Photo: Brave Face Paper
Paper toys bring out the kid in all of us. They're something you can play with, yet are delicate and creative. Brave Face Paper has come out with a few paper kits to help with your own creations. There is a crab, a squid, and a dragon kit- the squid being my favorite. It's just so cute, in a weird squid-y way.
Photo: Brave Face Paper
Link | Via Super Punch
Photo: Patrice Laroche
Patrice Laroche is here to tell us how to make a baby. It's a lot easier than I thought, it doesn't involve birds or bees! Ahh you know it's late in the day when people start throwing around corny jokes like that.
Photo: Patrice Laroche
Link | Via Modern Met
UV Tattoos have always seem pretty gimmicky to me, until now. Finally a use of the glow in the dark ink that actually makes sense! Done by tattoo artist Kennith Bryan of Intimate Body Art Studios. Really great work, I am sure Yoda would approve. In this case, this dedicated Star Wars fan is definitely doing and not trying.
Via Obvious Winner
The title of the video says it all - Coolest Guy At The Boat Ramp. He really is. I didn't really get it until the 1:30 mark, but it was totally worth it. It's apparently an RV Boat Combo, I would love to take a trip up to [insert generic lake name], anyone down for some tubing?
Via Picks and Flicks
Photo: Astro-Lopithecus
It's been a while since we posted about it, so we decided to bring it up again! Check out this amazing dragon cake. I see the D20 in the clutches of the dragon and that tells me this was most likely created with Dungeons and Dragons (or something equivalent) in mind. I would like to pretend for the time being that it is really Smaug, if that is okay with you guys. Made by Mike's Amazing Cakes for the birthday boy John Doty.
Photo: Astro-Lopithecus
Link | Via Nerdalicious
Photo: PIOTR STASIUK
While Wieslaw Laszkeiwick may use a whole lot of matchsticks, I bet he wouldn't appreciate you playing with fire anywhere near his creations. Here we have just one of the matchstick structures, a replica of the Church of St. Nicholas in Zamosc, that Laszkeiwisk has built in his workshop. A workshop that has has spent over 40 years creating these magnificent buildings.
This church is about 5 feet tall and is made up of almost half a million matchsticks. Not all matches are created equally however, and one match can make a huge difference.
“Not all the matches are suitable, it depends on the manufacturer,” he says. “Some of them cannot be polished, some cannot be formed. You have to know which one to use for forming, which one to use to be polished, which one can be carved – this kind of match has to be soft, has to be from a different kind of wood. Different wood structures meet in matches; you need to know how to sort them. Because if you don’t know your matches, you can use one wrong match and then not be able to polish the whole structure because one match is wrong.”
Photo: PAP
Link | Via Oddity Central
Just look at all the teddy bears! The Calgary Hitmen, a Canadian hockey team, hold a charity event for kids in need. Once a year people are invited to bring teddy bears to the stadium and throw them into the rink, this year they collected 25,000 teddy bears. It took nearly 45 minutes to clean them all up.
Link | Via Blame It On The Voices
Check out these beautiful images of snow flakes and other ice structures thanks to Russian photographer Andrew Osokin. On his LensArt profile he has some really beautiful pictures, and over 480 of them so take your time and look.
Photo: Rampkins
At only $575 dollars this steampunk keyboard is just almost worth it. I mean it's a steampunk Buccaneer Mk2 keyboard. It has a leather embossed backing, wooden keys, a solid walnut frame with antique finish, intricate brasswork and all other kinds of steampunky goodness.
Photo: Rampkins
Link | Via Nerd Bastards
Photo: MaboroshiTira
Deviantartist MaboroshiTira really likes Game Boys. So much so that she built a giant cardboard one, I don't really know for what purpose but it's still cool. No it doesn't work, you can't play Dragon Warrior 3 on it, but all the buttons are push-able and the on/off switch and volume dial both turn.
If you could play with a giant (working) Game Boy, what game would you play?
Photo: MaboroshiTira
Link | Via Obvious Winner
Photo: Today I Learned Something New
I checked the office twice, no one here is British so I can't confirm exactly how accurate this is. That being said, I am picturing all my favorite English movies and characters and it plays out pretty well. Like Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead or Stanley Kubrick from A Clockwork Orange or even Harry Potter from.. well you know. I don't know about you guys but I read this out loud (without thinking) and in my best British accent. My favorite line is probably "could we consider some other options."
Any English followers out there that can confirm this guide?
Photo: Sograph
The Berlin wall came down in 1989, for Bulgarians that meant finally escaping the clutches of Communism. In Sofia, that capital city, things were a challenge with high rent prices and opening up new business with a store front was no easy task. So what to do? Open a business in a basement, that's what!
"Klek" shops are small pop-up convenient stores that operate out of basements, using a small window as a means of doing business. These aren't new, klek shops have been around since the fall of the wall, but they are starting to disappear. Luckily Deviantartist Sograph has put together a great gallery of the shops around Sofia before they are all gone.
Photo: Sograph
Link | Via Web Urbanist
Photo: Baked Ideas
What is more quintessentially American than a 3-foot-tall Abraham Lincoln Gingerbread Statue? It's completely edible and made with rice krispie treats, chocolate, fondant, royal icing, cookies, and peppermint sticks. This was completed by Patti Paige of Baked Ideas.
Located at Le Parker Meridien in NYC, it's a good thing the statue is some 2,800 miles away from the Neatorama offices. While I would feel very guilty about eating the 16th President's bow tie, eat it I would.
Via Foodiggity
Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto
From splotches of tea, coffee, and juice, Angela Mercedes Donna Otto was able to create these astounding works. The beauty in a lot of art comes from the naïvety of people assuming on approach that "oh I could do that." Upon further examination, the realization usually dawns on them that they indeed could not.
At the base of Angela Mercedes Donna Otto’s art is “apophenia”, a term used by psychologists to describe the pursuit of the human mind to construct meaning, order and forms even from chaotic structures (e.g. seeing faces and shapes in clouds). She starts the creative process by making random splotches of coffee, tea and various fruit juices on a paper canvas, to create all kinds of chaotic patterns. Then, she spends hours on end in her studio, contemplating the stains and using her imagination to identify meaningful patterns and shapes. Finally, the motifs she finds in the visually stimulant material are extracted from the patterns by drawing with colored ink.
I love the idea of art as apophenia. We have all caught ourselves at one point or another trying to connect the dots (figuratively) on some pattern that doesn't really exist. A cynic might say religion to some extent has a level of apophenia in it. All that being said, I don't necessarily think falling into this pursuit of constructing meaning is an inherently bad thing. We got these beautiful works out of it after all.
I wonder what sorts of juices she was using. Pomegranate, cranberry, and grapefruit would all have some nice colors. Tasty too.
Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto
Link | Via Oddity Central
We all know the Holiday season is a time for indulgence. Who can say no to a candy cane, let alone a Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane? No one - that's who. I know that sounded like a rhetorical question but it wasn't. I love being indulgent.
