It's all about....papercutting!

Hello there!

I hope you're well today and having a great day!

I've recently decided to try my hand at a new craft.....yes, if you hadn't already guessed I am one of those annoying crafters who likes to dabble in everything! This time I have swayed back to a material I am really comfortable with.....paper....for a spot of papercutting!

What is papercutting I hear you cry.....well it's the art of cutting designs into paper. All you need is some paper, a cutting mat and a craft knife....oh and a steady hand is also useful!

If you fancy giving it a go yourself you're in good company - its a worldwide pass time, with a rich history. It's so popular that if you don't fancy starting from scratch with a design you can get lots of different templates to get you started.

I gave this a try last week because we are going to be doing this in the WI papercraft group that I lead next week......but I am hooked already!

I started off with a tea-related design....

Papercutting Design

I thoroughly enjoyed putting this simple design together, figuring out how everything needed to tie together to make one whole piece. As you can see for this one I drew my pencil design and then cut around it - leaving my pencil lines for all to see - whoops! The trick here is to draw the design backwards and cut out, so any pencil lines remain on the back of your design. Every day's a school day and all that!

I found the whole process very therapeutic, concentrating on the cutting meant I blocked out everything else around me.....it was very relaxing! Even Tinker joined me .....

I learnt a lot from my first attempt.....like having a super sharp craft knife is best and you need to start with all the little fiddly middle cut out bits first (its much easier!). I decided to try and make something for someone else next....combining my new found passion with my love of card making.....

Papercutting Birthday card

This time my design was drawn on the back of the paper, meaning no horrible pencil lines on the finished design! Again, I enjoyed creating the design for this Birthday card - deciding which letter needed to connect etc. I also got to practise cutting out lots of "e"s!

I made a couple of mistakes on this design, but luckily there were really small ones. Overall I was really pleased with this....especially with how the white paper looked on the simple kraft card.

This spurred me on to try something more challenging.....a bigger more complex design.....

Papercutting Star Wars Design

Yep, a Star Wars papercut design created for my lovely friend (and hug Star Wars fan) Becca! 

Here I used a combination of templates (they are actually pumpkin carving templates) and freehand to create this design. I'm not overly happy with the Darth Vader shape in the background - his hood is all wrong, but the rest I am really pleased with. I enjoyed using the Yoda and Chewbacca templates, they let me practise finer detail and precision cutting. The writing and R2D2 I created myself and I enjoyed getting creative!

I am so pleased with how this looks, I could have added a bit more detail and maybe some more stars (which admittedly are very chunky) but overall I am super pleased with this....and it looks great in a frame....

Now I can't wait to start on my next design! I wonder what I will cut next??

Thanks for popping by today,

Wedgie xxx

Forgotten Pleasures

Hello there,

Welcome back to Wedgie's Wonderful World.

Over the festive season I had rather a lot of time off work (lots of untaken leave that I had to use before the end of 2015) and that meant I could spend more time in my lovely craft room - woo hoo!

Last year I really started experimenting with dressmaking and machine sewing generally...it's something I have dabbled in for a number of years.....but I think I've finally got the hang of it. I'm by no means perfect.....but my wardrobe has increased with some rather lovely (even if I do say so myself) handmade clothes and I was able to give some hand sewn gifts for Christmas this year!

50s Style Handmade Dress
with circle skirt

Handmade zipper pouches made using Liberty print 

Then my mum asked whether I could help her stock a craft stall that she is thinking about taking over at her local church in 2016. This got me thinking about all the different small items I could make that might be popular......thats when I remembered my felt stash!

Ages ago I had a real thing for creating felties and other small felt items, so I thought I would give it a go again......and I am so pleased I did! I had forgotten how much I enjoy working with felt to create little items like these felt brooches....

Collection of handmade felt brooches

There is something rather wonderful and satisfying about designing and creating with felt. As long as you have the right stash at home you can make a new brooch relatively quickly....

Brooch making at the beginning

You can also add quite a bit of detail, using buttons and hand stitching to embellish your designs....

Finished felt flower brooches

I made the five brooches in the photo above in one afternoon (and that included faffing about in my craft room to find all the materials!)......so I will definitely be helping mum stock her craft stall this year!

Have you got a forgotten craft that you really enjoy doing? 

I'd love to hear about it.....

Thank you for popping by today,

Wedgie xxx