crafting for Christmas: my take on Scherenschnitte

Scherenschnitte, which means "scissor cuts" in German, is the art of cutting continuous paper designs. I first read about it on a blog that I love called The New Awesome. I do not know these girls in SF, but they sure seem like fun.

Then I saw this guy (girl?) Koyla's work on Etsy - he cuts city landscapes into that countries currency. It is amazing.

I also saw a company who sells box cards with city landscapes - NYC, Paris, London - but I can't find the link! They were beautiful though (p.s. I may have copied your empire state building). If I find the link again, I'll be sure to post it.

Anyway, my best friend moved to the city this summer. While her home will always be St. Louis, I hope that she feels at home here too. Feeling totally inspired by the projects above, I decided to make her two pictures - one of St. Louis and one of New York City.

I put them in shadowbox frames and separated the layers with foam dots (the kind you use for scrapbooking) to give them a bit of depth.


They were impossible to photograph - too much glare with the flash, but too dark without it. So these aren't great, but they give you an idea.

Anyway, they were really fun to make, and I think I'll do it again. I'd love to have a large piece of cut-out artwork for my apartment. I love you Meg! You are one of the few people in the world I would lose all feeling in the tip of my finger for (note to self: next time, don't press so hard on the xacto knife!).