It all started with seven sheets of white 110 weight card stock and a mess of printer ink.

To the untrained eye, the hodge-podge of strange colored shapes and tabs would seem confusing and without potential–but to the veteran of the fantastic (and slightly nerdy) art of papercraft, it’s only the beginning of seven and a half inches of video game greatness.

I mean, look at this guy! He’s positively GORGEOUS, no?

But I digress. For you who are unaware of the largely underground world of paper craft, allow me to fill you in. Part origami, and part cut and paste, papercraft are essentially just models made, as the name implies, from paper. They vary from simple boxy characters that take you a Saturday, to complex masterworks that take weeks.

If you just take a quick search on the internet, you can find downloadable patterns for models of your favorite cartoon and game characters, animals, vehicles, technology (you could bring a paper iPod to school next week!), or even famous buildings.

Why would someone put so much time and effort into such a little thing? Well, first off, me being such an obsessed nerd and all, this model in particular is Link from the Legend of Zelda games–and to me HE’S worth it.

And another thing–aside from printer ink costs, he’s pretty much free. To get an official hard plastic model of this visual quality would cost top dollars.

Really the best thing about it is simply the joy and satisfaction I get from being able to finish something so challenging and impressive–though, you must understand, I am by no means a master of the art.

It’s also a great constructive thing to do while you’re watching paranormal investigation shows (or other, equally mind-numbing daytime television).

The process of making one of these dudes is really quite simple–you go to a website, download the pieces, print, and go. You cut out each piece, fold it, glue it into shape, and then glue it into place. The concept sounds easy enough, but when you get into hard-core papercraft like Link here, things can get pretty sticky–literally.

This model consists of 177 pieces, 20 of which made up the face alone. Many of these parts, particularly in the hands, are smaller than your fingernail.

If that isn’t a challenge, I don’t know what is. (Well, okay, it’s a heck of a lot more fun than running a mile, and yes, I am a wimp like that. Shut up.)

So I whipped out my scissors, my glue, and my ordinary tweezers (for the delicate, hard-to-reach bits) and got cutting.

I can easily say that this model in particular is NOT for beginners. Really, he’s probably the toughest I’ve found, and I’ve got a ton of papercraft standing around my house.

I’ve never done anything where I had to build each individual finger or wrestle together a face and hair from such a large number of pieces.

But in itself, papercraft is an easy thing to learn. After the first few simple models, one may be brave enough to attempt supercool ones like this. And like I said, there are plenty of different things you could make.

So where do you find all this stuff? A good place to start is www.paperkraft.