Hasta La Ideas

A new paper-based building block kit brings creativity back to playtime

The founder of five businesses devoted to art and commerce, ReadyMade‘s Grace Hawthorne is close to realizing another creative idea—a series of toys called Paper Punk. With 12 days left of her Kickstarter campaign, Hawthorne is just a few dollars short of her goal to raise $15,000 for Paper Punk production. Inspired by the level of excitement people exude when working with their hands, the industrious publisher and professor hopes Paper Punk will empower both kids and adults to exercise their creative mind with this little DIY design toy.

Packed flat, with a few folds the paper kits transform into 3D geometric blocks, which you can then use to build toys spanning snakes to birthday cakes. Starting with just a handful of designs called Singles, Hawthorne aims to expand this simple concept to include free shapes online, a sturdier version for small kids and a charitable component for public school art programs.

Each of the three initial kits—Pup, Bot and Ride—come with a set of “punch-n-build” shapes, a plethora of stickers and adhesives, straightforward instructions and a reusable folder to store all of the fun. The DIY toys will retail for $19, but Kickstarter pledges of $20 or more will get you a kit and help make Hawthorne’s project possible.

Check out the full scope of Paper Punks and make a pledge online at Kickstarter.