“Moderation” — it isn’t in the ukulele player’s vocabulary, so why are you hesitating? You actually believe there are limits to the uke obsession? Puh-shah!! No way! Enjoy a stress-free Valentine’s Day: build your uke-crazed sweetie this heart-shaped ukulele box then fill it with See’s candies, jelly beans, an engagement ring, or Jake Shimabukuro tickets — whatever you do rest assured that ya done good.

Download “Ukulele Valentine Heart Box” template (532kB PDF)

Finished box with lid measures about 6” x 4” x 1.25”. Includes three sheets: box & lid plus truly garish interior pink-n-purple box “lining”.

I printed mine on 80 pound smooth paper and can attest that the resulting carton is a surprisingly sturdy beast — those interior strips really stiffen the structure.

Be forewarned! 45 minutes did I toil assembling this silly box, though I’m admittedly all thumbs when doing paper craft — glue covered thumbs, wrong bits stuck together; that level of ineptitude (rings oddly familiar, same can be said of my uke playing ). Heck, even basics — cutting along lines, folding straight edges — it’s all a challenge. Doodling artwork (Adobe Illustrator) on my new-ish MacBook Air while enjoying a brew at local coffee spots? That I can do.

"Uke Box" Prototype: overall scale and aesthetics check.

Some tips might be useful so here’s what I found helpful:

• Fold & glue the tuning pegs before doing your precise trimming.
• On the lid (the uke’s top) don’t worry about gluing all the way up to the edge, a bit of a lip is fine.
• Start attaching the sides with the headstock piece, beginning at the “V” where the head meets the fretboard.
• Once the fretboard sides are attached (don’t glue the very end bit as there might be some trimming required — I deliberately made the pieces longer than you should need) attach the body’s sides starting at the sharp point at the bottom of the heart shape — folding the sides in half and aligning the “V” to the point.
• Depending upon your paper stock you might need to “feather” the tabs a bit on the round corners of the head stock.
• Attach the lining sides first. The top & bottom lining pieces are larger than you need so dry fit, trim, dry fit, trim — until they fit snugly before gluing in place.

More dramatic lighting you say? Surely! Let me kick in the LED spots.

Oh, and for the record, I take extra pride in the slightly bowed frets and the tuning gears.

Ukulele (Valentine) Heart Box Paper Craft Template by Buz Carter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at pizzabytheslice.com.

Love rainy Fall days in LA — snow-capped mountains, clean air, and guilt-free excuse to hang indoors reading and doodle. Such was Sunday afternoon, and after downing a cup over at Jones Coffee Roasters, I wound up playing uke under the eaves of the South Pas Library, enjoying the crashing drum roll of water spilling from its gutters. While there I got this great advice from an elderly Japanese neighbor, a longtime ukester himself — from the 50′s: “On rainy day… play LOUD!!”.

Mele Kalikimaka! Joyeux Noël! メリークリスマス Froehliche Weihnachten! Maligayang Pasko!

I enjoy noodling with the oh-so-sexy uke’s shape, ’tis quite pleasing to draw. And within the ukulele family nothing tops the “pocket” ukulele’s exaggerated, peanut perfect proportions, besting even its more popular big brother, the soprano, for pure ukie-ness. Anyway, with the holidays upon us it’s time to post more uke love.

Choose between iPhone or iPad versions, as well as a 5 x 7 inch size suitable for printing as your Holiday card (so please put away that soggy Santa hat your dog’s been teething on for the past year and tell the neighbor you won’t need to borrow his chocolate Labrador this afternoon for your Christmas card photo). All formats available in Hawaiian, English, French, German, Tagalog and Japanese.

Languages

Choose your preferred language English, Hawaiian, French, German, Japanese, Tagalog or blank (for all you Scrooges out there)

“Happy Holidays” Ukulele

• iPad Wallpaper – “Old West” Holiday Ukulele (768 x 1024)
• iPhone Wallpaper – “Old West” Holiday Ukulele (640 x 960 pixels, fits classic & retina displays)
• Printable Card “Old West” Holiday Ukulele (5 x 7 inch)

“Mele Kalikimaka” Ukulele

And, of course, for our Hawaiian pals, Mele Kalikimaka:

• iPad Wallpaper – “Old West” Mele Kalikimaka Ukulele
• iPhone Wallpaper – “Old West” Mele Kalikimaka Ukulele
• Printable Card “Old West” Mele Kalikimaka Ukulele (5 x 7 inch)

“Joyeux Noël” Ukulele

Lest you French Canadians be disappointed, here’s… something in French:

• iPad Wallpaper – “Old West” Joyeux Noël Ukulele
• iPhone Wallpaper – “Old West” Joyeux Noël Ukulele
• Printable Card “Old West” Joyeux Noël Ukulele (5 x 7 inch)

“メリークリスマス” Japanese Ukulele Christmas Card

I’m super lucky to have some pals at my office who also love the uke — we sometimes play over lunch. One just recently moved here to the states from Japan, where he’d lived for 14 years since leaving China. Here’s our conversation today:

Me: How do you say “Merry Christmas” in Japanese?
Him: mmmnnn… “Merry Christmas”. What? We borrow.

