps scattering some around a desk or two for them to stumble across Monday morning…

And yes, in a perfect world I would have the ability to construct one from wood or metal or something a bit more substantial. But when planning to screw with the heads of your friends, one must move swiftly. So anyway, here’s a quick tutorial on how to make your own, almost guaranteed to make a fellow Whovian do a double take–all you need is a printer, black cardstock (or another color you could paint after you assemble your cubes) and some clear-drying glue (Elmer’s should be fine).

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First up, find a nice template to use for your cubes and print it out. I used this PDF–it makes a cube with about 2.25″ square faces. If you have some special ink that will show up on black, you could print it directly onto the cardstock you’re using, but as I have only black ink today, I decided to print mine on a sheet of plain white paper and use it as a pattern.

Once your pattern is printed, go ahead and cut it out along the outer edges, then trace it onto your cardstock with a light-colored pencil. After you’ve traced the outline, draw the fold lines in (you can use a ruler to make your cube edges nice and even) using a ballpoint pen or some other implement that will lightly score the surface of the cardstock. This will make it easier to fold your cube.

Now cut out the outline of your cube. You can now pre-fold along your fold lines (remember to keep the marked-up side to the inside of your cube) to make assembling it a bit easier. Leaving the long part of the “T” shape till last, fold your cube sides in one at a time, gluing the tabs to their matching edges as you go. You may have to glue one section, then hold it to set the glue for a bit before gluing the next side. Finish with the long non-tabbed piece, and you should have a cube, ready to mess with people’s heads.