Papercutting and Decoupage Unite!

I have lately been head over heels in love with papercutting. I first saw Angry Chicken's gorgeous designs, then came across Elsa Mora's phenomenal work. After googling it and finding more and more beautiful designs, I just HAD to try it. Not only that, but I had the uncontrollable urge to decoupage it onto a box. My sisters and I have always been very close, so I wanted to include the three of us holding hands - this was particularly inspired by one of Amy's three sister's papercut. I also wanted to include things that reminded me of my eldest sister. We always used to suck the nectar from honeysuckles (that's what those weird flower thingies are if you didn't know), and of course I had to include Icelandic horses since my dear sister makes her livelihood with them.



This image is made up of very sentimental stuff. My favorite thing about it is the sense of calm. It makes me imagine a little world where it's just the three of us out on an adventure.



I also decided to add some honeysuckles to the sides to break up all that green.


Honestly, I have no idea what this box is for. Someone at work was throwing it out because they didn't need it, but it was in perfect working order. I guess it's an index card sorter? Maybe? Anyway it locks, and I have always had a big thing for lock boxes - just ask my sisters :) I thought this would be particularly useful for miss horsey sister since she is always around her little students who might mess with her office stuff. This way if she has something really important and confidential, she can lock it up in a super cute container.


So what do you think of combining papercutting and decoupage? So far I really love it. It seems like such a logical extension of the craft, though I haven't seen anything quite like it online yet. If you want to try it, I recommend getting something more substantial than copy paper. First of all, copy paper is NOT the best thing to cut with an xacto knife, and secondly it is NOT the best thing to withstand coats of mod podge. I went with a slightly off-white stationary paper. Not too much heavier than copy paper, but a great deal more durable and pretty. I just used tissue paper on the background. I wish I had used something a bit more exciting for the background now - maybe dark purple or blue. But green works. It's very earthy, and the image has a lot of grass, flowers and mushrooms - and heck there are even horses grazing.