C'est Fini!

This weekend I took all my pieces down to the gallery in Provo. It is such a relief to have them all completed and in someone else's hands. I'm excited for Friday, if anything to see some old friends who I haven't seen in forever. I'm also excited to start back up Template Tuesday! Woot! Just in time for the 4th. You guys have no idea how guilty I felt not doing them.

This one is called, "He had No Idea what He Doing Out Here but He Sure Did Love to See Her Smile," or something like that. I can't remember what I wrote.

Giant Squid Attacks A Frigate!

Remember that little boy I was trading artwork with? He sent me something back and it's taken me forever to return something to him. Last night I bit the bullet and finished another one for him. It's a papercut of a giant squid attacking a frigate. I kind of like oceaned themed stuff right now.

Template Tuesday - Mother's Day Deer

If there's anything I like, it's deer. I've been thinking about what to do for mother's day for a while and kept having all these elaborate ideas and then I thought, just keep it simple. A mother and her baby will suffice.

This is what the template looks like. Don't freak out about the little spots on the fawn. If you can't cut them out, don't. If you can, don't worry about following my outline exactly. Happy cutting!
Here's the free template: Mother's Day Deer

Template Tuesday - Mother's Day Hen

Mother's Day is coming up and I'm always so bad at remembering until it's too late or I procrastinate thinking that I have plenty of time. This Mother's Day, I'm prepared! I have a craft book and I think I'll give her this little papercut with the Mother Hen and her chicks.

Here's what the template will look like when you download it. Remember, cut out the gray part first and then the outer outline.

Here's the free template: Mother's Day Hen

Template Tuesday - Indian Princess

For a little while now, I've liked to draw people riding elephants. Maybe it's because I'm jealous of this guy, maybe it's because elephants are really cool to draw, I don't know, but that's what I drew whilst being bored in church this weekend.

Here's what the template will look like. Remember, you can either print this out directly onto the back of the paper you're going to cut or you can print it out onto another sheet and tape it directly to your paper. Either way works. Cut out the center (gray) areas first and then cut the outlines.

Here's the actual template: India Princess Papercut. Enjoy!

In other news, I got my first bad review on Etsy. Some lady accused me of not even drawing one of my cards. Should I send her her money back or just send her a new batch? Maybe I should just ask her. It would have been nice if she would have told me her problems before she muddied up my excellent feedback record.

Template Tuesday - Dove of Peace

This last weekend I went to Washington DC with some good friends to visit some other good friends. On Saturday we went down to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. There were so many interesting things to learn there and so many beautiful things to see. One of my most favorite things I saw (other than his actual dentures) was the weather vane on top of his house. I thought it was beautiful that the man who helped to forge this country would have something so simple and delicate crowning his home. It's a lesson for all of us in that no matter how tough things get outside the confines of our own four walls, there should always be peace in the home.

Here is what the dove looks like. It has an olive leaf in it's mouth, another symbol of peace.
For the template, I put a whole bunch of little doves on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper. I put them in my plants. You can do whatever you want with them! George Washington Dove of Peace.

Template Tuesday - Easter Bunny Silhouette

Oh, Easter Bunny, I love you so much! When I was a kid, finding candy in baskets was basically what Easter meant to me. I have an entirely different outlook on it now, but I remember those halcyon days of searching for sugary goodness. This will be the first of three papercut templates devoted to Easter. Hope you guys are enjoying these beginning days of Spring!

Here's what the template will look like:

Click here for the pdf: Easter Bunny Silhouette

Watership Down

A few years back, I went to the Into the Woods design conference just outside of Seattle. One of the presenters was an artist named Rama Hughes. He and his wife, Christine, are both so very talented. I kept in contact with them and was recently asked to help Rama out with a project. He teaches a group of kids art and has asked different people to be artistic penpals with his students. This papercut is for a girl who I've heard enjoys drawing pictures of rabbits. I hope she likes it.

Template Tuesday - Llama Love

If you're like me, you love llamas. They're kind of like a deer mixed with a camel. I had a little time before a meeting today and I sat in my car and sketched out this papercut. It's a mirror image cut, so if you try the template, you would print it out and place the dotted line part along the fold of your paper. Don't cut along the dotted line. Remember to cut out the shaded gray areas first. The trickiest part about this cut is the thinness of the spit/stem. In cutting out thin lines like this, remember to go left to right (unless you're left handed) so that you can see how much you are cutting and can tell if you're going to cut through the line. Here's what the template will look like:


Click here for Llama Love template.

I feel like all I've been doing is templates. I've been doing other stuff, I promise. This week will hopefully have more papercuts!

Template Tuesday - Lotus Frog

Sometimes the templates on Template Tuesday will be a little easier than others. This one's pretty easy. I had no idea what to draw for today's papercut, so I asked my friend Kim what she would like to see. She said she would like to see a frog. Here's a little froggy for you, Kim!


Click here to download the template.

Elephant on Eggshells

My first papercut of the year! My friend Kim brought over a book called Easter Eggs for Everyone. I'm not allowed to keep it, even though I really want to. Maybe I'll hide it! Anyway, they had a little article on egg dioramas and I thought that that would be the perfect frame for a papercut. What to put in it was the next question. I thought I'd put the biggest thing in the littlest container. A tiny papercut of a woman riding an elephant with a monkey on it's head. I'm not the best photographer, but I did what I could. It looks a whole lot better in real life, I promise!

Happy New Year!

It's the end of the year and you guys are obviously thinking, "Boy, Cindy, you haven't done very many squirrel papercuts." And I am hearing you.



This one is a little squirrel card that you would put in a little forest envelope. Of course, the squirrel is actually a giant squirrel with a giant nut. If he was a squirrel of proper proportions to the trees, there wouldn't be much space to write on anything!



Happy New Year everyone! May you be happy and successful with all you do!

Christmas Ornament Redux

So I decided that the eggs would be too hard to ship and so I'd just give them to friends and family. But now I have a dilemma. I'm a week behind in my sending of these ornaments and I still want to do something cute. So last night I buckled down and made 5 different designs and glittered them. I can't send them out today because I learned that you need to spray hairspray over the glitter to get it to stay on better when I went in to work. I like how they turned out!

The Squirrel!


The Hedgehog!


The Wily Fox!


The Snowflake Loving Seahorse!


The Quail!


Merry Christmas you guys!