Okay, guys, I put time limit restrictions on my phone, so expect to see great things here! Today's Template Tuesday is a simple one. It's of a girl and a little chick. I see that I've been labeling her as Girl and Bunny though and that must be because it's been a long day. If I keep up with the templates, expect to see some Easter, one or two St. Patrick and a few Mother's Day templates over the next little while.





Here's what the template looks like. The trickiest part are the little legs of the chick. Keep your blades sharp and cut from the corner areas outward! That's all the advice I have to give.

Here's the link for the free (but not for commercial use) template: Girl & Chick

Hi! If you are local (Salt Lake City area) and you want to skip the shipping costs of this screenprint, purchase here! Then you can leave me your phone number or email and I will call or email you and arrange a time for you to pick one of these up. They will be available starting Friday, September 11, 2015.

If you are not local, you can still purchase one of these from my etsy shop:
ETSY

So it's a Wednesday and not a Tuesday, give me a break! I just had a baby! I figured I should get one more thing posted on here before the end of the year. We sang the song that this papercut is inspired by in church on Sunday and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It doesn't help that I've been drawing part of a verse of it since then either. Pretty soon I'll have a different earworm, but for now I'll just keep on humming Longfellow's poem. It's a pretty song and it could be worse! I hope, wherever you are, that you are comfortable, warm and content. Happy New Year!


Here's what the template will look like. The tricky part about this is to not get cocky about the thin lines. When you get cocky, then you slice through one. I know this from experience. The other tricky part is to not look at it and think it'll be easy because there aren't very many letters. Letters take forever for some reason!


Download the template here: Happy New Year!

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Father's Day is coming up and with that we will hear a lot of sporting good and barbecue commercials. If you are at a loss for a gift to give that special Dad in your life, I can't help you. But if you need a helpful suggestion for a fun card to make, well today is your lucky day! Here's a simple little papercut card to give to the father figure you adore.



This is what the card looks in it's flat form.


Here's what the template looks like. The images are kind of small, you can change the size if you know how to do that sort of thing. I made them so you could cut them out and fit them on a 5.25" x 5.25" card (easily made with an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock). I also made a girl version for those who might want the card to be a bit more gender accurate.


Download the template here: Father's Day Fishing

These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

I was looking around my house the other day and realized I was severely lacking in Easter decorations. Not a bunny rabbit in site. Because I'm thrifty, I decided to make a few myself (check back next week for another one). Here is my very first Easter Banner.


It has all the cute Easter things you can imagine, kids hunting for Easter eggs, bunnies, ducks, chicks and frolicking lambs. Below is what the template looks like. It's separated out onto two 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper. I used a kind of thinner scrapbooking paper (so it was easier to cut through, yet still rigid enough for the lambs to frolic in the air).

Here are my helpful hints for cutting this out.
1. Notice that there are notches underneath the letters. Those are so the letters don't bend in the middle when you fold the banner.
2. Tape or glue the tabs on the side BEHIND the next scene so that it will look like a continuous banner.
3. When I translated this papercut into vector format, some of the eggs got a little wonky. Don't' be afraid to make the eggs actual ovals instead of cylindrical like they look here. They aren't supposed to be that way!

I think that's it. Enjoy cutting! You can cut this out with an Xacto knife or use your Silhouette or other digital cutting machine. I have no idea how to go about getting it from your machine to that cutter, all I know is that other people have done it!
These templates are for personal use only. You can make them for your mom, you can make them for your aunt, you can make them for your family reunion, etc. Please don't sell these free templates for your own personal gain. I put them out there as a service, don't make me get frustrated and stop doing them. Don't ruin it for everyone else! Also, if you're going to sell art, maybe you should make it your own. You can do it, I promise! It's not good karma to pass off someone else's art as your own. 

Since 2009, almost once a year, I've been a penpal with a child from my friend Rama's 5th grade class he teaches. In general, these are some of the most fun papercuts I do all year. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's that it's for children and I know they aren't too terribly picky and so therefore I feel less inhibited? I don't know what it is, but I sure do enjoy them. This one is the postcard my student will receive this year. These are the ones I created in previous years: Dinosaur vs. Robot; Watership Down; Deer Car Thriller & David & Goliath.

You may not be able to own this particular papercut, but you can have a print of it (or a clock or a rug or a shower curtain) if you visit my Society6 page. Right now there's a special artist's promotion going on where you can get FREE shipping and $5 off of almost any product!* Go here to get the deal: CindyMindyPindy Promo! Also, there I put up a bunch more state prints. If you don't see your state, let me know and I'll put it up ASAP!



*Please note that this promotion is NOT automatically available in my Store, the promotion is only available once someone clicks on this link: CindyMindyPindy Promo. Promotion expires April 13, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert.

Almost two years ago, I had a show called Winter Wonderland at the Gateway Mall Children's Museum. I don't think I ever actually showed details of too many of the pieces. I think by the time the show was over, I was exhausted. The other day, I did a piece for a friend that I had sold at that show to another friend. It's so adorable. Have any of you ever heard of the Wynken, Blynken and Nod poem? This is my take on how it might look.



