Saturday 21 May 2011

Fidgeting About With Paper

So, I said in my last post that I'd got new knives from Fred Aldous and then kind of trailed off about that because I got side-tracked talking about pens and drawing. As it happens, the knives have been out more than the pens this week. I blame Pinterest, mostly, for showing me lots of pretty butterfly mobiles; and I also ran across two really nice papercutting blogs: Papercuts By Joe and Mr Yen.

Anyway, the butterflies and the papercutting kinda got mashed together in my head, and I needed to make a card for my nan to send along with a nice photo of the girls. Whilst I was having meandering thoughts about the design over a cup of coffee and a sleeping D's head, @funkyhand tweeted about a new CD so I went over for a nosy and uncovered these lovely "Flutterby Flowers" digistamps - perfect for printing on patterned paper and then cutting out. So that's what I did (how much do I LOVE the Internet: from idea to printout in five minutes flat for the grand total of a couple of quid).

Papercut made from Funkyhand's Flutterby Flowers Digistamp template, cut from Papermania Capsule Collection yellow pack

There are quite a few images in the Funkyhand pack which look suitable for cutting, so I look forward to making some more!


This is all very well, I guess, but I wanted to try something more freehand and more three-dimensional without having to use glue or those sticky pad things. I had a go on the card above, but due to poor lighting and being in a bit of a rush I didn't get a decent pic. So I had another go at a semi-cut piece (I have no idea if this has a proper name, I'd love to know!).


Semi-cut freehand prototype - might be nice for a wedding invitation or menu, maybe?

Again, please excuse the quality of the photo here, it has done nothing but rain for weeks and my time to get the lighting right is very limited (mostly by baby D waking up at the most inconvenient moment; I've been trying to blog all week!).

Finally, baby D is enthralled with mobiles at the moment - she's learnt to push her lips out and blow so that someone will do the same and make things flutter around for her. I want to make a big butterfly mobile and to that end I've been punching out a couple of hundred 2ins butterflies from vellum all week - it's going to be lovely when I get chance to sit and sew it all together! I made a quick mock-up last night so I could get an idea of how everything threaded up.


Again, hard to photograph but you get the idea. It's very light - just the updraught from the radiator has it dancing all day. D loves it.


What I've learned so far:

- Boy, do I need to take my time with the cutting. But I'm rapidly improving and I do like the semi-cut style very much.

- Punches and WD40 go together like bacon and maple syrup.


Up next: busy busy bee! It's my birthday next week, hurrah! And I have booked a couple of hours kid-free so I can get the sewing machine out; my order from Gone To Earth has arrived super-quickly (cheers Julia!) so I'm champing at the bit to get sewing. Here are the tutorials for the things I want to make:

Soule Mama's Love In Voile scarf
Bloom & Blossom's Fabric Journal Cover
Biscuits & Jam's Fabric Headbands

And a couple of other things I may get to before next weekend:

Smitten Kitten's Hollow Book Kindle Holder
Very Berry Handmade's Lacy Crochet Bracelet

Oh, and I've signed up for the Crafteroo Button Swap - sign-ups are open til midnight tonight, be quick!


5 comments:

Unknown said...

love your 'semi-cut' piece and the mobile so pretty! Wish I had a child so I could use all my extra butterflies up on! lol

Nic :) said...

Love the semi cut paper - indeed would be perfect for wedding invites/placecards etc!

x vInTaGe VioLeT x said...

wow you have been a busy bee!
love the paper cutting but don't think i have the patience for that, love the mobile too.
enjoy your child free time and have a great birthday :)

Caroline said...

Thank you! I just wish I was better at drawing, really, so I could make more of the whole paper cutting thing. Still, practice is the name of the game, isn't it!

AliceBakesCakes said...

Wow, looks beautiful! I especially love the semi-cut bit, would be perfect for weddings!