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.

Illustration Friday

Cool! My friend Rama posts on the Illustration Friday blog and they featured me! Thanks so much!

Illustration Friday

Template Tuesday - Daffodilly and Chick

Oooo...so I'm way late on doing this Template Tuesday, but the appeal of a blog is that you can alter the date and no one will know! Unless I say something like this.

So the other day, we were throwing out names for stuff at work and I happened to like the name Daffodilly and no one else saw my vision. I asked my co-workers what I should do for another Easter papercut and Hillary said I should do a Daffodilly one. Brilliant! So I did. This one started out as a mirror image cut, but didn't look quite right, so I just made it a single image.

Here's the template and the below image is what it should look like: Daffodilly.

Failure!

I totally failed yesterday with Template Tuesday. It's because I'm leaving for Washington DC in a half hour and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I will have Template Thursday this week!

That said, I'm going to be in the DC area, do any of you know of any museums or places that have Scherenschnitte to look at? I would love to see some stuff! Also, do any of you know if there are any places to buy papercutting paper over there? It seems like the east is more Scherenschnitte savvy and might actually have something like that.

Thanks!

Cindy

Liz Davis Maxfield

You guys remember the post I did a little while ago about the piece I did for my friend Liz? It was for the cover of her album, Big Fiddle:



Well, she finished the album and made a great website animating the papercut I did! It looks so cool!
Visit Liz Davis Maxfield to see it (and to buy the cd if you want)!

Template Tuesday - Easter Cross with Lilies

Yes! I made it. I got invited to go to Taco Tuesday with some friends and almost didn't go because I thought, "No, I haven't done my template for the day." But then I thought that I should get a life. So I went and it was fun and now I'm posting this in the last minutes of the day.

This is the second of three papercut templates I'm doing with the theme of Easter. I wanted to do a secular and a religious themed one. It seemed a no-brainer to do a bunny papercut. The cross theme for Easter is pretty universal as well as the Easter Lilies. I like how this turned out. It may look tricky, but if you have patience and take your time, it will be pretty easy to do.

Here's what the template will look like:
Download Easter Cross with Lilies papercut.

Remember, first cut out the gray area. The dotted line goes on the fold. Do not cut anything on the dotted line. Once you've cut out the gray areas, cut out the outer edge.

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

Dinosaur vs. Robot

I did a post a little while ago of a girl peering into a warren. It was for one of my new art pen pals. My friend Rama is teaching art to elementary school kids and asked a few artists if they would be pen pals with his students. I agreed and got to have two pen pals. The second kid I got a postcard from was a boy. Rama advised to create something in return that kind of mimics what they sent me. It was kind of tricky because, while I'm an expert at what little girls like, I'm a bit lost when it comes to boys. He made it easy for me by drawing a Pterodactyl. My favorite dinosaur is the Velociraptor. Ever since I saw that thing in Jurassic Park, it's been the scariest dinosaur of them all to me. So I pitted him against a time traveling robot. The Velociraptor seems to be winning with it's maiming of the Robot, but the Robot's laser gun might just take down the dinosaur. I don't know. Who do you think is winning?

Template Tuesday: Who Doesn't Love a Cowboy?

This weekend I went to visit my parents up in Lava Hot Springs which is near Pocatello which is about 3 hours north of Salt Lake in Idaho. We went to a Chinese buffet on Saturday where very few Chinese people were located. While I was at the food bar, I was ladling up some sweet and sour chicken and I think I might have cut in front of this cowboy. I looked up at him and he said, "Hello, how are you doin?"
I replied "Just great, how are you?"
"Never been better," he said.

It's enough to make you want to change your name to Venna and move to Malad.

Here's what this scherenschnitte template will look like. Like always, remember to cut out the inner pieces (the shaded gray areas) first.

Cowboy Love Template

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Template Tuesday - St. Patty's Day

These are probably the gayest leprechauns you'll ever see, in both senses of the word. They have found their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I thought I'd do a St. Patty's day themed papercut a little ahead of St. Patty's day. It didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would, but I really love how the rainbow is coming out from their feet.

Here's the template: St. Patty's Day Template. Remember, this is a mirror image papercut, so place the dotted line at the fold of your paper. Cut out the grayed out areas first and then do the outline. Don't cut the dotted line!

Template Tuesday - Four-leaf Clover

It's still Tuesday! I'm going for consistency here. I can barely even keep my dishes clean, but I'm going to try to be faithful to this thing.

This is the best month in the world. It is my birthday month, the first day of spring month, now it's daylight savings time month. It also holds the best holiday in the world. The holiday where you are forced to wear green or you are leaving yourself wide open for pinching. I hate the people who say things like, "My eyes are green," or "My underwear is green," and try to pinch you back.

Anyway, here's a papercut that's more of a pattern. I had no idea what to do. I spent way too much money at the makeup store tonight so I didn't have time to concept as much as I would like to.

Here's the template if you feel so inclined. It's kind of easy. Just have the template be placed in the corner of a twice folded piece of paper. Cut out the gray parts first, then the outlines (but not the dotted line) and then unfold. Easy, breezy, beautiful, four-leafed clover image.

* Ooo! Look, my friend Sarah cut out her image and posted it on her blog. Good job, Sarah!

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.

Big Fiddle

My friend Andi's husband, Mark, has a daughter, Liz, who is extremely talented and getting her degree out on the East Coast somewhere fancy schmancy. She is putting together her first solo album and asked if I would papercut a cover for the album. I was excited to. She sent me her blog that has all the songs from her album (visit Big Fiddle) with the idea that the insert can unfold to reveal a whole poster. She wanted it to tell a story and since there were so many visual images from the names of the songs, I thought I'd represent them in the vines. Liz and her husband Andrew were a delight to work with and I think it turned out lovely. Can you tell what songs each image represents?

Winner!

Does this description fit you? If so, you're the winner of your very own custom papercut!

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50,000

If you go down to the bottom of the screen, you'll see that this Scherenschnitte blog is fast approaching it's 50,000th visitor.

If you are the 50,000th visitor, I will make you your very own custom papercut.

To find out if you're the 50,000th visitor, go down to the bottom of the page and click on the number. When it takes you to that site, click on the Details link on the left. Then, click on the number next to it. It'll tell you where the visitor came from, what kind of computer they were using, how many children they have (not really) and at the very bottom, what number visitor they are.

Start thinking about what you want!