christmas is a good time for doing stuff with the kids and we’ve been playing around with a few paper toys.

flexagons are groovy little things but they’re a real bugger to set out the artwork for. so here’s a photoshop template and action to do the difficult bits. if you don’t know what a flexagon is, check out this demo from dutchpapergirl, who also shows how to score, fold and glue the finished product.

the blank template looks like this :

just place your artwork in a single layer behind the 3 hexagonal windows. the artwork layer needs to be ‘flattened’ — if it is just graphics with a transparent background, the action won’t work properly :

then ensure your artwork layer is selected in the layers panel and run the action to rearrange the various bits :

be aware that only the front faces of the flexagon display your original artwork :

you get a different result if you flip the flexagon over :

those funky snowflakes are based on artwork created by the talented chris spooner, who can be forgiven for drawing 8-ray snowflakes because he’s offering the vectors for free download.

you can download the photoshop template and action here.

and if you like mucking about with paper toys like the flexagon, you should also check out the crazy paper thing.