Scherenschnitte "The Holly and the Ivy"

This weekend I have been drawn again to my mother's art.  When I was young, she used to enjoy doing scherenschnitte, or paper cutting.  I remember intricate Christmas trees and fall leaf displays.  When we were older and coult use an X-Acto knife ourselves, we once made a family tree together out of our mirrored names.  Mine was always difficult, due to the descending "Y".

So, in honor of my mother and also with the Moxie Fab challenge "Old World Christmas" in mind, here is the first of my weekend Scherenschnitte projects:

The design is my own, inspired by the Christmas carol "The Holly and the Ivy":

The holly and the ivy

When they are both full-grown;

of all the trees that are in the wood,

the holly bears the crown.

Oh the rising of the sun,

and the running of the deer,

the playing of the merry organ,

sweet singing in the choir.

You can see, of course, the deer and the holly, the crown of holly at the top and the hearts at the bottom to represent the Love that was born at Christmas.

Here are a few pictures of the work as it progressed.  If you want a more complete tutorial on Scherenschnitte, you can visit Cindy's Paper-cutting blog, where she also posts templates to try on Tuesdays.  Cath also featured some paper-cutting art by Nikki McClure not too long ago on Moxie Fab World, I believe.  This is a really amazing art form; very direct with wonderfully satisfying results.

This is my hand-drawn template.  You don't have to draw both sides of the design; I drew the deer on both just to get a better idea of width/etc.

Next I folded in half some sturdy old-fashioned wrapping paper that was left over from last Christmas, and began to cut starting with the small, enclosed areas first.  Be patient!

My husband came in to watch... and he caught a couple of pictures too...

After you have finished cutting you get to the really FUN part.  Up until now, you won't know exactly what the finished product is going to look like.  The first time you open up your scherenschnitte design is very exciting!

Next you should gently iron your design between two sheets of white paper or cardstock.  I then used a ZIG glue pen to attach my design to its cream-colored background; then I put it on a patterned base (paper from Hobby Lobby Christmas stack "Magic of the Season"):

I will post my second and third paper-cuts soon!

As always, thank you so much for visiting, happy crafting and soon-to-be Happy Thanksgiving!

--Kathryn