How to Create Custom Minecraft Mini Blocks and Items

Tools:

-Scissors

-Ruler

-Hot Glue Gun

-Pencil

-Craft knife

-Box Knife

Materials:

-0.5 cm. Thickness Black Foam Core

-Hot Glue Sticks

-White Glue

-Printed “Papercraft” Texture(s) of your choice

-Battery Powered Tea Lights (mine are 3.5 cm. in diameter)

(Amounts depend on how many blocks or items you want to make)

Please be careful using hot glue guns, craft knives, box knives, and even scissors for that matter. I am not responsible for any injuries.

I definitely recommend spending extra time on precision and neatness. It is well worth it in my opinion.

You will first need to find the texture for the item you want. Here http://www.minecraftopia.com/ is a great site for item textures. Save it to your computer and resize it however large or small you want. I used Microsoft Office Power Point for this.

Next you need to mirror the texture. This can also be done in Power Point by taking the top left corner of the image and dragging it down and right until it flips. Sorry for the lack of images here, screenshots were not an option at the time.

Print these off and cut them out carefully with scissors.

Glue either one onto the corner of the foam core. Use a very small amount of glue. I spread it thin using scraps from the rest of the sheet.

Cut a rough shape out of the foam core with a box knife so it is easier to handle. Cut it out the rest of the way in detail with the craft knife. Be careful not to cut into the paper texture or your fingers.

Lightly glue the mirror texture onto the other side.

Get creative! Make your own items! Make almost any Minecraft items, but be careful about size. Foam core is easily bent and big items bend easier.

The process is similar but different for 3-D blocks. Start by cutting this pattern out of the foam core.

The whole thing is 17 by 11 cm. there are four tiles 5.5 X 6 cm., two 5X5 cm., and two 5X0.5 cm. strips. You can do them separately, but I like doing the whole tile. Keep the strips! You will use them later. I used a pencil and ruler to mark off this template, and then used my box knife to slowly cut it out and apart. Before you do this step, consider plugging your hot glue gun in if it takes a while to heat up.

Next, hot glue the four matching panels together as the walls of the block. The two square panels are the bottom and top. The edge on the short side is glued to the next panel. Be careful on this step! It is easy to mess up, so double check all sides are square!

Be careful also to align the edges flush with the faces. The two 5X5 cm. squares should fit in the top and bottom, so you can use them to check.

Run a line of hot glue along the bottom inside of the cube. Push the 5X5 up into the cube until the bottom fits flat.
Leave toe top panel unglued. I used a craft knife to clean up any drippy glue or uneven edges.

Bend the two strips from before in their centers. Keeping a 0.5 cm. space for the lid, run a line of glue here and
push the strips in. You want to be able to lift the edge of the lid to take it off.

I got my block textures Here http://pixelpapercraft.com/tags/official/block and resized them in power point. To make them come out with each square being roughly 6X6 cm., I turned rulers and gridlines on and resized the edge of the TEXTURE, not the image. The four tile length should be 24 cm. which is nearly exactly 9.5 in.. The other length should be 18 cm. (about 7 in.).

Cut each square out with scissors. Cut the tabs off, too.

LIGHTLY glue each square to a side. Leave the top bare. Be careful not to rotate or misplace a texture.

Glue the top texture on. Cut one edge off. Glue this strip onto the rest of the cube.

Put your lid on and the cube is done! Like the items, you can do this with most blocks. Something extra can be done, however. Jack-o-lanterns and furnaces can have light added in. You can cut out the darkened window and just drop in an Electric tea light. You can add an extra support to keep the light from moving around.

Have fun! -E