Tie Fighter 3-D Cricut Cut

Hi all, This is for all the Star Wars fans out there. I'm back again with a project that isn't my normal card type project. Being able to create items for family and friends for those special days and events is one of the benefits of paper crafting.  My #1 SIL's birthday was the occasion for this project and pushed my 3D construction experience.  He is a big fan of and loves anything Star Wars.  I knew I wanted to come up with some paper craft item for his birthday in the Star Wars theme and had considered a card.  Using my Cricut was going to be a given and there is not much in the way of designs to choose from in this category.  I had wanted it to be out of the ordinary and considered a pop up card but then I remembered seeing a paper 3 D tie fighter gift card holder on the internet, see link here. But, I wanted a little more of the realistic look for it and out came my Sure Cuts A Lot2 to attempt to make one. 

The major hurdle for me was the ball shape of the cockpit and I am definitely not an engineer!  Recently I have been researching pop up cards and such and had come across a pop up ball pattern.  Well it didn't need to be pop up just keep it's round shape, so I studied the pieces and shapes that made the ball and went to work combining shapes that could be folded and glued together to form a ball. Actually it is a hexagon shape see here. After several trial cuts and revisions I had a one piece hexagon round box with open ends that could be covered with another hexagon shape to close it up. 

The hex ball was originally designed to hold a gift card and it is just a tad bit small to hold it!! From wing tip to wing tip it is 8" and the wings are 8 1/2 hexagons.  It was cut on a 12 X 12 mat and the one piece design just fits on it.  So, to get a bit larger ball it would need to be cut on a 12 X 24 mat for a one piece design. Or, I think I will just make it two pieces that attach to match the original one piece design also so it can be cut on the 12 X 12 mat.

After that hurdle was finished I then tackled the arms for the hexagon panels and was relatively easy, a rectangle with tabs on each end to attach it to the hex panels and ball.  Those large hex panels are not exactly the same scale as the picture and can be made larger, but for the purpose of a gift card holder it works. After working on the layered window, black triangles on the hex wings and arm struts, I had a working model that seemed to work!  Only one problem, the gift card didn't fit inside!!!  So we put the good old standby in it, real money!  I had worked on this all day and time was running out before the party so I left the last tab on the ball unglued so that he could retrieve the money inside since I had no more time to add a flap closure.  I closed it up the next morning for him. There are some changes and tweaks that I need to make to it to have a truly sturdy and perfected design for it to be a gift card holder.  It can be made smaller and hung from the ceiling with the tab option on the perfected design.

When I revamp the cut file I will post another picture of it.  Being in a hurry and trying to accomplish something the day of that I had never attempted before doesn't lend to getting it perfect!  I think it could use a little more embellishments, like some small grey/antique silver/black brads for "bolts", a transparency layer for the window, something else on the black triangle panels, more detail pieces etc.  This will be done on the next "model"!  All of the pieces are scaled to work together so if another size is made, all the pieces would have to be grouped together and resized as one group to get the right sizes.  As I said it did take me all day to make this imperfect design and I will spend a bit more time making the perfected one. It will take me a day or so to get it done and uploaded to a download site, so please be patient.  Please remember that, and do not appropriate it as your own design! Star Wars is a copyrighted/licensed property and the design (and those modified from this one) can't be sold unlicensed, so credit for the designer (and modified ones) is appreciated. 

NOTE: When I get a perfected file I will post a download link on this post in red.

Since this size (will be posted in this size) is too small for a gift card to fit in and also for the smaller (resized) version you could make a gift card sleeve from this awesome Clone Trooper SVG file here.  She also has a Darth Vader version.  I will be making a Darth Vader Tie Fighter version also in the near future as my daughter said the grandsons wanted to decorate their room in Star Wars. I am already dreading the "Death Star"!!!!  Looks like I will be purchasing a lot of silver card stock! Let me know if you like it! I still have more projects finished and in line to show you!

Shalom,

Sonya