Over the past week, I've been messing around in Inkscape and Blender, making these cubewhale things. They're something I've been meaning to find time for for years, and with the upcoming MAICon convention having an "under the sea" theme, now seemed like a good time to get onto it!

I don't want to hog all the cubewhale fun though, so I've made a bunch of templates that you can print out, colour in, fold and glue into your own cubewhales (if you do, send us pictures!!!). Huzzah!

• Download Cube Blue Whale (with lines, without lines, coloured)
• Download Cube Orca (with lines, without lines, coloured)
• Download Cube Beluga (with lines, without lines, coloured)

These are licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence, which means that you can share and make any changes you like, so long as you credit Two Lof Bees and make note of the changes you've made. Exciting!

Each sheet has instructions, but just in case you can't find them after cutting your cubewhale out, here's a recap.

1. Colour in your cubewhale however you like. Be creative! You can do this before or after printing.
2. Fold along the edge of every glue tab and face, using the black arrows as guides.
3. Using scissors or a craft knife, cut out the cubewhale using the fold creases and glue tab outlines as guides. If you're not an adult, it's OK to ask one to do this part for you. If you are an adult, you can ask another adult to hold your hand. Be sure to say thank you!
4. Apply glue to each of the glue tabs. You can use offcuts to cover the faces and make sure you don't get glue where you don't want it!
5. Turn the cubewhale over and fold up the top, left, right and bottom faces so that the glue tabs 1, 2, 3 and 4 are inside. Press the glue tabs firmly against the inside of the nearest face.
6. Try to make sure that glue tabs 5, 6, and 7 are angled a little higher than flat, and then gently fold the back face onto them.
7. Sit your finished cubewhale on its back and leave it long enough for the glue to properly dry.

Some extra tips that might be helpful!

• Colour a little outside the faces, so that no white shows at the joins. You can use the templates that don't have lines to make your cubewhales even more seamless.
• Use a ruler to help make straight folds. You can also run the back of a butter knife along the ruler to "score" the paper and make folding easier.
• If you can get the glue right to the edges of the glue tabs, that can help give a better seam.
• Try to make sure your glue is spread on evenly and doesn't contain lumps - they'll make it harder for the glue tab to stick.
• If you want to hang your cubewhale, you can poke a hole with a pin through the blowhole on the top face, and then run a thread with a knot at the end through the hole before gluing. Make sure the knot is big enough to not pass through the hole.
• Paper will work, but light card can be better. Photo paper can work as well, but needs to be held in place while the glue dries due to curling caused by its one sided coating.

If you make something with these templates, we'd love to see it! You can send us pictures via email, Facebook or Twitter.