I've recently taken up the very old and culturally diverse art of papercutting. I'mma show 'em to you now.

This I made for The Dude for Valentine's Day. It's a bit girly, as was the little verse I wrote below it, which was really too cheesy for me to write here. Ken's not one for girly things, but he still claims he loves it. I also am not usually this cheesy, but I thought the design was really gorgeous, so I did it up. I actually think I may do another one for Mother's Day, 'cause I think my mom will love it.



The template I actually got from the Martha Stewart site, but I've been looking for more to work with.

I found a great book called "The Papercuttings of Hans Christian Andersen" which tells the story of his life and shows many of the hundreds (if not thousands) of papercuttings he did. He was really incredibly talented, just doing them on the spot while he would tell his tales. If he was telling his stories to children, he'd finish cutting when he finished the story, and would give the paper to one of the children listening to play with. Many of the ones that have survived are from those children, which is pretty amazing.

From what I've researched so far the German form of the art generally shows my favorite designs. The German word for papercutting is "Scherenschnitte," and I generally use that word, because it's WAY more fun and impressive to say, and I find that it makes me appear REALLY smart to other people.

I found this awesome Little Red Riding Hood series on a scherenschnitte blog I found, and I cut one of the templates and framed it this afternoon. I've contacted the author of the blog to ask her permission before I post it here, hopefully she'll say yes because I want to show it off. :) If you're interested in this at all, you should go to her site, she does amazing things.

I'm super excited about this, and can't wait to do more. I don't do it the right way. REAL papercutters use scissors, I use an Xacto knife, but whatevs because I love it. :)

In yarny news, I've just dyed Sarah's yarn, and I think I'm going to dabble a bit in dying roving today. I love these days, where you have nothing to do but blast music in your kitchen and just Be Creative. Sarah's yarn came out pretty kickass, if I do say so myself. It's a variegated red and is currently drying in my craft room. Pictures to come when it's a bit more dry.

I'm sure I'll edit this in a bit to give up the results of the Great Roving Experiment. I'm a-gonna do it with food coloring. I could probably just wait to post this, but it's my blog and my rules so I win. :)

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Okay so I'm not always great at picking colors (as those who remember the Jamaican Kool Aid Incident of 2007 will know) but I was pretty psyched when I was able to mix up a nice forest green, a sky blue and a very "bark"ish brown, however when I cooked it all up after I'd soaked the wool, the brown turned purple. So we'll see if this looks at ALL good. However, I think I may do this again soon, hopefully making a buttery yellow. Regardless of how it comes out, I'm going to spin it all up so I can see the process through from start to finish. Maybe it'll look cooler spun.

No pics yet, it's all very hot and wet right now (Ariel is sniggering), hopefully I'll have some good ones up in the next day or two.