Tinkercad Contest and more…

To support all the tinkers that hosted contests during this holiday season and Tinkercad’s TinkerTogether, I created the following designs:

TinkerTogether Design Challenge #25: Winter

Snowcones for Sell

Snow Cones for Sell: In this design we have two snowman selling snow cones to a few reindeer. If you look closely at the ground, it appears that Santa Sled has been through. The hats, the reindeer and the candy cane are available in Tinkercad’s Shape Menu.

Take a close look at the trees, what do you see?

Create an Ugly Christmas Sweater: I used the template provided.

Contest: Design an Ornament – I could have created a typical ball ornament, but I wanted something that looked fragile. Do you see the snowflake inside?

Contest: Create a Gingerbread House – I created a Gingerbread Fairy House. The roof of the house is a candy strawberry, and the path is lined with candy canes and gum drops.

Contest: Create a Log Cabin using the TinkerLogs created by HLModTech – I created a TinkerLog Church. The building and most of the items, including the trees, were created using the TinkerLogs that HLModTech created. I kept the width and height of the TinkerLogs, and only change the length.

TinkerTogether Design Challenge #26 – Party: For this challenge, I created a Bouncy Castle and Balloon Animals. Can there be a party without these items?

Contest: Create a Christmas Plushie – my contest entry was me. For years, I had a certain way of creating a stick figure of me. I decided for this contest I would create a Plushie of Me. Notice the Santa Hat, it came out looking pretty awesome.

You can see all these items in 3D view from my profile or clicking the links above: SarahCath

Merry Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas from Sarah, or Sarahcath, as I use it a lot for my handle. Link: Merry Christmas 2022. For all the Tinkercad users; both past, present, and future; I created a Christmas 2022 scene with a tree, a train, and presents. Each present under the tree contain a gift. It is not just a pretty box. To open the gifts, you will need a Tinkercad account. Copy the design and ungroup the box from around the present. If the gift is too small, you are using Tinkercad, you can make the gift larger.

The tree came from my Instructable on Designing a Christmas Tree with Tinkercad. The train came from my 2016 Design We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The poinsettia I plucked off of last year Christmas Tree with Flowers. I created the Candy Cane, saved it as a shape, and uploaded into Tinkercad’s shape library. The big red, blue, and green ornaments are a work in progress.

I you would like to add a present to this tree. Either reach out to me and follow the directions in the design profile. Link: Merry Christmas 2022

Christmas with Tinkercad Codeblocks

My biggest adventure this year was moving. Not a move across town, but a move to a different State over 500 miles away. I cannot recommend moving. While I was sitting in front of the TV at night, during my breaks from unpacking boxes and organizing, I decided to relax with some coding in Tinkercad Codeblocks.

The first thing I coded was a Christmas Wreath:

First, I coded one holly leaf with all the details. Then I copied and rotated each leaf along the x, y and z axis.

The rotation around the x and y axis is random, so the wreath will look a little different every time the program in run.

You can copy and run the program on Tinkercad Codeblock: https://www.tinkercad.com/codeblocks/2ZZut9sL86G

The second Christmas design I created with code block, was Santa. https://www.tinkercad.com/codeblocks/hPyeQnEmdV5

He was coded from the feet up. The beard is randomly generated, so it will look different every time the program is run.

After you create a design using Codeblocks, you can export the design as a Shape and use it in Tinkercad 3D Design.

The Santa may have looked better if I used 3D Design, but he does have a level of cuteness to him.

Creating an Umbrella using Tinkercad

I am currently working on two projects in Tinkercad. One of the projects is huge and needs lots of parts. During the planning for this big project, I decided to create an umbrella. Not only did I create the umbrella, I also wrote instructions on how create an umbrella in Tinkercad. The instructions are available at on Instructables: Creating a Colorful Umbrella

The process is simple:

Add a Cone Shape
Duplicate the Shape
Change the Colors
Create a Hole
Create a Handle
Align the shapes
Add a little flare. You have an umbrella.

