Template Tuesday - Thank You!

So, two weeks ago it was my birthday. In an attempt to get more attention, I shamelessly asked for a birthday gift of 1000 followers on Instagram.You guys delivered! Thank you so much! As of right now I'm up to 1044 followers. That's small potatoes to a few of you, but to me it's nice and cozy. I'm also so excited for all the new followers I've received from the Salt and Honey Market publicity for their upcoming Spring Market that I'll be participating in.

In response to your kindness, I made a little Thank You papercut. The size it currently sits at fits nicely on an A7 card (5" x 7"). I cut it out last night. It took about 3.5 episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" to cut out, so I guess if you do cut this one out, you'd probably better be really thankful!

Here's what the template will look like. The shaded parts are the inside bits to cut out first. You might be tempted to cut out inside the Thank You part, but you're not supposed to. You can if you want though!

Anyway, thanks for being so great! I hope you enjoy these little templates! Here's your free Thank You papercut: Thank You

Cindy

Template Tuesday - Easter Lilies

I was working on a different piece for Easter that had Easter lilies in it and I thought that something with lilies would make a great Template Tuesday. So I did one!

This is definitely a more difficult piece if you're not comfortable with cutting thin lines. Just look at the whole thing as a bunch of lines. Try not to go over the borders. These are forgiving lines though, if you accidentally cut through one, the rest will still support it.

Here's the Easter Lilies Papercutting Template: Easter Lilies

©2016 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these templates for your own personal gain. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own.

Freebie Friday - Sister Witches!

Today I am getting my gallbladder removed. Here are two ladies that look like they might have had a few stones in their lifetime, too. I like to call the one on the left, Ratty, and the one on the right, Batty. Two sisters who are oh so different in all the same ways. Does that make sense? It sounds cool.

Here is what the template looks like. It's not too hard, the trickiest part is not tearing the little twig lines. Have fun! Download: Sister Witches.

©2015 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Throwback Thursday! - Zombies!

So, way back in October of 2011, my friend, George, was making these Vote Zombie t-shirts. It looks like the site is still active, I don't know if he's in charge of it or not. I'll find out. You're on the edge of your seat, I know. Anyway, I made him a zombie template to have fun with. He particularly liked the grandma zombie, if I remember correctly. Here are all five of them.

But this time around I have a little tutorial on what you can do with these templates. You can put them up in your window! Crazy zombies! The grandma one would look awesome on a sliding glass door.

First thing you do is print one of them out. I sized it to the size I wanted it and then when it came time to print, I clicked the "tile" button and it automatically printed everything out on different sheets. All I had to do was tape them together. I printed mine on 11x17 size paper.

Then, you tape that tiled zombie to your paper. I had a giant roll of black paper somewhere in my basement that I used. Marie Kondo would have thrown that away a long time ago. Not me! Anyway, you could use butcher paper. I think they still sell that somewhere, right? It's at all schools. Just go to a school and use theirs. I'm sure everyone would be fine with that.

Then you cut them out and tape them to your window.

I just used the business men zombies.

Here's what they look like from outside.

Spooky! Hide your brains!

This is what the template looks like and here's the download: Zombies! Have fun!

©2015 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Steampunk Octopus

So, last Friday I posted a template and mentioned that I will be doing free templates on Fridays and ones for purchase on Tuesdays. Here is the first of those ones for purchase.

I've made files available in pdf and dxf formats in case you want to cut him out with your Silhouette or Cricut. Here's what the template will look like, only yours won't have the watermark!

 Purchase the original papercut or the template on my Etsy site: Steampunk Octopus

Freebie Friday - Death's-head Hawkmoth

Okay, I'm mixing it up a bit. From now on, the free templates provided will happen on Friday. I will still make templates on Tuesday, but they will be a little more ornate and available for purchase on my Etsy site.

That said, here's a free template! It's October already, guys. Can you believe it? Halloween will be upon us soon. Here's my first template this month, a Death's-Head Hawkmoth. Can you believe these suckers really exist? The first time I had ever heard of or seen one was when I was a teenager watching the movie Silence of the Lambs. That movie freaked my noodle right out. Anyways, these moths are just fascinating.

Here's what the template looks like. There are two difficult things about this cut. One, the skull in the center. I'd start with that first in case you mess up so you can just start over. I think if you mess up on the wings you can glue them but those eyeball and nose holes are tricky at the attachment points. The other part that is tricky is the wing lines. Be sure to cut from left to right (or right to left if you're left-handed) so that you can see how thick you are cutting. If you cut the opposite direction, your hand gets in the way.

Anyway, enjoy. Halloween is one of my most favorite holidays. Go get spooky! Here's the template: Death's-head Hawkmoth.

