make paper toys for the holidays

Paper toys? I know, if you’re new to this particular term, you probably think I’m a little nuts. Who the hell would want paper toys for Christmas? Ah, but I’m here to tell you they’re the best for squirrelly wiggledy-wormy kids and their exasperated adults while counting the hours until the Presents at Grandma’s house. Or whatever your ritual  may happen to be.

Free downloads, a range of skill levels, some paper and some glue. You’re all set for some quickie Christmas Crafting. Hipster Style.

Simple Paper Toys:

• Paper Box World features over 30 paper toys – all free to download and create. The Boxes series are nice and easy for beginners!
• There’s a huge selection of NaniBird Paper Toy Designs. Started by Josh Mckible, there are tons of Birds designed by various Designer friends of his. But your first stop is on the main page for the Christmas NaniBird. Also, check out the NaniBird Tips & Tricks for a couple quick pointers to use for all your paper toy making.
• Santa’s Little Helpers Elves are easy triangles, one big glue flap and some arms and you’ve got a new paper friend. There’s also blank Elf templates letting you design your own as well.
• The Happy Christmas Tree Papercraft is simple and sweet and might be your perfect gift topper.

Not So Simple Paper Toys:

• (image above) This suh-weet paper toy reindeer will require you to scroll down the page through several equally cool but less holiday cheery paper toys. It’s worth it.
• Here’s a cutie-pie paper elf download who will sit on your mantle and lead Santa to the tree immediately. Maybe you need several to make the path really really clear.
• No, I don’t know why Yamaha offers these amazing Reindeer and Sleigh PaperCraft Toys for you to download and create. They’re more complicated, but look like they’d be amazing when completed.
• Billy and his Animated Snowman is the oddest papercraft on today’s list. Put him altogether and make this retro-fab Snowman shake and shimmy.
• And this one is for the adventurous. The site is all in Japanese (if I wasn’t writing this at 11:45 the night before you’re reading this, I would’ve asked my friend Rio to translate. But, alas, my bad.) but the Reindeer Paper Machine Toy stretching for his Christmas marathon (it moves!!!) is rather amazing.

That’s just the beginning folks, do a couple of google searches and you’ll be stunned by what’s out there. (tip: Search in Google images so you can see what they LOOK like before you click through!)
And don’t worry procrastionrs, thee gift guides are still here – click below: