After being inspired by the amazing Paper Panda I had wanted to have a go myself at creative Paper-cutting. If you don’t know already Paper Panda had really seemed to re-popularise hand made paper cuts.

Using only a scalpel and a steady hand, I was commissioned to make a Beauty and the Beast paper cut design. In doing this paper cut project tutorial I’d love to show you how it turned out and some of the things I learned along the way.

Paper Cut Project: Making A Layered Design

It’s always the case, even when trying something new. I never seem to do things by halves. There’s no testing ground here. Instead of ‘just’ doing a paper cut design (as if that’s not tricky enough) I decided to try and push it to the next level by layering my paper.

I already had in mind that I wanted to keep things simple. A black and white theme always has impact. However a splash of colour really made this design go from something great to something exceptional.

Using some nice textured black card stock that I sourced from Hobbycraft I first traced my design onto the card using pencil. Make sure not to press too hard with the pencil too! Once the design was fully traced I steadied my nerves and set about cutting this out.

Peppers Top Tip: When doing any new paper cut project, especially one on thicker card, make sure you’ve got a brand new blade in your craft knife. You’ll be surprised just how blunt they can become. Finer details will need a razor sharp blade.

As you can see, this design was very detail intensive and required a lot of concentration and a very steady hand. I urge everyone to be so careful when doing this type of craft project. These blades are so sharp, yikes! You’ll also want to take as much time as you need, especially with detailed parts of your design. The most frustrating thing can be cutting a really thin element only to accidentally split or rip the paper. Take your time and it will definitely pay off.

Layering The Design

This design looked great as it is, however I felt it was missing something. Adding colour to the rose was just what it needed to make it feel ‘finished’. Adding colour to the backing of the rose wasn’t as simple as I had first thought. It meant I had to now cut a shape of coloured foil to the size of the shape I wanted it to encompass.

Paper Cut Project : The Finished Article

Here’s the finished piece. The box frame I also sourced from Hobbycraft. I was so pleased with how this project turned out. It was really good fun, a little bit different and the end result looked amazing in the box frame. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did creating this post and this paper cut.