Saturday, February 15, 2014

Happy Cheap Chocolate Day!

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day around here, instead my boyfriend buys me some chocolate the day after.  We never have had a lot of money so "Cheap Chocolate Day has become our tradition.  This year though I wanted to make some Valentine's to give to friends and make a "How To" that didn't happen.  Since my last post I have done almost nothing but scherenschnitte.  This new hobby has become something of an obsession and I have gone through more than 15 blades this week and have ordered another book.  I also found a wonderful paper cutting site https://www.papercuttingsbyalison.com/index.cfm   This site is called cuttings by Alison and has a huge selection of patterns.  After some more practice I may order some advanced patterns but for now I have a book of 275 patterns to look forward too.  All this practice has paid off and now I consider myself at the intermediate stage of scherenschnitte.  So instead of finished Valentines I have some pretty cuttings, I hope that these cuttings will inspire others to keep this tradition alive.

 
This pattern was from a book of embroidery designs from the 19th century.
 
 
Some easy hearts!
 


 
Three more elaborate hearts.
 
 
Cutting of a unicorn.
 
 
This heart was very difficult this was my second try.
 
 
This was my first try at this heart pattern then I painted it with water colors.
Painting can hide many mistakes!
 
 
Here is a kitten cutting that I am still working on.  It will make a nice card.
 
 
Here is a large cutting I did even with reducing it's size it still took up a 11 x 17 paper.
 It is meant to be a family tree, unfortunately the two center birds fell off it.
 
 
This piece is a 8.5 x 11 cutting for a birth or marriage certificate.
 
 
Finally another 8.5 x 11 certificate.  I cut this without a finished image
and was happily surprised by the angel on top of the heart.
 
These are not the only cutting that I made in the last couple of weeks.  The other cuttings were for Halloween so I may post them later.  Now I am working on Easter patterns, here is a preview!
 
 
Two cute little bunnies!
 
So what ever holiday you prefer I hope it was a happy one!