Scherenschnitte Stamping: Botanical Papercut

Hello all!  They say that true confession is good for the soul, so... I confess.....

I have been up to my old papercutting tricks again,

 all in preparation for the opening of Crafty Crafty, a craft boutique and atelier opening soon in our area and where I hope to sell some of my work and where I will be teaching cardmaking workshops.

I'd like to share one of my most recent projects today that might even tempt you to try the hi-contrast art form or papercutting.  It is also one of my entries in the current Moxie Fab World challenge, Fanatical about Botanicals.

With a botanist mother who also loved scherenschnitte, you just knew I couldn't pass up at least one entry with her in mind, right?

Are you interested in learning yourself?  Well that's wonderful, because I aim to do just that! Combining one's love of papercraft and stamping with scherenschnitte and papercutting is remarkably easy.  It mostly has to do with choosing the right stamps, being able to plan for all the lines to connect properly, knowing just how much detail you are able to deal with (don't worry, this will probably increase with practice at handling the knife blade) and a little bit of patience!  (OK, honestly in some cases, a LOT... :)

The Queen Anne's lace stamp I used for this design came from the Sugar Shoppe SeeD's botanical set 50215 silhouettes.

As you can see, the flowers were stamped and I drew in the long leaves, ground, roots and ant myself:

You don't have to cut out exactly around the stamped image, especially when it's a blossom like this one.  Remember that every flower is different in real life; so it's OK for them to be different in your papercut too!  The stamped image is more for reference than anything else.

I have cut this design from black origami paper.  It is remarkably strong and has a white back to draw on so that you can see your cutting lines easily.  You can see how strong it is:

This papercut has some very fine, long stems that hold up the flower heads.  But even when I wave it in the air... not even close to tearing.  Only a few things will tear your origami paper... 1) You have a dull cutting blade  2) You are going too fast  3) You accidentally rest one finger on the papercut while trying to turn it with the other... 4) Your toddler gets a hold of it.

But for the record... at least one of my papercuts HAS survived for about 3 seconds in my toddler's hands.  Impressive, yes?

Yes, indeed.

Next, the mounting.  I usually use a ZIG glue pen because it is easy to make thick or thin lines, it dries quickly but only once you turn it over onto the mounting paper.  For my mounting stock, I prefer Papertrey Ink's Rustic White 110 lb cardstock.  It is so sturdyand has a very professional look.  As you glue the papercut you can go gradually, glueing down portions at a time.  This also helps to prevent the design from bunching up on itself or portions glueing down accidentally in the wrong place.  If anything, you should go more slowly at this stage than you did while cutting.

And then................

You have a beautiful mounted papercut!

Now a nice frame (even places like Walmart carry some nice frames that you can take the cheesy art out of and Voila!

Welcome to scherenschnitte stamping, my friend! :)

If you decide to give this technique a try, I'd love to see your project and show others as well, so please leave your link!

Have a wonderful day,