Papercutting: 18th century Italian

Here is a little something that was a bit more challenging than my usual papercutting; I'd have to say I was feeling adventurous! It's such a buzz to make it to the end with no "incidences", especially with a project like this.

I found this very interesting pattern in a lovely book titled Paper Cutting by Stewart and Sally Walton. It's said to be an Italian 18th century design and that in itself was interesting to me; I hadn't read before that the Italians were also there in the history of paper cutting.

This design measures 8 x 10 inches (20 x 26 cm) and I used my trusty Fiskars Fingertip craft knife for the project.

Paper Cutting Giveaway from La Donna

This fabulous paper cut sculpture titled Poet's Narcissus is being offered as a giveaway!

La-Donna has created this beautiful artwork to celebrate the birth of her new grand-daughter.

Do be sure to visit La-Donna's website to see more of this paper cut sculpture, and then leave a comment .. to be in the running to win.

Good luck!

Papercutting Card: Urn with Flowers & Foliage

Another from the Adornments designs, Papercuttings by Alison.

Background paper is from Basic Grey's Blush 6 x 6 in. paperpad.

Since this pattern is symmetrical, I was able to cut on folded paper down the middle, with the design placed on one side only. This makes for a quicker finished project though I tend to feel uneasy that I might not be cutting firm enough with a double layer of paper underneath. I'm always more than happy to cut through just a single layer with assymetrical designs even though they take much longer to complete.

Papercutting Card: Round Doiley Design revisited

This papercutting is a Cynthia Lyle/Pam Neely Design that I've used before.

This time I've chalked a little crimson around the edges and laid it over Frances Meyer Scrapbooking paper, Wildwood Bouquet. Stamp is by Papercraft/Sentiments.

Short and sweet; just a quick post to share for the moment.

Stamping Direct to Design Paper

Another recent challenge for Potluck Friday on Gina K's Stamptv site was to stamp a line-art image direct to your design paper and then colour in lightly. Concept was for the design paper to show through your colouring.

With only hours between reading the challenge post by Melanie and seeing her sample (floral on floral); it wasn't until I'd actually uploaded my card and re-reading the details again ... (as you would?!) that I found I could've used ANY open design stamp on ANY patterned paper.

Even though I love flowers and floral stamps, I don't actually own very much at all of open line-drawing style flower stamps.

I will definately try this idea again with a differing theme of open-design stamps, and share again here with you.

Working with soft and muted colours is hard for me to do and I wasn't sure about the results this time but looking forward to giving this concept another go.

• Stamps: About Art Accents, Peony Branch; outline flower belongs to Paper Craft; Friendship by Stampin Up
• Background Paper: Basic Grey's Scarlets Letter 6 x 6 pad
• Embossed with Copper E.P.
• Colour pencils

Red, Black, White Colour Challenge

On Gina K's Stamptv site there's a challenge to create a card using just red, black, white.

For this card I've used one of my favourite stamps, About Art Accent's: Plum Blossom (yes it's the one shown on a recent post coloured in varying pink shades). Embossed this time with white e.p.

Background paper is from Basic Grey's Scarlets Letter 6 x 6 pad.

Ribbon is from Michaels Stores: made it's way over here from a friend in the U.S., it's on a 4 ft. roll named Black, White & Pop.

The three brads over the ribbon were pink till I got my Japanese Lacquer e.p. out to refurbish them.

For new stampers who might be unaware that you can colour any brads this way; this is how I go about it.

• Use a shoe-box lid (or an egg-carton), and make holes with an awl or similar to fit each brad
• Push your brads through
• With Versa-Mark (watermark) pen, wet the top of each brad
• Sprinkle E.P. on top
• Tip off surplus now
• Heat emboss and allow to cool/set before removing

You still have time to enter this challenge too; it doesn't close until 20th July. Each entry entitles you to be in a random draw for a Gina K. stamp set valued up to $24.99. Be in it to win it!

Christmas in July: Iris Folding Card

Iris Folding is another great way to play with fabulous papers. The multi-patterned is washi paper. Because you work from the back side of the design, the surprise element isn't really known until you unstick the pattern that has been covering up the front until completion.

Note: This design is © Valila Reynolds 2003.

For a great assortment of iris-folding patterns, visit the Circle of Crafters

Christmas in July: Washi Paper Quilting

For most of us in Australia, July is a much more appropriate time of year to be eating a 'hot' Christmas dinner. Christmas in July is also a very popular dollar-earner for hotels and restaurants, especially those in our coldest regions.

My quilted candle card, is from the Hanko Designs Holiday Pattern Kit. To see the paper quilting technique, go to this video by Hanko.

I chose to "pad" only the candle, and made the flame with gold textured paper pasted over cardstock and trimmed to shape. It was given a raised effect with 3-D tape underneath.
As for the circular halo behind the flame; I drew the circles with Marvy BrushMarker Mustard #82 onto a lacy rice-paper and then used my aqua-pen to run around the edge. This gave the bleeding of colour I wanted as well as a soft-torn edging.



I hope my washi-paper quilted card might give you some ideas towards your Christmas in December cards this year. Perhaps this is a timely reminder to make some every now and then, as we know it always happens .. Christmas creeps up on us ever so fast.

More Cards with Oriental Stamp Art

For this post I've decided to share some of the many cards I've made over the past two or three years. Most have a Oriental theme, since my introduction to stamping and creating cards only started with my joining the Oriental Stamp Art group online.

One of my most favourite stamps has been this one from About Art Accents, simply named Plum Blossoms.

More of my creative journey into stamping and cardmaking is shown here via this album on PhotoBucket.

I hope if you're an avid card-maker, that you might consider to come join us on Oriental Stamp Art too. If you've never tried stamping before but think you'd like to start, why not start with Oriental themes if they appeal to you; that's exactly what I did. We've all been "beginners" at some time.

Further reading and information for potential new members to this hugely popular online group, can be found in my Oriental Stamp Art Review, on Helium.