I would like to introduce....

Hello friends

Today while I'm sunning myself (hopefully) in Torquay, 

I would like to introduce you to the extremely talented Clare Willcocks.

Clare is a guest on my blog today and showing us the incredible world of paper cutting.

Here is her guest blog post...

Hello everyone! My name’s Clare and I can normally be found drawing, crafting and paper cutting over on my blog www.clarewillcocks.blogspot.co.uk.

I’m thrilled to be featured here on the lovely Hope and Chances Creativity blog today and hope you enjoy the following paper cutting tutorial.

Paper cutting has been a popular craft throughout history, thought to have begun in China as early as the 6^th century. Nowadays it’s embraced by artists from all over the world, with styles and techniques varying to produce everything from tiny intricate patterns to 3D masterpieces.

So, if you’re ready to give it go, let’s begin!

 Tools and Materials

It’s easy and inexpensive to get started, you’ll just need the following:

·        Self-healing cutting mat

·        Craft knife (this one from Hope and Chances Creative is perfect)

·        Good quality paper or thin card for cutting

·        Coloured background paper or card

I’ve designed a free template which you can simply download and print onto the thin card or paper of your choice. I’ve used Papermilldirect card which is available from Hope and Chances Creativity. It’s a great choice because it’s lightly textured which adds a little more interest to the finished paper cut.

 Click here for the free template.

You can enlarge the template or reduce it to as small as you feel you can cut! For this tutorial, I’ve resized it to approximately 12cm in diameter.

Ready, steady, go!

Begin by cutting out the grey sections inside each leaf. Always cut away from points and corners. Try to apply even pressure and work slowly.

Then move on to the centres of the flowers. Follow the edges of the grey shapes as closely as possible.

When you’ve cut out all of the centres, it should look something like this from the right side.

Continue cutting out the petals of the flowers and the inner sections of the butterfly. This may be a little tricky, especially if you’ve scaled the template down, but just go slowly and remember to cut outwards from corners.

Once all the middle sections are cut out of each shape, you can start on the in between bits. Work from one side of the circle to the other as the card keeps its strength better this way.

And there you go, your first paper cut!

Now for another fun bit – deciding on a background colour. Look at this lovely selection of Papermilldirect card I had to choose from!

After much deliberation, I finally decided on bright pink!

If you feel you need to, you can stick the paper cut down before you frame it. Use a cotton bud to dab PVA glue on the back - Cosmic Shimmer works brilliantly. Take care not to apply too much, otherwise it’ll squish out to the front of the paper cut.

I hope you’ve found this tutorial useful, if you’ve got any questions, just pop by my blog 

and I’ll be happy to help!  You can also find me on Facebook here.

Thank you Clare - it has been lovely having you as a guest on my blog.

Don't forget I stock the Papermilldirect card that Clare has used in the shop. 

I will be back soon friends with more posts - until then take care.