Okay, maybe it is simple for me. The video on how I created the umbrella is available on my YouTube channel.

How to Make Googly Eyes in Tinkercad

According to Wikipedia Googly Eyes are: “Googly eyes, or wiggle eyes, are small plastic crafting items used to imitate eyeballs. Googly eyes traditionally are composed of a white plastic or card backing covered by a clear, hard-plastic shell, encapsulating a black plastic disk. The combination of a black circle over a white disk mimics the appearance of the sclera and pupil of the eye to humorous effect. The inner black disk is allowed to move freely within the larger clear plastic shell, which makes the eyes appear to move when the googly eyes are tilted or shaken.”

Tinkercad has some amazing 3D Designs created by some talented people. Looking at these designs, you can’t help to say “Wow!” Instead of trying for the “Wow” factor, I went with the “Fun” factor. Googly Eyes are fun, but they can also be spooky. It all depends on how they are used.

Instructions are available on Instructables on how to create Googly Eyes in Tinkercad and place them on existing designs. Link: Creating Googly Eyes with Tinkercad

Sunflower Created the Tinkercad Codeblocks

Previously, I created a sunflower using Tinkercad Codeblocks. (You may copy the Codeblock Sunflower file.) This would be a good design for the Googly Eye instructions. I exported as a Shape to be used in 3D Design.

Googly Eyes in Tinkercad

I created a new design and place the sunflower into the design, by selecting the shape from Your Creations on the Shape Panel.

The four shapes used for Googly Eyes

Next, I created the Googly Eyes. These Googly Eyes consist of 4 shapes: three half spheres and one sphere.

Sunflower with Googly Eyes

I moved the resized and moved the Googly Eyes into position. It looked so strange with just the eyes, so I created it a mouth.

Smiley Sunflower with Googly Eyes

The mouth is a flatten sphere hole that was group with the sunflower. The Googly Eyes Sunflower file is not available for copying, because creating your own is usually fun and will be a learning experience. See the instructions or watch the videos to create you own.

There are two designs available for copying: Shape Bots and Googly Eyes on Shapes

Shape Bots with Googly Eyes

Googly Eyes on Shapes

Notice how the Googly Eyes are different shapes and sizes, and looking in various directions. How fun creating your own Googly Eyes.

Railroad Town – Barber Shop and Millery

In 2015, I received a 3D Printer for Christmas. Instead of printing designs that other people created, I wanted to create my own items. I found Tinkercad. It has lessons that taught me the basics of using Tinkercad. The first building I created was a Church. If you look inside the building, you can see the pews, podium, altar, flowers, and on back of the pews you can see hymn books and pencils.

After I created my Two-Story House, the next major design I did was of a Train Engine. Afterwards, I designed a coal car, caboose, passenger car, and livestock car. I had a complete train that was designed to Gn15 Model Train scale. The livestock car design gave birth to one of my most copied designs, the Cow. Currently, the 3D printed train and a bunch of cows are sitting on a shelf.

In 2020, I started working on buildings for a town that my train could make a stop. The first build was the Train Station followed by eight other buildings. The ninth building I created for my Railroad Town was the Barber Shop. There are a lot of pictures in the post because when you design the inside of building, it takes a lot of work to design furniture and decorated the inside.

First was the Barber Shop. Since I had people coming into my town, they would need a place to get their hair trimmed. Traditionally, the Barber Pole had three colors: Red, Blue, and White. I wanted my shop to stand out, so made the front of the building to match the Barber’s Pole. A traditional Barber Shop is not very large, so I added benches on the outside for customers to wait.

Barber Shops needs a chair. I designed an old-fashioned Barber Chair. I created combs and bottles to place on the counter. Put mirrors on the walls. Designed a coat rack and benches for customer, and place signs on the back wall, including one that had prices.

I provided the Barber a room in the back with a wardrobe and stove to keep warm.

