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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 51: Oranges And Leaves

papercut 650 oranges and leaves - horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Oranges and Leaves #650

This “Oranges and Leaves” design 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 650 in the book.

Now that I look at it, I think I should probably have rotated it 90 degrees anti-clockwise, (so that it would make the top right element of a design, rather than the bottom left as I’ve currently shown it). And I’m also thinking that the fruits might be apples instead of oranges. Double oops!

Closer up:

Anyway, this is another design motif that I find particularly pleasing, so I think I will almost certainly use it in a future project.

As for the actual cutting skills, I’m fairly happy with the outcome. It’s a very forgiving design anyway because there aren’t any thin straight lines and because it’s asymmetrical, but all the same I’m pleased with the curves that I managed to cut.


In the background I was listening to The Story Studio podcast. It’s one of my top 5 writing podcasts to listen to. Probably a bit sweary for some people, but has given me some great writing ‘mindset’ tips over the last few years.


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

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 088

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 088

This is papercut 088 of my epic papercutting project (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book).  I’m adapting the designs for papercutting, and then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days. Eventually I may may incorporate them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.

Myeh, I’m not very keen on this design, but I don’t hate it.

I think this was the last of the cuts that I made with the blunt(ish) blade that I’d been using for ages.

Actually, this one could have done with some of the ‘tidying’ that I’ve started to do before I take the close-up photos.

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 087

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 087

This is papercut 087 of my epic papercutting project (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book).  I’m adapting the designs for papercutting, and then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days. Eventually I may may incorporate them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.

I honestly think I am getting better at this, little by little!

The cut-lines are getting much cleaner. OK, the large circles are still a bit wobbly, but a lot of the other shapes are quite good.

I might admit to cheating a bit, because whereas before I used to say “it would look better up close if I tidied some of the cuts up” — I’m actually tidying the cuts up before I take the photos now 😉

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 083

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 083

This is papercut 83 of my papercutting quest (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book, in preparation for incorporating them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

This is a very simple-looking design, but sometimes they are the hardest ones to make a decent job of cutting…

…but even close up I think this one actually looks OK. My skills really are (gradually) improving, as I get closer to the end of my 100-day challenge.

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More Papercutting by Hand…

Following on from yesterday’s post when I rediscovered the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“, I have been relaxing this evening by doing a bit more papercutting by hand. It makes a refreshing change from doing it by laser.

Here are my latest cuts:

…see if you can match any in my sketchbook compared to the actual original designs in the book: