Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

I’ve been interested in cutouts and layering in my art journals for quite a while. It started with my class, Fluid Art, where I create tunnel journals. Soon I started using my cutouts as collage, as I teach in my new class with 21 Secrets, Papercuts. All of this got me hungry to do more serious paper cutting. I dedicated my Brooklyn Sketchbook Project journal to practice paper cutting.  It’s been a ton of fun and I’m thrilled to share the process with you.

Paper cut beginnings: A tunnel journal I made in Fluid Art

My Sketchbook Project Journal with Paper Cutting

Here’s one of the first pages I made in my Sketchbook Project Journal. It’s fun to play with opacity, and positive and negative space using paper cuts.

I also love when there’s an interactive element to my art journal pages. This page has little stamens in the middle of the flower form. If you gently blow on them, they flutter. Isn’t that fun?

This page had so many cuts! There were moments when I wasn’t sure where this page was going or whether I’d like it, but I stuck with the process of following one step to the next, and I love the end product. So far I haven’t drawn or planned out my pages, but created intuitively, following one cut to the next. This page had so many cut outs! It feels amazingly light. It’s incredible how much weight came out of the page.

Another thing that fascinates me about paper cut journals are the shadows each page creates. It’s wonderful to see how each page changes as you turn the page and lay down the next page on top of it.

Really, one of the most important elements to a rich art life is curiosity. I’m curious about how to create interesting shadows. I’m curious about how to combine layers of cut paper in interesting ways. I’m curious about  layering cut lines and holes. Finally, I’m interested to see how much paper I can take out of each sheet and have it still hold together.

Paper Cutting and Collaging Workshop

If you’d like to get in on the paper cutting and collaging, you can learn how to combine gorgeous painted pages with beautiful paper cut outs, like this one in my new workshop, Papercuts.

To learn more about creating intuitively, take my free class, The Creative Self-Care E-Course. You can sign up right here:

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Creatively Yours,

Amy