©2015 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Go West

Friday is a day we here in Utah love, it's Pioneer Day. If you happen to be lucky enough to work at a company that gives you this day off, it's the best thing in the world. If you work for a stingy company in Utah that doesn't give you Pioneer Day off, you might want to think about changing jobs because you're going to feel nothing but resentment towards all the floats and historic outfits passing by your window.

In coordination with this week's Pioneer Day celebration, I thought I'd make a little papercut that anyone can enjoy. I was going to do a "West is Best" cut, but felt like that might ostracize some of you. This one probably ostracizes a lot of you, but oh well, you can't win them all!

To those who came before us, and to those with a pioneering spirit, here is this week's Template Tuesday:

This is a pretty simple one to cut out. I cut mine out of vinyl. I might put it on my car. Maybe. I don't have any bumper stickers on my car but this might make me bumper stick.

Here is the template to download: Go West

©2015 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Explore

Here's a fun Template Tuesday that's a little more outdoorsy themed. I've been going on a few hikes with my kids and friends lately and felt like this template really captured the mood. Get out there! Go where there's no reception and breathe in the air. Reset your mind, body and soul!

Then come home and try making this template! Here's what the template looks like, it's pretty simple. I cut it out while the baby napped. Download Explore!

©2015 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Happy New Year!

So it's a Wednesday and not a Tuesday, give me a break! I just had a baby! I figured I should get one more thing posted on here before the end of the year. We sang the song that this papercut is inspired by in church on Sunday and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It doesn't help that I've been drawing part of a verse of it since then either. Pretty soon I'll have a different earworm, but for now I'll just keep on humming Longfellow's poem. It's a pretty song and it could be worse! I hope, wherever you are, that you are comfortable, warm and content. Happy New Year!

Here's what the template will look like. The tricky part about this is to not get cocky about the thin lines. When you get cocky, then you slice through one. I know this from experience. The other tricky part is to not look at it and think it'll be easy because there aren't very many letters. Letters take forever for some reason!

Download the template here: Happy New Year!

©2014 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Father's Day Fishing

Father's Day is coming up and with that we will hear a lot of sporting good and barbecue commercials. If you are at a loss for a gift to give that special Dad in your life, I can't help you. But if you need a helpful suggestion for a fun card to make, well today is your lucky day! Here's a simple little papercut card to give to the father figure you adore.

This is what the card looks in it's flat form.

Here's what the template looks like. The images are kind of small, you can change the size if you know how to do that sort of thing. I made them so you could cut them out and fit them on a 5.25" x 5.25" card (easily made with an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock). I also made a girl version for those who might want the card to be a bit more gender accurate.

Download the template here: Father's Day Fishing

©2014 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - He Is Risen

Two weekends ago, I spent almost the whole weekend on the couch listening to Conference. I enjoy it because I get to sit for basically 8 uninterrupted hours and draw. Sometimes I sleep though. For 4 of those hours I got in a few good drawings and now you all get to benefit from that. I was thinking of doing some Easter template Tuesdays and I did the one from last week that is more secular in nature. I was thinking of more bunnies and whatnot for the next piece and then realized that Easter is not really about bunnies and egg hunts, it's about the glorious fact that the Savior rose from the tomb and in doing so, saved us all from that same death. Easter is such a beautiful holiday, one of hope and reflection and new beginnings. I hope you all get to take the time to give thanks on this next Sunday for all the Lord has done for us and remember that He lives and because of that, so can we.

This is more of a time consuming template than anything else. Be careful around the little stems around the flowers and be patient around the stems in general. Other than that, cut out the inside parts first and then the outside and you'll be fine!

Download your free template here: He Is Risen. I was thinking I'd sell these for $35 each if anyone is interested, I'll put some up on my etsy.

Template Tuesday - Easter Banner

I was looking around my house the other day and realized I was severely lacking in Easter decorations. Not a bunny rabbit in site. Because I'm thrifty, I decided to make a few myself (check back next week for another one). Here is my very first Easter Banner.

It has all the cute Easter things you can imagine, kids hunting for Easter eggs, bunnies, ducks, chicks and frolicking lambs. Below is what the template looks like. It's separated out onto two 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper. I used a kind of thinner scrapbooking paper (so it was easier to cut through, yet still rigid enough for the lambs to frolic in the air).

Here are my helpful hints for cutting this out.
1. Notice that there are notches underneath the letters. Those are so the letters don't bend in the middle when you fold the banner.
2. Tape or glue the tabs on the side BEHIND the next scene so that it will look like a continuous banner.
3. When I translated this papercut into vector format, some of the eggs got a little wonky. Don't' be afraid to make the eggs actual ovals instead of cylindrical like they look here. They aren't supposed to be that way!