I had these nice-looking barber chair, what else could this chair be use for besides cutting hair? I got it, the town dentist. Someone will have a tooth ache one day. I placed the Town Dentist upstairs with a boarding room above the Barber Shop. A bookcase was added to the Dentist’s Quarters, because he would need reference materials.

A bench and a door were added to the back of the building so the residences could enjoy the evening after a long day’s work.

I never created a two-building design for my Railroad Town. I decided that a Millinery (Hat Shop) would go well with my Barber Shop. People without air conditioning would need a hat to keep the sun off of their heads. I designed the hats, hat rack, rocking chair, and fabric bundles for the Millinery. The flower garden was added to the back of the Millinery to give Lily a nice place to relax. Look at the sign, Lily has a sense of humor.

Lily’s Sign

If you would like to see the 3D Design, you can view it on Tinkercad: Railroad Town Barber Shop

Hot Air Balloon Festival

I wanted to create a Hot Air Balloon in Tinkercad. Creating a balloon is easy, the hard part is getting multiple colors. To resolve this issue, I created a template to create colorful hot air balloons. It was so much fun, before I knew it, I had a Festival of Balloons.

This is the multi-color balloon:

Balloon without basket

This balloon was created using the Tinkercad Logo:

The American Flag balloon was created from the flag I designed several years ago.

I’ve used Instructables to provide instructions on how to create a Hot Air Balloon.

Click here for instructions on creating a balloon.

Hot Air Balloon Festival

You may view the festival by clicking this link.

There are two YouTube videos on how I create some of the balloons:

Multi-color Hot Air Balloon
Hot Air Balloon with Text

Railroad Town – Mill

I have created buildings for my Railroad Town using Tinkercad. The last building I created was the town’s mercantile. If you look at the front of the building, you will notice that I created some bags of flour along with other supplies.

My thought was if the town mercantile sold flour, they would a supplier for that product. Hence, the water mill for the town was conceived. Originally, I was going to design the mechanism use to grind the grain, but it is complex. If you look in the inside you will see the beginning of the mechanism. I may complete it one day.

First I created the water wheel, which match the gears on the inside. Then I created the building. I needed a trough to direct water on to the water wheel.

The terrain had to be create and adjusted to support the trough.

The door was above water level so I needed a path to enter the building.

I copied my horses and wagon from the Tinkercad design I made for the Town Livery and loaded the wagon with copies of the flour from the town’s Mercantile design file. I just noticed the horses do not have their harness on, let me go correct that.

If you would like to see the 3D design for this building, please visit Tinkercad.

Railroad Town – Mercantile

Many years ago I created a 3d train in Tinkercad. My goal was to create all the buildings I needed for a Railroad town. (Yes, I am slow featuring the buildings here.) My Railroad Town, which I named Sunrise, has a Train Station, Saloon, Bank and other buildings. The citizens of this town would need a place to buy and sell goods; the Railroad Town Mercantile was created. Yes, I could have name in General Store, but I wanted a more sophisticated name.

This building was created in Tinkercad, which is a easy to use 3D modeling program which it free to use. It is own by Autodesk and it is their apparent their goal it to teach students how to design. This is the link to view the 3d Railroad Town Mercantile building in Tinkercad.

There is no inside of the building. I created items for placement on the porch; barrels, flour bags, crates of apples and oranges, and fabric rolls.

Note the hinge and lock on the back door. If these items were normal size and 3d printed, they would actually function.

Railroad Town Sheriff’s Office

Once I had designed a Saloon and a Bank for my Railroad Town, I thought was necessary for some law enforcement to be available to handle nasty situations. The Sheriff’s Office was created. I wanted the give the building a log cabin feel. Iron doors were placed on the cell and the front entrance just in case the Sheriff was called away. A small storage area was create on the roof with a ladder leading up. It also provided another means for escape, if there is a problem. The Sheriff needed a desk and note the gun rack. There is no guns in the building when the Sheriff is not present. Please don’t look in the bucket in the cell.

This building was designed using Tinkercad. Click here If you would like to see the 3d design: Sheriff Office