Tag: border

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 65: Ornate Leaf Border

ornate leaf border papercut - horizontal with scalpel for scale - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

Ornate Leaf Border #626

“Ornate Leaf Border” is from my ongoing papercutting project (where I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.)

This week’s design is number 626 in the book.

ornate leaf border papercut with vertical scalpel for scale - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

Closer up:

ornate leaf border papercut close up - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

As usual it was difficult to come up with a new name for yet another leafy design, but what the heck – the design looks pretty fancy and could be a border.

This one was very challenging to cut, what with all of the teeny tiny ‘shaded’ lines in it. It was also extremely difficult not to rip, because it’s so big and has such thin lines, and they all start from the same central point. At first glance it looks like I’ve done a pretty good job of the cutting, but if you look at it for long enough then you’ll see that some little bits have accidentally fallen off while I’ve been cutting it. Oops. It’s also not completely symmetrical, but I can’t remember if that was due to my inaccurate cutting or if the design was meant to be that way. I do still like it, though. It’s one of the longest and most difficult cuts that I’ve made.

Any comments? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 34: Flower and Leaf Border

papercut 684 flower and leaf border horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Flower and Leaf Border

“Flower and Leaf Border” is from the papercutting project that I’ve been doing for the last few years (trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.) But for the period of Covid19 Lockdown, I’ve put the project into overdrive and have decided to adapt and cut 100 designs in 100 days.

Today’s design is number #684 in the book.

papercut 684 flower and leaf border vertical - LaserSister - KayVincent

It’s another ‘inverted’ design, where I’ve cut holes out of white paper, instead of cutting a silhouette shape out of black paper. So here the black parts of the design are just parts of a black notebook cover that are showing through the holes in the white paper. If I’d put the white paper on top of my hand, then the flowers and leaves would be showing through as hand-coloured.

Closer up:

Here is a close-up of the top section of the design…

papercut 684 flower and leaf border top - LaserSister - KayVincent

…and here is a close-up of the bottom section:

papercut 684 flower and leaf border bottom - LaserSister - KayVincent

I’m never really as keen on these negative papercuts as I am on the positive ones. Maybe I should work harder on adapting the designs so that they can be created in a positive silhouette form. However, I’m not sure how I could do that effectively with the flower parts of this design. The little circles would have to be much bigger, I think, and would definitely all need to be linked together somehow.

Any comments? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 22: Ivy Leaf Border

papercut 512 ivy leaf border - horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Ivy Leaf Border #512

This is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.) Today’s design is number #512 in the book, and for obvious reasons I’ve decided that its title should be “Ivy Leaf Border”.

papercut 512 ivy leaf border with scalpel - LaserSister - KayVincent

Closer up:

papercut 512 ivy leaf border close up - LaserSister - KayVincent

I’m not really sure why, but these leaves look happy and cheerful to me, somehow. Maybe it’s because they (especially that one furthest left) look like they’ve got little mouths that are open and smiling. Or maybe it’s because they’re all lined up like dancers in a row doing the can-can or something.

They’re definitely not all identical, but that’s another reason why I like this papercutting – it just shows that they were cut by hand (or scalpel and scissors, to be exact) and not with my laser cutter.

I might even be able to use this design in another project one day. The line of leaves will make a very nice border.

While I cut them out I was listening to Caroline Criado Perez’s audiobook “Do it like a woman”. I was hoping that the book would be full of inspiring and uplifting tales, but actually it’s a bit grim. So it’s just as well the little leaves look like they’re smiling and dancing – that cheered me up a bit.

Do the leaves look happy to you, or is it really just me? Feel free to let me know via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.