I don’t think there are many people who still don’t know what a Rubik’s cube is. Apart from being a toy, it’s also a mind game and in my opinion it resembles chess in the way it develops one’s mind and thinking. I dare and say it is something that prepares us in our journey to a world of challenges.
This and Lego, that seconds it, lay a brick to what’s going to be the beginning of a thinking mind. For those who don’t know, the Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. Originally called the “Magic Cube”, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes have sold worldwide making it the world’s top-selling puzzle game. It is widely considered to be the world’s best-selling toy.
And when something is worldly known and loved, people turn it into a personalized thingy; in this case a custom-made Rubik’s Cube.
Let me present a simple way to customize your cube. What you’ll need: A Rubik’s cube, self-adhesive lamination sheets, a sharp X-Acto knife, a metal ruler (you’re going to need to cut very straight lines, and it’s best if you cut the paper and not the ruler), double-sided tape, and a craft cutting mat or a big stack of paper so you don’t score up your table, desk, or lap. In theory, you could use sticker paper made for inkjets instead of laminate and double-sided tape, but the resulting cube won’t stand up to handling as well as the laminate-protected one will.
Now getting down to cube-making, stickers on a Rubik’s cube are roughly 0.6-0.61? square. If you want to be sure, measure the size of the stickers on your cube. For the graphics, I recommend taking your picture, slicing it into those 0.6? squares, and putting crop marks around them. Take your sharp knife, slide it under a sticker’s corner, and pull the sticker back a bit. Pull the rest of it off with your fingers. Careful! Try not to tear the sticker or dig into the cube with your knife. Print your graphics, put a laminate sheet across the graphics, cut the laminate sheet to fit over the printed graphics, cut out your squares (optional: round the corners), apply the stickers, and you’re done! Let’s see the final result.
Want more of Rubik’s cube? See also Rubik’s Cube head and Rubik’s Cube 7x7x7 solved.
Via: Instructables
