Humbly Kneeling, Sweet Appealing

I've been buying up dome glass thing at thrift stores a lot lately to make a series of 3D papercuts. I keep buying the domes and not using them. My church had a Relief Society dinner a few weeks ago and I needed to do a centerpiece. I thought it would be the perfect time to create something with these jars. I didn't know it was a competition and I won for most creative! My goal for all these is to do heavenly visitations, and not just those from the LDS religion. I would like to do visitations from the Old and New Testaments, from Catholic saints and from non-Christian religions. Do any of you have favorite stories of people who have had a brush with the divine?

Template Tuesday - Easter Scene

Sorry for the lack of Template Tuesdays. You know how sometimes when you have something important to do but you don't want to do it and you put it off and put it off and everything else seems to get put off along with it? That's what's going on in my head. Anyway! Easter is coming up! Such a wonderful time. Here's a little mirror image cut that you can use for a variety of things.

If you are going to cut this out by hand, the holes in the flowers, I just used a .25 and a .125" hole punch. So much easier. The trickiest part about this cut is remembering not to cut out the chicken part while it's folded. Cut out everything else (well, you can save the hole punching for last) and THEN cut out the chicken.
Purchase this template here: Easter Scene

Template Tuesday - Mermaid Anchor

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a mermaid and I believed that mermaids really did exist (part of me still does). Often, while swimming, I would pretend I was a mermaid and that my name was Brook. It's really difficult to swim with your legs together when you don't have fins. Anyway, here's a template Tuesday for all y'all who wished you were mermaids.

This is what the paper cut will look like. Fold along the dotted line. Do NOT cut out the dotted line parts that are white. DO cut out the dotted line parts that are gray. Also, remember to cut out the gray, inside areas first.
Download your free papercutting template here: Mermaid Anchor

Template Tuesday - Alice in Wonderland

Are you guys super excited for the new Alice in Wonderland to come out? I am. I kind of want to read the book before I see it though because it seems like the movie is going to be out of control and I'd like to create a few images in my head from my own imagination before having them skewed by Tim Burton. I'll probably see the movie first though. So, I thought in honor of the upcoming presentation, I'd do a little papercut of a scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here she is playing croquet with a flamingo for a mallet and a hedgehog for a ball.

This is what your template will look like. Remember to cut the inside areas out first. All the inside parts are shaded gray. Then cut out the outer perimeter. Enjoy!
Download your free Scherenschnitt here: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Lost Things

Isn't this just beautiful?
Director Angela Kohler and her boyfriend Ithyle Griffiths latest work -- a little short stop-motion film with their friend Alison from A Fine Frenzy. So stunning. I kind of want to go out and dye my hair this red. Found on Black Eiffel.

Template Tuesday - Papercuts for Kids

So I get asked a lot if I have any templates for children. I generally tell people to look at my previous templates for some that are easier. Last Friday, I had to teach a workshop to little kids on how to papercut. I had made a page of templates and sent it to Dana who called me the next day and told me they were way too hard. They needed to have more round shapes and less holes on the inside. It was kind of difficult for me to tone the details down. But here is what I finally came up with. Feel free to download these and enlarge them on your computer or copier.

This was the easier sheet. I found that even some of the easy things were way too hard for some of the kids. They were small fries! Some kids had different artistic abilities, but they all were proud of their results.
Download your free easy level shape template: Easy Level


Here is the more medium page. Probably maybe even better for the beginning papercut adult artist. Give it a go!
Download your free medium level shape template: Medium Level
Thank you all for your suggestions from one of my previous posts. They were sooooooo helpful!

Here's a freebie for all you Star Wars nerds. I really tried to get Han Solo's profile just right.

Winter Wonderland - The Show

Friday's event has come and gone and it was such a wonderful success. There were a ton of people and everyone seemed to really like the show. So much work went into it by the people at the museum and I was so happy with how everything turned out.

Here I am with Dana, the artist in residence at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. This was the first time I've ever had a sign that had my name and bio at the bottom of it. So wacky!