I think that's it. Enjoy cutting! You can cut this out with an Xacto knife or use your Silhouette or other digital cutting machine. I have no idea how to go about getting it from your machine to that cutter, all I know is that other people have done it!

 

Download the template here: Easter Banner

©2014 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Template Tuesday - Pot O'Gold

We're comin' up on the best month of the year, when all the best babies are born*, the month of March! In comes the spring time! Out pop the flowers! You'll be sure to be looking for that pot of gold sometime in the near future. Don't go too crazy searching for it because that leprechaun has hidden it really well. Isn't he cute? I call him Seamus.

Here is what the template looks like. It's not too tricky. The hardest part might be the stems of the clovers. Remember to cut from left to right (or right to left if you're left handed) so you can see how thick a cut you are getting.

Download your free template here: Pot O'Gold
*It just might so happen that my birthday is in March.

©2014 Cindy Bean (www.bean-cutter.com) 
These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own.

Template Tuesday - Thanksgiving Place Settings

I'm not through Thankgiving-ing you guys yet. I want to make sure that your table is properly outfitted for the coming holiday. Hopefully this is being posted so that you have enough time to create these before the upcoming feast next week. We are going up to my parent's house in Lava Hot Springs and plan on getting good and stuffed. Since we're invading their home, I wanted to do my part in helping with the decor. I made these little place cards.

Here's a close-up of it. It's the name of my beloved!

Currently I've cut out 5 of them and have 6 more to do. The leaf part isn't the hard part, it's the name part that is difficult. Which brings me to that part of the message - the name part...

Here's what the template looks like. Notice there are no names on here. That is because I have no idea what your family member's names are. So, you can do three things.

1. You can open this up in Illustrator or whatever program you use to open these up in, place your names in each of the leaves, flip them so they are in reverse and then cut them out. Don't forget on parts where there are complete enclosed spaces, like O and A, to not cut all the way through one section of the letter, otherwise the inside part will fall out (unless you like that sort of thing). 
2. You can print this out on scrap paper, write your names in, scan them in again, flip the paper so that the names are in reverse, print it and then cut it out.
3. You can just say aw, to heck with it all and write the names in with a nice pen (that's probably the smartest thing to do).

Does that make sense? Here's the template: Thanksgiving Place Settings. Now, go to! Create!

Oh, I forgot to mention, I cheated and used a really teeny tiny hole punch that I got at Michael's for the circles of the acorn. When you've got 11 of these to cut out, you really don't want to mess around.

Mahal Kita - A Fundraiser for the Philippines

I served a mission for the LDS church way back in '96-'97. We don't get to pick where we go, sometimes people go to exotic locations like Hong Kong and sometimes they go to not so exotic locations like Oklahoma. No matter where you go, it's always an adventure. I was sent to British Columbia. One of the areas I served in, Richmond, had a high population of Filipino speaking people. We met a little old lady named Mrs. Cortez (who said Imelda Marcos' bus ran over her husband) and her daughter and grandsons. We loved visiting Mrs. Cortez because she was nice, albeit a little senile. She used to put her hand on my shoulder and pull me towards her and whisper loudly in my ear, "Pray for me! Pray for me that I will be safe!" We always did. One phrase I learned from the Cortez family was Mahal Kita, which means "I love you." So when I heard of the tornado in the Philippines, my heart was turned back to the little old lady who would ask us to pray for her and I thought to pray for her people.

This isn't a template Tuesday as much as it is a fundraiser. I have created two options.

1. Purchase the original artwork on Etsy for $100
2. Purchase and download the template and two prints on Etsy for $15.

Whichever option you choose, 100% of your donation will be given to the American Red Cross - or if you have a charity which you like better, that is giving to the Philippines, let me know and I will send the money there. I don't know how to make a direct link of your payment on Etsy to the charity, you're just going to have to trust me. I promise I will.

Here is what the artwork looks like. It says Mahal Kita (I love you) and the flowers around the wreath are the national flowers of the Philippines, the Sampaguita. The papercut is on a cream colored Stonehenge paper, 120lb. It's about 7.5" x 7" in size. It hasn't been mounted to any paper yet, so if you want it attached to a black or green or brown or blue background, I can do that. Just specify what you want. The second image is another printing option that you can do and is available in the print download.

Mahal Kita to you all and know that I ask in my prayers, wherever you may be, that you will be safe.

