Bye Bye Little Birdie

OK, so this has been coming for a while now, but I'm sad to say I'll no longer be actively promoting or participating in the life of my NaniBird. I haven't really done anything with it in over a year and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'm not ditching the fun that is papercraft ('cause it's too much fun!) but I can no longer justify the cost of keeping the NaniBird site running. So in about a month http://www.nanibird.com will be shutting down. The blog portion of the site will still be accessible here: http://papernanibird.blogspot.com but all the linked designs in the archives won't be. Which I feel bad about... so MUCH good work is in there. 

So... Because I don't want all that great work to just disappear, I've stuffed a WHOLE bunch of it into a zipped file that you can find here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9kque5g2dc2gk7/NANIBIRD%20FAREWELL%20MEGAPACK.zip 

Be warned though, it's a pretty hefty file, weighing it at around 370 Megs, so make sure you've got a good connection before getting it. But please, download it, share it, repost it wherever. I'm passing the torch to you guys now. Which is really where it always was anyhow. You guys gave the NaniBird it's life, by designing, building and sharing your creations. I was just the caretaker for this little paper bird. Time to leave the nest. Thanks.

Izadora's Customs

Good day indeed! Izadora sent in these very cute customs she just made. Love 'em! Thanks for sharing Izadora.

Maria's Customs

Maria just sent me pics of some sweet custom designs she made for her friends! Love how each one is so different. Great work Maria, thanks for sharing!

Well, hello there...

Certainly been awhile... anyhoo, here's a couple of very cool customs from Zellaby. But not of your favorite neighborhood NaniBird. Nope these here are customs of "Mr. Sanpo", one of my other papertoy characters. You can find the original in the Special Blends section, under "The Birds" sidebar right over there <<<<. BUT, if you'd like to grab of couple of those bad boys from up above, well sir, you can get one here and here. Enjoy!

Glueless NaniBirds Down Under

They've arrived!

Off exploring

At home in the lemon tree

June and Iain from Australia sent me these pics recently of their Glueless Nanibirds happy in their new home. Thanks so much guys! Great snaps. If anyone else has any pics of NaniBirds frolicking about please send them in! And if you'd like your own set of Glueless Nanibirds to make and enjoy, please visit the shop. But do so soon as supplies are limited an once this batch is gone, that's it.

Instagram NaniBird!

How cool is this? Meet EarlyBird, a NaniBird inspired by the popular filter of the same name on Instagram. I love the use of a camera lens for the eye. This brilliant design comes to us by the good graces of Chandy, an industrial designer based in Indonesia. Check out his Bēhance site for more inspired work. And download your own free EarlyBird right here.

Rosey Cheekes... or I'm blushing

This excellent and über cute sleepyheaded birdhouse design come courtesy of Toronto based illustrator Rosey Cheekes. Definitely check out her site to see more of her charming and skillful work. I'm blushing because she submitted it AGES ago and I'm just posting it now. But in my defense... well, see my previous post. In any case, treat yourself to an extra Xmas present and download the free design here.

What's been happening...?

Lots actually, and it accounts for the lack of activity here.

First off, hope everyone is having a happy holiday season and that 2012 will be a great year (and not the end of the world as some have suggested). But now to what's been happening in our little corner of the world. The last few months have been busy ones for us, mostly because of our decision to move from Japan back to the US. It was a really hard choice to make. We loved living there and in fact, the whole concept of the original NaniBirds was inspired by my daily life there. But it's not just about me... we're a family, with 2 little kids. After the tragic events of 3/11 and all the ongoing uncertainty about levels of radiation and the safety of the food supply, we figured that since we could, we really should... leave. My job as a freelance illustrator allows me to work wherever I can get decent Internet service so it was easier for us to leave than most other folk in the same situation. My heart goes out to all those who want to leave but for whatever reason, can't. We love Japan and it was a tough decision to leave, more so for my wife who has left many friends and family behind, but we felt it was the right one. So now what...

Since moving back to the States and the different shipping methods available from here I've had to make a few changes to the store and the shipping policy. It will now be a flat fee of $4.95 to ship the Glueless NaniBirds anywhere in the domestic US via USPS Priority Mail. As for international customers, I'm very sorry but there's no way to set up a flat rate and I'll have to figure those out on a per case basis.

As for the original DIY free NaniBirds, I've gotten a couple of really cool submissions and I'll be posting those soon.

As always, thanks for taking a look.

Josh

Wat Kind? Urb’an Mynah, that's what

This tough little NaniBird custom comes to us courtesy of Graham Wiles AKA The Grand Master Urb-ski. He's a great up and coming paper toy designer working out of South Africa. You should definitely check out the rest of this stuff. And to find out what exactly the meaning is behing "Wat Kind?"

To download and build your own free Urb'an Mynah, just click here.

NaniBird in 3D

Man, this is really cool! And yet another example of the really amazing things NaniBird fans come up with.  The "thing" above was created by justjoheinz AKA Markus Klink. It's a model designed for 3D printing, (as in actual, complete, whole printed plastic objects) many more of which can be found at Thingverse. I was unfamiliar with Thingverse, but it's a really cool, open source community of printable 3D models, made by the members, free for download. And if you’re a Stephen Colbert fan you have to check out the free portrait bust available.