More Paper-Cutting

First things first...new year, new blog header picture. It was about time you think?

I wanted to share a few more images of some of the paper-cut projects I finished up over the past 6 weeks. A couple of these were Christmas gifts (one just handed off to the recipient yesterday!), and one was a card I did fairly quickly this weekend. I continue to enjoy this medium...although I find that I'm more drawn to using black paper and cutting from it for stark, black and white images, than I am to ones involving color. I have a few ideas of far more complicated designs for this year that I can't wait to start on.

First is one that is a bit more detailed than some of the others. My good friend loves all things 'birch' and so I knew I was going to do something in that vein. Originally, I was just going to do a birch tree forest with nothing else added. And while I still think that would have been fine, I added the birds in sort of last minute to add interest. I was happy with this addition and continued to look at it each day for a week trying to decide what a splash of color would do to it. Would it add interest or detract from the picture? Finally I used fabric and went with a splash of color. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. An interesting side note...I was cleaning up all my cut-outs of paper to throw away and I saw this perfectly cut-out bird. Normally I cut in so many pieces that I was surprised I did the bird in whole. And that I picked it out among all those other black shavings. So it seemed like the perfect little addition to the signature at the bottom. This second set are some bookmarks that I designed and cut for 'stocking gifts' for my family. The mountain and the branch with flowers went to my brother and his partner, and the squirrel went to my Dad. Such a simple concept that didn't take much time at all, but were neat little stocking stuffer gifts that they all seemed to enjoy.
Finally, I needed a sympathy card...and for this particular person, I knew I needed to go handmade. I'm not good with words in times like this, so I hope the card itself can convey my feelings. This was not my design...I used a stencil design I found online that just seemed appropriate...struggling with the desire to take the time needed to do my own design versus the need to put this in the mail quick.
Other than that, I've been knitting some...and actually did some sewing as well...should have another FO update within a few days.
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Now playing: Chicken in a Biscuit by Black Happy