Drawing Daily

Sometimes, it seems so difficult to settle on what to draw that I end up drawing nothing at all. I have done prompts in the past, but I don't think I have ever done a "series".  I do enjoy working in the mandala form so December saw me designing/drawing snowflakes, one snowflake each day.

Drawing this way (in a series) meant that even when the stylus was not in my hand I was thinking about what I wanted to design next, an excellent way to keep the creativity flowing. These were all drawn on my iPadmini2 using Concepts.
Thank you to  Singing Bell for allowing me the use of their music for this video.

Winter = Snowflakes.....right?

Earlier this week I was showing a friend how I go about designing my themed, paper snowflakes. After some discussion, she came up with a fabulous idea to use ice skates as her theme. Her snowflake turned out incredibly well .....but unfortunately, I did not think to snap a photo.   :-(
In fact, hers was so terrific, she inspired me to do my own snowflake featuring ice skates....it is cold out so I threw in some mittens too.
this is it, all cut and ready to unfold

and the finished flake

If this is your first visit here and want to know more about these papercut snowflakes, see the tutorial tab at the top of this blog and check out my snowflake gallery (the button is on the sidebar)

Its Friday.....so you know what that means....I am linking up with Nina-Maries Off The Wall Fridays

Video #2 Cutting Snowflakes

I have been blogging for quite some time now, mostly about  quilting, surface design, papercutting and doodling. Do you know what my most popular ......and most viewed post is?
It is this one on cutting snowflakes 

Since I am trying to teach myself how to make and edit video, I decided to record myself making one of my "themed" snowflakes.  Up until last week, our winter has been pretty mild and without much snow, that all changed over the last few days......it has gotten cold and the white stuff has arrived.
Has me dreaming of spring..... which inspired this snowflake

If you are interested, you can watch my latest video to see it develop from start to finish here

I also cut a slightly different version

Linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday....where Nina-Marie has offered some excellent advice for all of us who find ourselves not spending enough of our time "creating"

Autumn

First day of Autumn.......what?.....wait....I wasn't done with Summer yet!
Don't get me wrong... Autumn is a lovely time of year....but the trouble with Autumn is, that Winter comes fast on its heels......and I do NOT like Winter!

This thinking inspired me to create a new snowflake.

here is the drawing I did on one section of the paper in preparation for the cutting.

 Staples hold the 12 layers firmly in place

To get the points of my scissors into small areas I usually use a hole punch, but these are some pretty small areas, far too small for a hole punch, so I used the tip of an awl to make holes. ( a piece of cork tile allows the awl to sink in but protects my table surface)

This is how it looked once the cutting was done but before I unfolded the layers of paper.

Papercutting

There seems to be a fair bit of interest in my paper snowflakes, but you know....it doesn't always have to be a snowflake shape, how about a simple square?
I used some of my designs (drawings) to see how they would look as papercuts and have posted lots of photos so you can see the progression.
I started with a 12" square piece of paper....folded in half, then in half again twice more, resulting in a triangle of folded paper (8 layers)
The next step is to unfold the paper, draw the design lines on to one segment (triangle) and refold being sure the drawn lines are on the outer layer
I use lots of staples to hold the layers tightly together. A hole punch and an awl are used to pierce the small closed areas so that I will be able to then begin cutting with tiny scissors
here you can see a few designs prepared for cutting.

I don't cut in any particular order, but I tend to cut the smallest, trickiest areas first and the larger, open areas last....this allows me to always have something fairly solid to hang on to.
In the photos below you can see the progression of one of the designs. Notice that I leave in place, as many staples as possible as I go along ( the secret, is to keep the layers held tightly together)

here is the design, carefully opened and pressed flat using a dry iron

and here are a few others I did, it is a fun way to be creative without investing a lot of time, materials or planning. I could imagine these designs as whole cloth stitching, painted cloth, stained glass, embroidery, stencils....all sorts of things

what will you create today?

Re-Design

Near the end of 2014, I was contacted and asked if I would consider creating a logo based on one of my papercut snowflakes....this one in particular

I made a few changes and some enhancements to the original design. The completed "re-design" is shown below. Transformed from a quickly cut paper snowflake in to a sharp, defined logo

Making Snow....sort of

With warmer than usual temperatures here, there will be no White Christmas for us this year. No worries, because even with out the white stuff on the ground, I can still make snow angels.

                                                                   

                                           Merry Christmas!

 

 

Papercuts for the season

A Partridge in a Pear Tree........2 versions

This one is a little more complex

And a much simpler one

Do you see the hearts for "true love", the Partridges  perched in the pear trees? 

Cards

It's that time of year...do you still send Christmas cards through the post?  Store bought or hand made?
In the current (Winter 2013) issue of the Canadian Quilter, I invite quilters to make a few hand made ones for friends and family, okay, if you have a very long list, that is not practical, but you may have a quilting friend or two that you would like to surprise with one.

These cards are seen in the article and now will be making their way to a few mailboxes out there

I made this batch of cards yesterday

The snowflakes (cut from coffee filters) are sandwiched between tulle and cotton, batted, quilted, trimmed and then stitched on top of a purchased blank card.  While they may look similar, no two are exactly the same. 

Stitching, Colouring, Doodling & Cutting

Last week I showed you the start of a little piece inspired by an article I read in Quilting Arts Magazine. Some colour had been added at that point........then after lots and lots of stitching, even more colour was applied.

I decided it might be fun to incorporate this week's CPP word, #217 "Pen".........so I took out a black Micron pen and doodled on the piece.

I have been discussing the idea of a collaborative effort, using crows as subject matter with a friend and fellow quilter, she challenged me to do a "Crow"Flake.....I do love a challenge!

this is what it looked like before it was unfolded

Linking to Nina-Maries  Off the Wall Fridays

Another prompt response

What sparks your creativity?  When does inspiration strike for you? The Creative Prompt project strives to help you along, one word at a time. This week's word, #215, is "Plate"
I most often do a doodle, but as I passed by one of my vintage sewing machines, a different idea came to me.
This is the face Plate on one of my vintage Singer machines.

observing the elements in the design, I folded paper, drew the shapes, and began cutting

and this is what I got

Paper Bunnies

No calories, unlike those chocolate ones.
Yesterday, I went out for a few things and found myself caught in the craziness of people rushing about for flowers, baskets of chocolate eggs and of course, bunnies. That was my inspiration for this papercut.

Happy Easter!

If you have not yet entered for your chance to win a copy of "The Giving Quilt" be sure to scroll down to last Thursday's post, you still have time, I won't be drawing the winner until late Tuesday afternoon

Papercut to Fabric

I wanted to try combining my papercut design with some of my snow dyed fabric.
I paired this one with black

Layered them with batting and backing

from the backside I stitched the design

then I began cutting away

The result is not as crisp and clean as it could be, think I might try different method next time.

Linking up with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays

 

Papercutting

Have you noticed the tabs just under my banner?  I am working to add new elements to this site, hopefully, to make it easier to find some of my more popular posts. I have several ideas for pages I'd like to place up there.....just need to make the time to get it done.

Now, of course, I could not create a post without any photos, so I thought it was time for new papercuts. One of my very first snowflake papercuts, was this one......the design features Dragonflies,  Bees and  Beetles.

I decided to revisit that theme and create these. (really just added an extra beetle and slightly changed some shapes...... This the cut, but still folded paper.

fully opened

Then I made the same cuts to another folded piece, but this time, cut a little more

 As you can see, it can make quite a difference to the very same design.