• Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template}

    I was going to write a clever excerpt here like “This tutorial combines two unlikely things, mermaids and blades, to create a pleasing and unique piece of art.” Then, I remembered Andersen’s original Little Mermaid tale, and I realized that in addition to not being witty, that opening statement is pretty much the opposite of…

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Until today, I haven’t written much about papercut art. I think I was avoiding it because I thought you may not have the right tools and/or would be intimidated by the process. However, as I’ve gotten to know more and more people who read this blog, I have come to realize that you — my “typical” reader — are far from ordinary. You’re creative and willing to try new things to stimulate your creativity. If you don’t have the tools to create papercut art, read through this tutorial before buying supplies to see if it may be something you are interested in. On the flip side, if you are properly equipped, then I predict a weekend full of papercutting magic!

    The main tool you’ll need for papercut art is an X-Acto knife, which is also known as a “hobby knife”.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    You can pick an X-Acto knife up at all craft stores as well as some big box stores like Walmart … they’re readily available because they are popular among the scrapbooking crowd. They run pretty cheap; your investment in an X-Acto knife and blades {the extra blade dispenser/disposer is pictured below} will be anywhere from $4.00-$10.00. When you purchase your X-Acto knife, you’ll want to be sure you get some extra blades with it. X-Acto blades get dull relatively quickly; and when the time comes to replace the blade, I would recommend watching this 45-second video beforehand.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    The next thing to consider is the surface you will be cutting on. If you see yourself creating a lot of papercut art in the future, you can invest in a cutting mat. However, you should be fine with chipboard or cardboard to begin with. I generally use the back of a sketchbook.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    It is my hope that this papercut art tutorial will springboard you into creating other papercut art — perhaps original pieces that you’ve designed! To get you started, however, I have provided a printable template of a sweet little mermaid with sea creatures. You can download the template by clicking here. You can print the template off on regular printer paper if you wish, but I recommend cutting a sketchbook page {or drawing/sketching paper} to standard printer paper size and printing on it. Sketchbook paper is heavier than your average printer paper, which means it’s more opaque.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once your template is printed, place it on the surface you plan to cut on. Starting at the top left corner {marked “A”}, slowly and lightly pull your X-Acto knife along the outside of the border design. When using an X-Acto knife, always remember to pull the X-Acto knife toward you; don’t try push the knife in an upward motion. The fact that you need to pull the knife will require you to move your paper around a lot {which is fine, and not as cumbersome as it sounds}. As you’re cutting, remind yourself that it’s fine if you don’t cut exactly on the guideline. “Nearly” is good enough in this case, and that’s a philosophy I embrace when it comes to papercut art!

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once you’re finished, pull your artwork out and discard the rest of the paper.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    At this point, you’ll want to cut out your mermaid. Start at “B” {right above her head}, dragging your blade down the left side of her silhouette. Here’s a little GIF to show you what your cutting will look like:

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    When you get to the bottom of her fin, you’ll want to rotate the page and continue to drag. When you reach the corner, rotate again, and so on and so forth until she’s all cut out. After you’ve made all the cut marks, it’s time to gently remove the mermaid from the background. Remind yourself to be very careful because there may be areas in which a clean cut wasn’t made. While those areas will pull out just fine with a bit of TLC, if you try to quickly take the background out, they more than likely will rip {and, worst case scenario, result in a ruined piece}.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Now that your mermaid has emerged from her background, you can cut out that wide “V” shape across her hips and the lines in her bottom fins.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once you do that, flip her over and place her on an A7 {5″x7″, or ~12 cm x 18 cm} piece of card stock in the color of your choice. Any card stock will work; I happened to have blue card stock from the local craft store on hand. {If there’s no craft store nearby, Scrapbook.com has a great selection.}

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    The reason for flipping her over is, of course, so the printed guidelines don’t show.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    At this point, you’ll want to return your attention to the background. You can pick and choose what to cut out. If you want to cut all the sea creatures out, you’re welcome to — but I, personally, only cut out a few. As I cut each sea creature, I flipped it over and placed it by the mermaid, as illustrated here:

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once I felt good about the layout, I stopped cutting out sea creatures.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Okay, so, the really cool thing about this project is it’s 2-for-1. Basically, as you were carefully cutting out your mermaid and her friends to make one cut-out, you inadvertently made another cut-out! Look at what you can do with your background once you flip it over and put it on a paper background:

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    At this point, you’re very nearly finished. All you have to do is glue your papercut art to the paper! This step is a little bit tedious {if you want a better gluing system, read this article}, but certainly do-able. I’d start with the mermaid you accidentally made from the background; flip her over {to the side with illustrations/guidelines}, and either brush glue on her or use a glue stick. No mater what you use, make sure it goes on in a nice, even layer. Oh, and I advise using a piece of scrap paper to protect your table from glue. You can see I’m making good use of a credit card offer!

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once you’ve put glue on the back of your background piece, glue her on some card stock, and you’re done with her!

    For the non-background artwork {the pieces you did mean to cut out}, I’d start gluing the little sea creatures into place. Grab each one, flip it over, put glue on the back, then glue it down approximately where you retrieved it from.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    When all your sea creatures are glued down, it’s time to add glue to your mermaid. Flip her over, then apply glue all over her body down to the fins directly below her. Don’t put glue on the border quite yet.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Position your mermaid as you want her on the paper, then gently pull back the unglued border.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    You can use a glue stick or dabs of glue to add adhesive to the border.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Once you press your border down, you’re finished! I love sending these mermaid art pieces as cards/snail mail gifts, so I paired the first one I made with an envelope featuring a little illustration of a school of fish, which alludes to the nautical card inside. This envelope was created using Janet Style Calligraphy and a variation of the snowflake envelope from Amazing Envelopes for a Latté.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Of course, these pair just fine with non-illustrated envelopes. I want to show you the Kaitlin style envelope below for a little bit of inspiration … would you believe I wrote it using strongly-brewed coffee? 🙂 The earthy brown goes great with the subdued navy color of my card.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    Since these are really neat and may be hard to part with, you can always make several and keep them as art pieces. How cool would it be to put each mermaid on a different-colored background, frame the individual pieces, and arrange the frames on the wall?

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    It doesn’t matter what you end up doing with them as long as you have fun making them! Again, you can download the free printable template by clicking here. Once you have a bit of practice, I encourage you to try making your own template! If you’re in need of inspiration, conduct a Google Image search for “papercut art” and prepare to be amazed.

    Papercut Art Tutorial {with Printable Template} | The Postman's Knock

    I hope you enjoyed this blog post and that you’ll give papercut art a try! Whether you create a piece with this template or not, I’d love to see the result of your work on Facebook or Instagram … it’s a really cool feeling to see the creativity that is sparked by a blog post like this.

    Thanks again for reading, and have a great weekend!

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock

    {PS – If you’re interested, you can read the original Little Mermaid story by Hans Christian Andersen. And, boy, is it a doozy. Disney definitely took some creative license to make the story nicer!}