• iPad Wallpaper – Merry Christmas Ukulele, Japanese
• iPhone Wallpaper – Merry Christmas Ukulele, Japanese
• Printable Card – Merry Christmas Ukulele, Japanese (5 x 7 inch)

“Froehliche Weihnachten!” (German) Ukulele

• Printable Card “Old West” German Ukulele (5 x 7 inch)

“Maligayang Pasko!!” (Tagalog/Filipino) Ukulele

• Printable Card “Old West” Tagalog Ukulele (5 x 7 inch)

“Plain” Ukulele

If you’d prefer a “clean” version of this uke (sans red bow and text), well, here ya go.

• iPad Wallpaper – “Old West” Ukulele (768 x 1024)
• iPhone Wallpaper – “Old West” Ukulele (640 x 960 pixels for retina display)

Other Versions ‘n Shop

I also have a hi-res versions on Flickr in my Ukulele Mania set.

Too lazy to print this at work? Fine. Cards available on Zazzle & CafePress (more stuff on Zazzle).

Want to use these images?

Part of a ukulele club and y’all want to use one of these for a songbook, invite, etc? Fantastic. Do it. Really. This is posted under a Creative Commons license so you’re welcome to use it for non-commercial purposes. If you do wind up using this, and are so inclined, drop me a line — I always enjoying hearing how this stuff gets used (it’s a vanity thing).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Colophon

Mockups made with free iPhone & iPad templates from intridea (iPad Wallpaper Template) and pixeden (iPhone 4G Mockups).

The font is Fatboy Husky from Wood Type Revival.

A while back Ben and I bought a couple ukulele kits from Grizzly Industrial (kits include cheap, unfinished plywood body, neck, fretboard, and a bag of gear & crap strings). With typically high hopes we set about designing — and lo, did the summer quickly pass. It’s Fall, Halloween’s just around the corner, and I’d like to knock mine out, so I’d thought this vampire bat ukulele would look great. Ben, ever the stick in the mud, thinks picking bat wing splinters out of your armpit (or crotch) just might interfere with playing. A fair point.

So instead I’ll be printing some of these out, double sided, and hanging them around my cube, perhaps fashioning a mobile. If you or your uke end up using this let me know.

This “ukulele merit badge” sporting Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole, better known as Bruddah Iz, is only a test/rough-draft, the first from a set of about 30 badges that’ll appear on a site targeting novice to “advanced beginner” uke players (I’m more toward the low-end of that talent scale myself). The site’s gist is offering guidance — lesson plans and skill challenges to keep learning fresh and avoid burnout or that frustration from “getting stuck” or not knowing what to try next.

Though he passed some years ago Iz remains incredibly beloved in his Hawai’i and you’ll no doubt recognize his Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderful World cover. Checkout NPR’s profile of Iz on their “50 Great Voices” series. So familiar to the ukulele community is this song that… well:

Q: How many ukulele players does it take to cover a Bruddah Iz song?

A: Apparently all of them.

Oh, tip of the hat to Mayang’s Free Textures for the free hi-res cloth texture.

“I Crave Your Brains…
But Will Settle For Your Heart!“

P.S. Yes, I know, grammatically it’s “brain” , but everyone knows a singular v. plural argument with a charging zombie is pointless at best and quite ill timed at worst.

Download Zombie Snowflake Papercraft Pattern (87KB PDF)

Instructions below. Also available as an image here Zombie Snowflake Pattern/Template (Flickr set).

Trim your tree with Ben’s Zombie Christmas Ornaments and be sure to try his Zombie Nativity Set. Here’s a few shoots using one of the programmable LED lights (available from ThinkGeek).

Instructions

From printed sheet to final flake. Print on light, but rigid paper — though I had fairly good success with heavy bond. Sharp scissors are, however, crucial.

Start by folding in half. Followed by that first 60-degree bend. Make your folds crisp!!

Properly folding the paper is key, lo, the second 60-degree fold:

Now get to cutting!

Unfolding…

Tah-dah!

Download Ukulele “DIY” Holiday Gift Tags (205KB PDF)

Also available from my Flickr stream:

Oh, the notorious “Zombie Papercraft Nativity Set” is not longer available on his site (long story, apparently), but someone has kindly reposted it on ZombieChristmas.org.

Download Papercraft Soprano Ukulele (PDF)

You may also download the big image from my Flickr Stream.

In under ten minutes you can have your very own uke! Great for Christmas tree trimming, package wrapping, or just to collect dust. All ya need is scissors and glue. A skewer or coffee stirrer, glue stick, and X-acto knife are also helpful, but not needed.

Oh, I also have a tumblr exclusively devoted ukuleles.  ”A Beginners Ukulele Resource Kit” is for those just picking up this ‘lil instrument and looking for resources and/or inspiration.

I had the opportunity to read an advanced galley which kept me up reading, red-rimmed eyes, far too late on a few consecutive school nights (buy, buy, buy).

So here’s my contribution to his effort: a zombie “half-mask” that you wear like a pirate’s eye patch — or more likely put up on your cubicle wall. Either way (buy). Grab the JPEG from my Flickr stream or (bought the book, yet?) go to his website, RiseAgainTheNovel.com (alledgedly it’ll be up sometime today) to download the PDF version.

The book’s speedy, movie-like action and real characters reminded me a bit of David Wellington’s “Thirteen Bullets”, all in a good way. (BUY IT!!!!!)

Oh, you should buy the book “Rise Again”.