Welcome to day 8 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 92 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Following yesterday’s post I had some pretty good responses from friends about the snappy concept of the Not So Obsolete project that I’m now renaming the Floppy Flash!

Skimming today’s news I just couldn’t let go of the idea that everything about today might be a message to modify yesterday’s attempt at a cool crafty way to house my boring flash drive!! How to keep to my new project a day requirement?  Beginning grad school several years ago I wrote an essay after my first theory class extolling the virtue and necessity of PLAY as a means to not only learn but to be refreshed as well. I proposed that through play we find space in our lives to not only be creative, but to re-create things which seem fixed and resolved in the world around us. So today’s project is a yesterday’s project with a more informed twist- an effort not to just make something but show how it is made!

Today’s project is inspired by:

The Varieties of Play Match the Requirements of Human Existence

Today you have the opportunity to make your very own Floppy Flash!!

You will need:

A flash drive that’s easily opened. I used a 4GB Lexar flash.

Black foam core.

Shiny silver, white, and orange paper.

Glue

Set of keys- err.. you really only need one key.

An x-acto knife- useful for cutting materials, opening flash drive, and hollowing out space in foam core.

LET’S GET STARTED!!!

*Just to help you out I suggest looking at the real 3.5 floppy as you do this or pulling up an image of it as a visual aid yo help you as you work.

Step 1:Crack open that Flash Drive! It feels really good to have the sensation of breaking something when you’re really not. That naked little Flash Drive body is pretty amazing…

Step 2: Cut a 3.5 x 3.5 square out of black foam core. I rounded my corners with an x-acto knife and sanded the edges for smoothness. Measure the body of your naked flash drive and let that tell you how far you want to cut into your square for the part of the Floppy Flash that will be hidden under the faux metal part of the disc.

Step 3: This is where you get to use those keys! I started hollowing out a space in the foam core (carefully!) with an x-acto knife and then finish by pressing down some of the hardest to reach foam with a key. This worked great for me and made sure that the path was clear so my flash drive could slip right in. Start with hollowing out the space for the flash in the small cut-away part of the foam core that will house your flash body.

Step 4: Take small plug-in of your flash drive and push it in to larger part before you begin to cut a place for it. This will help you make sure to put the hole in the right spot. Remember to press down the foam with the key before shoving in your flash- you don’t want to get a bunch of foam up in your flash drive!

Step 5: Now for the fun part. Cut and glue on a fake label for your Floppy Flash. Cut and Add the “metal part” at the top and the certifiably real metal circle of the  back of your floppy disc. Yea! It’s looking really swank at this point!! Write something witty on the label part like “Floppy Flash” or ” Not Obsolete”

Step 6: leave it on your desk and wait for the fun to begin.  Someone wanders by and asks

” Whoa- are you still using these?”

At which point you crack that puppy open and show them the relevant data storage inside!!! Blam!!!

Total Time Spent: 2hrs.

Total Cost of Material: $0

Amount of Fun had: 9!