This was the favorite piece of the show. I called it, "What Lies Beneath." There were these two ice fishermen who had caught a small fish (I don't know, a trout? What do people catch in the wintertime?). Unbeknownst to them, there is a whole school of gruesome scary fish dwelling in the water below. Andi was the purchaser of this piece and I'm super glad because now I can come visit it every once and a while.


Dana did so much to make this show happen. She had to prod me to get things in on time and we spent a whole Saturday one weekend painting windows and walls. She even cut out these wooden animals to adorn the room.


Me. I haven't been drinking real Coke or eating excessive sweets anymore so I fit into something from Forever 21 with ease. I was pretty proud of myself. I had actually only had time to eat some cereal and a cookie that day and I almost passed out by the end of the evening. Luckily a nice boy made me dinner at his house afterwards.


Thank you all who came to the show. If you are interested in seeing it still, the gallery is open to the public from 4:30-6 on Fridays and by special appointment. It's also open on March 19th for next month's gallery stroll from 6-9.

In Utah This Week

Yay! I got featured in "In Utah This Week". Check out the article. It takes a little while to load though.

Template Tuesday - Dinoride

Finally, Valentine's is over and I can reprogram myself again to think that next year I'll have a Valentine. It will happen! Anyway, here's a boy and his dinosaur. I cut this one out and put it on pop-dots so that my paper would have more of a shadow. I think it turned out nice.


Here's how the template will look:
Download your free template of a boy with his pet dinosaur here: Dinoride

P.S. For those of you who were asking about the Mushroom Bunny and the Bike Ride templates, those links are active once more.

Dress Launderette

I am featured on the Dress Launderette blog. Check it out!

Template Tuesday - Hedgehog Love

There's nothing quite so romantic as two hedgehogs in love. Okay, maybe there is, but hedgehogs are really cute. Anyway, here are a couple of lovehogs for you for Valentine's day. It's a mirror image cut, so after you print it out, fold your paper in half and cut the top part out. Don't cut the letters while it's folded or you will get something terribly wrong. After you've cut out the top, THEN unfold it and cut out the letters.

Here is what the template will look like:
Download your free Valentine's papercutting template here: Hedgehog Love

Winter Wonderland

Okay, I keep blathering about this to my friends but I don't know if I've made it clear on this blog. I'm having an art show at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum on February 19th. It will be during the Gallery Stroll in their street level room on 100 South. The part that is open to the general public will be from 6-9pm. Please come and see! Dana, the woman at the museum who is helping me put together the whole show, has done so much work to make everything look just spectacular, including hanging branches from the rafters and cutting out life sized wooden pieces. It should be really pretty.

For those of you with small children, there will be a workshop that I will teach at 4:30. This workshop is the cost of entrance to the museum plus a small fee for materials. Call 801-456-5437 x130 to reserve your spots and for more information.

Now Available! Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects

Hey! Do you guys remember a while back when I said I was going to be in a book on how to papercut? Well, it's available now! I actually don't have one yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Here is is, "Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects"


It's a compilation of 35 different papercut projects, 8 of which are mine! I'm super excited to see it. Let me know if you got the book and if you like it or not. This is one of the projects I submitted. I gave it to the publisher for photographing and need to make another one because it's sure cute.

Template Tuesday - Lion Hearted

Okay, before we get down to brass tacks, I've got a question to ask of all of you. At the gallery/children's museum that I'm going to be showing my work at really soon, they are going to have a little section where the kids can go and try their hand at paper cutting. I am coming up with the artwork for this portion as well. My question is, what do kids love nowadays? I think when I was a little girl, I would have loved to cut out princesses and bunnies. What is hip with the younger crowd these days?

Now, on to the template. Boy, it feels like forever since I've done one of these. Here's one I did this weekend. I didn't have anything to reference when drawing the big cat, so I'm imagining he's more of a leopard than a tiger or lion.



Here's what the template will look like. I think the most difficult part will be the hands and the leash. Just remember to cut from left to right (right to left if you're left handed) so that you can see what you're cutting.


Download your free template here: Lion Hearted
Don't forget to write in your suggestions for what kinds of things kids would like to cut out!

Winter Wonderland

Today I went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum to prepare for my upcoming art show there. Dana and I spent the whole day preparing the gallery.


When it was lunch time, we decided to try out the Bruges Waffle's & Frites place that I had heard about. Dana got one of the waffles and shared it with me and let me tell you, if I could bury my face in one of those waffles every Saturday for the rest of my life, I would be so happy. We each got a medium fry and their medium fry is NOT like McDonald's medium fry. We should have shared.

Then it was back to work! This is Dana. She is the one who is responsible for this whole event. I was having my show at the Masonic Temple and she came up to me and asked me if I would be willing to do one at the children's museum. I thought she would maybe call me a few months later, but no, she called right away and now here we are. One of the walls was a 90s yellow color and here she is painting it blue.


Kim! Kim came by after her date (I'm not going to tell you about it) and we put her to work. Here she is denuding the branches. We're going to spray paint these white and hang them from the rafters.


Here's a long view of the gallery. I'm kinda nervous about the whole thing.


Here's one set of windows. It's hard to see what it looks like because of the sparkly lights on the trees in the background.


This one is easier to see. This is the doorway to get into the place. The trees look better from the outside in the daytime and better from the inside during the nighttime.


The window beside the elevator. It was the last one and I had lost all my desire to paint another tree and then I got a second wind and got 'er done.


The window with the squirrel.


The first window on the left. There were 6 of these size windows and one door.


A good day's work. I hope that everyone can come to this show. It's going to be super fun. It opens to the public at Gallery Stroll on the 19th of February. There will be a kid's room where they can cut out their very own scherenschnitte. It should be very kid friendly. More information to come!

No Excuse

Ugh! I'm so sorry that I haven't posted anything lately. The holidays were crazy and life in general was just plain crazy. Things are calming down now. They're also not calming down. I have a gallery show coming up in February that I'm crazily getting ready for (more info to come). I promise I will be better though!

Also, if you live in the Salt Lake area and have always wanted to learn Letterpress Printing, my friend Eva is teaching a class. It's a great price and a fun lesson to learn and I would suggest if you have the time to take advantage of this opportunity!

Sycamore Street Press :: Introduction to Letterpress :: Valentine's Class


I am hoping to be able to take the class! If I can't this one then definitely next one!

Template Tuesday - Utah

So, the audience scope for this one is kind of narrow, but it was one I felt like doing. Last week I went to Oregon and Washington for work. While in Oregon, I saw all sorts of bumper stickers that had the shape of Oregon with a little heart symbol in the middle. I thought, "I don't think we have anything like that that is really prevalent in Utah." We're kind of like the girl with the low self-esteem that goes around saying, "I'm fat..." until everyone starts to believe her. I've heard, countless times, and have even been guilty of it myself, the question, "Why Utah?" when asking someone why they moved here. So, that trip, I decided to change my attitude. I like it here. I bought a house here. I have a dog here. I have great friends here. My neighbors left me a care package for Halloween. I can go hiking here and the streets are wide enough for my carriage to turn around on. So, here's to Utah, the 45th state.

Here's what the template will look like. However you create it, make sure that the tall part of the state is on the left hand side when it's finished.
Download your free papercutting template of Utah Love.

Here is some of the reasoning for my images:
State Bird: California Gull
State Flower: Sego Lily
State Insect: Honeybee

I have the gull eating a Mormon Cricket. My friend Kim in an entomologist and I helped her stuff some of those Mormon Crickets for pinning. They are huge! For those of you who don't know the story, and it's a good one, check out Miracle of the Gulls.

Teaching!

I keep forgetting to talk about this, but I'm very excited to teach a class on Friday! I'm going to be one of the teachers at The ART Weekend. If you live in the Salt Lake area (or even if you don't) come and join us for a weekend of the arts. This little scene from the Frog Prince is what I will be teaching people how to make (quite timely if I do say so myself):


My class is on Friday from 4:00-5:50. I think one class costs about $45 and the more classes you take, the greater the discount. The class is located at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel on 122 W South Temple. Hope to see you there!

Template Tuesday - Halloween Witch

My Halloween templates all seem to be on their way somewhere. This witch, maybe she's going to a party? I love it when I see cats on leashes. They never seem to really enjoy it.

Here's what the template will look like:

Please download your free papercutting template here: Halloween Witch

The Silence

This one was my favorite piece of the whole show.