Paper cutting experiments - Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge and Creative Tuesday paper crafts

Hi everyone! On Friday I had a rare evening in alone which has given me the chance to play with paper! For a while now I have been meaning to explore a bit more into the world of Artist Trading Cards (ATC's), which, for those of you who don't know (like I didn't!), are 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch mini, collectable works of art. I asked Ike from 'Ike's World' for a few recommendations on where to start with ATCs and she pointed me in the direction of Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge. This week the theme is 'tree houses' so I thought I'd have a go!

I wanted to create a 3D piece and I had originally thought to build up a layered watercolour painting. However, my plans were scuppered when I couldn't find my paintbrushes! I searched high and low but to no avail, the only place I thought they might be was the car, but Sam had gone out in it so I had to resort to coloured pencils. As it happens it turned out just fine!

View from the front...

...and view from the side.

Here's how it was made:

First I drew the layers out on separate ATC size pieces. Then I coloured them in and cut them out with a craft knife. The leaves turned out so much better than I thought they would while I was cutting them! The deer was a bit of an afterthought as the foreground would have looked a bit bare without something to fill it!

Once all the layers were cut out, I assembled them using sticky pads to separate them. The top needed two layers of sticky pads as it was double the height of the second layer (hope that makes sense!).

I was on a paper cutting roll after this so my contribution to Creative Tuesdays also involves sticky pads and little bits of paper! The theme this week was 'ships'. I looked up some photos on Google and decided to go for a tall ship. With its billowing white sails it really lent itself to being made out of white card. For a first attempt at something like this I don't think it turned out too bad!

Tall ship - white card

For those of you who want to know, here's how it was made:

I drew out all the pieces separately, which was a little tricky as in the photo I had all the sails overlapped so I had to guess at the 'behind bits'. Once I was happy I cut them out with a craft knife.

The sails had to be stuck down, back ones first.

Last to be stuck down were the sails near the bow (I have absolutely no idea what they're actually called!).

So that's that, a lovely evening indulging in paper crafts! There's a giveaway in my next post, be sure to check it out!

Today I'm linking up to Handmade Harbour, Cornerstone Confessions, Savvy Southern Style and Manon Popje's Illustrations.