Cool 3 Layer Papercut

I saw this video tutorial over on papercutsbyjoe.com. His papercuts are amazing, and he explains how he cut out his portraits. This is my first try. I showed it to Adam, and the first thing he said was, "Who is it?" It's me, by the way. :P There's the photo that I took of myself, then what it looked like after I doctored it, then the final piece!



Papercuts have to tell so much more with their simple lines than a photograph. Children's books use less words than novels, but that just means that each word has to mean something, has to contribute to the story, has to be important. Papercuts help me to look at the world more simply, and to concentrate on what's important.

Finally Some More Papercuts!

I've done several new papercuts, and have posted some on my etsy site. There's a tiger that I sent to Megan for her birthday, a line of sleeping puppies, a couple of meerkats, a German Shepherd, one of my favorites - a kangaroo with wings, and a jaguar which took me forever. Papercuts just seem to make sense to me. I love taking a photo or an idea and transforming it into something that can be cut out in one piece.

Cutting Mats

Ironically, the thing that takes the longest to do is cut the big pieces of mat to the 8x10 size. Not that the actual cutting is what takes the time, it's the time it takes me to summon up the energy to clear the floor, and wrestle with cutting the mats by hand. I have a small guillotine, but it won't help with the big pieces. I have 6 papercuts ready to be mounted, but I haven't sat and gotten them cut. Maybe it's worth an extra trip to somewhere that will cut them for me.

Alphabet Animal Papercuts

Here's three more papercuts I've put on pandagoldfish.etsy.com. I love the simplicity and fine lines of the animals as they rest on the page.
p.s. The okapi papercut sold a couple hours after I posted it this morning!

New Papercuts on Etsy

There are three new papercuts on my etsy site, mounted and ready to go!

Tree Silhouette Papercut

This papercut is based on a picture that I took of this really big, twisty tree. It's about 5"x4", cut completely by hand with an exacto knife on grey cardstock. I will mount it on matboard, then put it up in my shop. It's the first papercut to go up in my shop, the first of many!

Birthday Leaves Papercut

I did this papercut for my dad's birthday last month. It's from cardstock, and my own design. None of the details were too small, so it wasn't terribly difficult to do, but it took a long time. The finished piece is 6"x6", and I mounted it on an 8"x8" piece of off-white matboard.