Papercutting – getting to grips with my blade

I am delving into the art of papercutting.

Whilst looking for wedding invitation inspiration I came across the amazing papercutting work of an artist in Sheffield (not far from me), House of Alphonse.

A search for a papercutting kit led me to Paperpandacuts who sells her work, templates and starter kits through her etsy and website shops.

The Paper Panda kit contained the knife, a board, a tutorial sheet and several practice sheets with which to hone your skills. Well I figured I would need A LOT of practice before my papercutting skills were up to a level I would be happy with for my wedding so a kit was duly ordered.

Never one for going into a new craft half heartedly I also ordered a book from Amazon.

The book arrived and I spent a couple of evenings deep in anticipation. As well as all the useful guidance and stuff at the front it has many coloured templates at the back, all ready to be cut out. A trip to Ikea for frames beckons. I was waiting to get started.

And here it is.

The top of the first sheet looked easy enough. I photocopied it at first to give me several practice sheets, and of course my daughter wanted to try too. My first circle looked more like a multi sided 50 pence piece! This is actually quite tricky.
This is my second practice sheet. Thankfully I have already improved.

You can see on this next piece, the inside of the letters look pretty perfect but the outside curve of the ‘C’ and the ‘O’ are not good enough for my high standards. This is where I was rushing towards the end. I had already been at it a couple of hours – lesson learnt.

This is what I managed last night. I have learnt from this one that the blade needs changing sooner than you think. The paper blunts it quickly, leaving you with raggy (is this a word?) edges.

It is far from perfect but it was very tricky. I’m getting better.
I’m looking forward to trying these next practice sheets.
Before I attempt something like this.
Then I’ll know ambitious I can be when it comes to cutting out numerous wedding invites.
These are a couple of simple but beautiful designs I have come across.

My initial draft wedding invite sketch may need bringing back to something more achievable!

Love, Lucie xx