3D paper cut kirigami cityscape

I've just noticed that this is my 101st post! Good excuse for celebrating with a nice cup of tea I think, especially after a busy weekend of camping in Cornwall and going to the Boardmasters festival!

I finished this paper cut cityscape this week. It's made using a technique called 'kirigami', a japanese word describing the art of cutting and paper folding to make 3D sculptures. I had a go at it before, but my measurements were a bit off on my last attempt and it turned out wonky!

To my relief, this one came out fine! There's a yellow piece of paper behind, held up to the window to let the light through.

If I did it again, I would break the skyscraper down into sections, rather than long panels as it is now because they bow and bend too easily.

The forward facing steps (above) were really hard to fold! I did it by gently pressing along the edge of the knife from the back.

I quite like how it looks backed with white paper too.

But my favourite view of it is with a strong light shining directly behind, casting shadows from all the doorways and windows. It would make a great feature light!

Because it's paper, it can't really support itself and it was really tricky to hold it in the right place while taking a photo with the other hand!

This is how it started life. I measured out the buildings and cut out all the windows with a craft knife. Then came the fiddly business of folding!

Not sure I'll be attempting one of these again in a hurry!

Those of you who've popped over from my Facebook page will probably know that I've also been working on a doodle this week. I can now reveal that it is lined up to feature in Doodle Arts Magazine, which I am SO excited about!

 And that's all for today!

I'm sharing this post on the following blogs:  Handmade Harbour, Manon Popje's Illustrations, Nifty Thrifty Things, Be Different Act Normal and Tatertots and Jello.

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.