Template Tuesday - Turkey Lurkey

It's good to be back in Utah. I had to go to Texas for work for 12 days and while it was nice to have my bed made for me everyday and all my meals paid for, it's even more nice to be home with loved ones and to sleep in my own bed. Although, I've been having really weird dreams ever since I've been home of things like thousands of mice overrunning our food storage and serial killers that peel the skin off their victims. Lovely, right? Other than the funky dreams, it's good to be home.

I drew this little turkey table decoration a long time ago and finally cut it out yesterday. I thought I'd make him nice and big so that it would look nice for our own table decorations, but that might have been a mistake. The top was a little too floppy. When the actual Thanksgiving time comes around, he'll stand up just fine with some fruits and flowers around the base though.

Here's what one half of the turkey looks like. This is my actual one scanned in and the other side photoshopped out. You could just cut one turkey out and be happy. In order to make these stand a little better, I had to cut off part of it's underbelly - that's why there's that weird slice at the very bottom. I fixed it in the template so maybe it's a bit more sturdy.

I made the template in a lighter color in case you wanted to print it out on cream colored paper like I did. Print two of them. This template fits on 11"x17" paper. Fold both papers in half along the dotted line. Cut out the middle filled in pieces first. I stapled him together in the middle using a long-reach stapler. You could also stitch it up the middle with thread, which would definitely have a classier appearance.

Here is the link for the free template: Turkey Lurkey.

Please use these for personal use only.

Template Tuesday - Día de Muertos

Do any of the people who look at this blog live in an area where they celebrate Día de Muertos? I live in kind of the Latin quarter of Salt Lake and I won't be here on November 1st or 2nd, so I can't tell you if anything is going on here. I've lived here for 4 years now and haven't noticed, but maybe that's because I just wasn't paying attention. It seems a little bit like Memorial Day. Here's the Wiki beginning explanation of it: Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It says that people make the favorite foods of the long dead and bring them to their graves. If anyone remembers me when I'm gone, please bring me a tub of Nutella on November 1st. If you search for images of the Day of the Dead, you'll find it's mostly skeletons. It's not really a werewolf/vampire kind of holiday. And they seem happy. This papercut was enjoyable to do for that reason. These guys look like they are really enjoying themselves. Especially the piano player.

Here's what the template looks like. This one requires a moderate skill level. Remember to use the circle cutting technique I told you about last Friday.

Download the free papercutting template here: Día de Muertos. Remember that these templates are for private use only. Thank you!

Template Tuesday - Steampunk Crow

How many of you are familiar with the steampunk genre? This is what wikipedia has to say about it: Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. I really like the look of it. It's one of those looks that, if I weren't into just wearing jeans all day and not doing my hair, I'd really try to immerse myself in. At our 1st ever Salt Lake Comicon, there were a lot of booths selling steampunk costumes and accessories and I coveted a lot of them. Mostly all I've done so far with steampunk is read a few YA novels. So here is my first artistic foray into the steampunk genre with this little crow guy. He looks so sleek, but also looks like he could peck your eye out. Tom asked me the question, "Is he a crow that has mechanical wings or a completely mechanical bird?" What do you all think?

I'm not going to lie to you, this bird was a little tricky. Especially around the gears. To cut out the reverse part requires a little thinking. Maybe it will be easier for you guys since I highlighted all the parts to cut out. Here's what the template will look like:

To download the free template of the steampunk crow, visit here: Steampunk Crow. As always, remember that these templates and images are for private use only.

Template Tuesday - RIP

One of my favorite things about dead trees is when vultures sit in them. I couldn't resist putting a little vulture guy over this grave of the undead. He's probably thinking, "Hey! I already ate that guy!" or maybe that's the reason he waits in that particular tree, because he knows some tasty snack might unearth itself sometime soon. Patience is a virtue.

Here's the template. This one is fairly simple. The trickiest part is to not cut through the center of the letters. Or you can, if you like that look. Here's what the template looks like.

And remember, these are for personal use only. Please do not sell them and write them off as your own. Here's the papercutting template: RIP

Template Tuesday - Scary Squirrel

So I asked on my Facebook page for some suggestions for what to do for this month for some Halloween themed Template Tuesdays. I got some good suggestions, thanks you guys! One of those was something less gory and more light-hearted. So I thought I would do something with a pumpkin. Originally I thought I'd do something with maybe a little mouse and then I thought, I don't love mice, I love squirrels! And then the inspiration just started flowing. Here's one little squirrel scaring another on her Halloween route.

Here's what the template will look like. This papercut is more on the beginner end of things, so if you've been wanting to try it out, this might be a good one to start with. The most difficult part is the curly cue coming off of the pumpkin. Make sure to cut out the inside parts first.

Download your free template here: Scary Squirrel. Please use these templates for personal use only. Happy Halloween!