Scherenschnitte: frames and embellishments (and a couple owls)

Feb 152010
 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m starting to work my way through two papercraft books. I started with templates for frames and embellishments to add to pictures, scrapbooks, cards, gift bags and boxes. The templates are by Nicole Lombardo and the project is from Paper Cuts.  Here’s a snapshot from the book via Nicole’s blog:

Pretty aren’t they? Mine aren’t as crisp as that. I need to work on steadying my hand more. And I guess she placed the template on the back of the black paper, while I used the front. Makes the design flipped horizontally from mine.

I also have to add that enlarging the templates with a copier is frustrating unless you get the template lined up just so. I suggest just scanning it. Then you can print it out at whatever size you want. Anyway, as I cut them out, I taped them to the wall. And I added a few pics in just to see how they would look:

Here are a few detail shots:

And one I did in blue oragami paper but didn’t tape to the wall yet…

And here’s a owl template that I cut out a while ago but never got around to posting about. The design is from from Cindy Ferguson’s blog and if you look at hers, you may notice that I lopped off one of the fruit on mine. Whoops. :P

That’s that. Off to practice more. :D

Two new paper craft books

Feb 072010
 

Woot! My freaking sinuses have cleared up enough that I can finally flip through my two new paper craft books. Yay! (Still don’t trust myself to pick up the exacto yet though. Vision still kinda wonky. I might cut off my thumb! Eek! :P)

I ordered Paper Cuts after seeing it on Cindy Ferguson’s blog. And really, ever since she posted the Alice tea party centerpiece, I’ve been itching to make it. Look how pretty it is:

Once I found out it was in this book…well you know how it goes, I had to have it! Mine! :D Inside you’ll also find templates for Alice place mats and cards. Plus, there are 5 other projects of Cindy’s inside. You’ll find squirrels in some of them, of course! :)

I’m also looking forward to the Barbara Buckingham‘s gate styled projects in here as well as Jennifer Khoshbin‘s vintage book projects. They are chock full of the awesomeness. :D

While browsing to buy Paper Cuts, I stumbled upon Home, Paper, Scissors. It looked fun and I got it thinking it would be inspiration with branching out into other styles of paper crafts. It’s filled with projects from Patricia Zapata, who blogs about her crafting on A Little Hut. There are a lot of amazing projects in here that I can’t wait to try out too. I’m really digging all of the tree styled projects. I think they’ll inspire some bigger versions of layered trees across my walls.

I’m planning on trying to make every project from both of these books. I’ll post about each project as I work my way through them. But, before I can begin, I’ve got some supplies to stock up on. Many of these projects need special paper and extra bobbles that I don’t have on hand.

Making my shopping list now… :D

Scherenschnitte: Lion Hearted

Jan 282010
 

Cindy posted a new template on her scherenschnitte blog, so I gave it a try. I cut it out three times for practice and added a hat to one of the cats. And of course I arranged them here in sort of a scene. :P

You can download the template to try yourself here.

Ooh, and check this out: Now Available! Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects

I am so gonna have to make that alice project!

Scherenschnitte: Mirrored Squirrels

Dec 292009
 

I messed up on this template last time by using paper that was too thick. I have thinner paper now so I thought I’d try again:

I made a lot of mistakes. The paper still seemed a little thick. I think I’m starting to like folded templates less and less because of that. :P I’ll have to try it again. And I have to laugh. In this video, Cindy talks about how it took her an hour to cut this one out.

One hour? Sheesh. Try hours for me. Hours! Luckily I had a few episodes of Chuck running while I worked on this. Although…now that I think about it, I wonder if watching TV is too much a distraction. Hmm. Well that’s just absurd! It can’t possible be a distraction. :P

If you want to give it a try, download the template. It’s fun.

A scherenschnitte fail

Dec 162009
 

I started the evening out lounging with a stack of comics. Somewhere along the way I got the idea in my head to practice some scherenschnitte. Eh…I picked a complicated pattern for the paper stock I have on hand. I wasn’t thinking about how I had to fold it in half to create the design. You can see what happened:

Squirrel

I wasn’t able to cut all the way through. Not only that, I didn’t even score the paper in spots so there was no way for me to tell where I should cut. I could guess, sure, but that would defeat the point of a mirrored look.

Part way through I realized what was happening and tried to compensate by pressing harder. All I did was hurt my hand, ow!, and make the root-like pieces fatter than they needed to be.

Oh well. There you have it. Pay attention to your paper stock. :P I need to get some thinner stuff now!

More random scherenschnitte

Dec 142009
 

It’s been a few months since I’ve gotten to work on any scherenschnitte.This weekend I finally got to work on some. I’m rusty.

I think I snipped a few of the flowers off in this one and the two little blobs on a bottom root are supposed to be mice. Er. Right…:

Girl and her dog

This Christmas gathering reminds me of a 50s sitcom:

Family Holiday

This one is a Mexican Papel Picado piece to celebrate the Day of the Dead. They typically use tissue paper to create many of these for banners, but I just used regular paper. I didn’t have any tissue on hand. Next time.

Skeletons

I played with silver oragami paper for this faerie:

Faerie

And lastly I cut out a bunch of werewolves and witches. I stacked them to scan them since it seemed silly to show each individually. Lost the dark purple cat though. Hmm…

WerewolvesWitches

The templates I used:

Practicing a little scherenschnitte

Sep 052009
 

Continuing in my quest to get better at scherenschnitte, I practiced at lot this past week (click the thumbnails to see the full pics):

FrogDeerBunny and MushroomsElephantBicycleLlama and MonkeyWitch and CatFrogFaerieBunny and MushroomsCowboy with FlowerVictoria DiningBicycleTreePandaUnicornsBoy and DogTreeDragonWoman in Frilly DressGypsyDragonWitch and CatFaeriePandaHarry Potter Owl

I screwed up a lot on the smaller details. Need more practice. And man, my hand is sore from all that cutting! :P

The templates I used:

I’m going to start drawing my own soon to practice on too. :)

Scherenschnitte

Aug 232009
 

Scherenschnitte means papercutting in German. I know, I could just call it papercutting but I like saying scherenschnitte. It’s harsher sounding and that’s just fun, really. :P

My mom introduced me to it, but it’s been easily more than ten years since I’ve tried it. It felt like it was time to give it a try again. :) I decided to try it out with an image I found online and with paper I had on hand. Here’s the image I used as my template:

Zwergenmusik und Drache

Pretty, isn’t it? Some details got lost when I knocked down the resoltion so be sure to check out the galley for the original and more fantastic creations too! I think I aimed too high for my first attempt after so many years. It’s a hell of a lot harder than I remember. But here’s what I ended up with:

Scherenschnitte

It’s rough. And I skipped out on some of the detailing. What I learned is that cardstock (the only paper I had on hand) is much too thick for this. And I shouldn’t be trying this when the humidity has my joints as swollen as they have been for weeks. Hand = hella pain. I also want to get a swivel head blade since that will help with the rounder edges, I think. Guess I need to hit the craft store soon, eh?

My goal is to one day be able to make stuff like this and this. Better yet, I want to eventually design my own. Steampunk owls a plenty…huzzah! :)

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