Paper cutting practice sheet by Eversea

Transcription

1 1. Straight lines Remove the grey area inside these shapes, following the black outline. Use a craft knife or a scalpel and a cutting surface. Hold the cutting tool firmly, like a pencil, and place the tip of the blade at a 45-degree angle. I recommend cutting all vertical and diagonal lines first. Then rotate the paper (landscape orientation) and cut the horizontal lines. Cut slowly and carefully to prevent any injury. 2. Curved lines Cut out the lines. Keep your wrist relaxed, do not twist it trying to follow the outline. Instead, rotate the paper when needed, keeping your hand (almost) straight. If you are cutting with your right hand, hold the cutting tool still. Use your left hand to move the paper to be able to cut curved lines.

2 3. Circles Remove the grey area inside these circles. Again, keep your hand still and rotate the paper constantly to be able to cut a perfect circle with a smooth edge. If your blade isn't sharp enough or if you are making small cuts without rotating the paper, you will be left with a rough, uneven edge. 4. Shapes Once you are happy with the results, it's time to combine different lines and shapes. Here are some simple shapes to start with. All tips included in previous sections are still valid, take your time to decide where to start cutting and how to hold the cutting tool. Don't rush, you can cut one shape today and come back tomorrow to do another one. It takes some time to become comfortable holding and using the cutting tool as well as keeping your hand steady. Remove the grey area.

3 5. Text A lot of papercuts contain some kind of text. Start by cutting out these words written in black. When cutting letters that contain counters (for example, p,b,o,r,d ), remove that area first. All examples on this sheet are negative papercuts, but even if you are cutting a positive papercut, the same rule is applied. 6. Templates Ready for the next challenge? If you think you need more practice but have already cut everything out, print another copy before using template in this section. If you're feeling adventurous, feel free to try cutting these out. Think what part to cut out first. The golden rule is to cut from the inside to the outside. You won't make a mistake if you apply that rule. Now that you know how to work with negative papercuts, here is something much more common positive papercuts. Choose a design from below and first cut around it you must leave at least a couple of centimetres of white space (leave a border). Once you have the design detached from the paper, you can cut it out. If you are not sure what to do, take a look at the video explaining the use of this sheet. To help you, I marked where you should cut with scissors cut along the dashed line. Here you will need to remove all white areas.

4 Most paper cutters choose to have the printed template on the back so once you ve finished cutting, flip the paper to reveal the design. That s the main reason why any text must be flipped before printing (or anything else that will lose its meaning if it is mirrored).

5 Need help? Take a look at Eversea s blog, Facebook page and Youtube channel where you ll find video tutorials, useful blog posts and many free templates Here is one negative papercut. Cut out the indicated area along the dashed line and then remove all white parts.