If you've never read the poem, here it is:

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (Dutch Lullaby)
by Eugene Field (1850-1895)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe---
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea---
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish---
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam---
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea---
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

A few months ago, I asked Tom what his favorite nursery rhyme was and he said it was Little Jack Horner. So I drew up a picture of it and decided I should save it for a Christmas template since it mentions Christmas in the poem. Here's what I came up with:



Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said "What a good boy am I!"

Here's what the template will look like. It's not too terribly complicated, mostly just little details. Remember, for the face, use your blade from the inside parts to the outside parts. So, from the inside corner of the mouth out to the outside of the lips. You don't have to drag your blade all in a straight line. Lift it up.



Here's the link: Little Jack Horner

So I get asked a lot if I have any templates for children. I generally tell people to look at my previous templates for some that are easier. Last Friday, I had to teach a workshop to little kids on how to papercut. I had made a page of templates and sent it to Dana who called me the next day and told me they were way too hard. They needed to have more round shapes and less holes on the inside. It was kind of difficult for me to tone the details down. But here is what I finally came up with. Feel free to download these and enlarge them on your computer or copier.

This was the easier sheet. I found that even some of the easy things were way too hard for some of the kids. They were small fries! Some kids had different artistic abilities, but they all were proud of their results.
Download your free easy level shape template: Easy Level


Here is the more medium page. Probably maybe even better for the beginning papercut adult artist. Give it a go!
Download your free medium level shape template: Medium Level
Thank you all for your suggestions from one of my previous posts. They were sooooooo helpful!

Here's a freebie for all you Star Wars nerds. I really tried to get Han Solo's profile just right.

Okay, before we get down to brass tacks, I've got a question to ask of all of you. At the gallery/children's museum that I'm going to be showing my work at really soon, they are going to have a little section where the kids can go and try their hand at paper cutting. I am coming up with the artwork for this portion as well. My question is, what do kids love nowadays? I think when I was a little girl, I would have loved to cut out princesses and bunnies. What is hip with the younger crowd these days?

Now, on to the template. Boy, it feels like forever since I've done one of these. Here's one I did this weekend. I didn't have anything to reference when drawing the big cat, so I'm imagining he's more of a leopard than a tiger or lion.



Here's what the template will look like. I think the most difficult part will be the hands and the leash. Just remember to cut from left to right (right to left if you're left handed) so that you can see what you're cutting.


Download your free template here: Lion Hearted
Don't forget to write in your suggestions for what kinds of things kids would like to cut out!

I just moved into a new house and everything is so overwhelming so I'm trying to ignore the chaos and put some normality back into my life. I figured I'd do that by starting up exercising again. This silhouette was going to get pushed aside but I decided to take advantage of my new porch and the moonlight and the giant floodlights the old lady had put up who previously lived there and sketch a little something. I'm researching mushrooms for a different project I'm doing and thought I'd try out a little scene with that theme.

Here's what the template will look like. Remember to cut out the gray areas first and then the outlined area in the back.

Download your free scherenschnitte template here: Mushroom Bunny

I cut this out at work and am using a different mat than I normally would use. This one doesn't suit me. If you are trying to use a craft knife to cut out your papercuts and it tears all the time, maybe try getting a different mat. It'll make a big difference.

So I was sitting in church on Sunday and I turned to my friend Sarah and said, "I've got to do a template for my papercutting blog on Tuesday, do you have any ideas?" Then, for the next hour, she proceeded to whisper a variety of ideas to me from pioneers standing around burning woodchips to the invasion of the Mormon crickets (which are both excellent ideas that I will be using in the future). I went with the idea of a pioneer crossing the plains with a handcart. It's called Sarah's handcart. I don't know where Sarah got those two kids since she's not married. Maybe they're from a sibling who passed away while crossing the plains? Maybe Sarah had a rough life before she joined the church? Maybe that dog warns them when wolves are around? I don't know. So much happened while crossing the plains.

Here's what the template will look like when you download it. The parts you cut out are the gray areas. Be sure that however you cut it out, the finished piece has the pioneers facing to your left (like in the color image above). We don't want them going back to Missouri.

Download your free template here: Pioneer Day - Sarah's Handcart

This weekend I took all my pieces down to the gallery in Provo. It is such a relief to have them all completed and in someone else's hands. I'm excited for Friday, if anything to see some old friends who I haven't seen in forever. I'm also excited to start back up Template Tuesday! Woot! Just in time for the 4th. You guys have no idea how guilty I felt not doing them.

This one is called, "He had No Idea what He Doing Out Here but He Sure Did Love to See Her Smile," or something like that. I can't remember what I wrote.

A few years back, I went to the Into the Woods design conference just outside of Seattle. One of the presenters was an artist named Rama Hughes. He and his wife, Christine, are both so very talented. I kept in contact with them and was recently asked to help Rama out with a project. He teaches a group of kids art and has asked different people to be artistic penpals with his students. This papercut is for a girl who I've heard enjoys drawing pictures of rabbits. I hope she likes it.