Paper Panda's Guide to Papercutting

by Louise Firchau

Paper Panda, aka Louise Firchau, is a papercutting superstar, with thousands of fans worldwide eager to purchase her distinctive and highly sought after papercut designs. In this gorgeous book, she shows you not only how its done in easy-to-follow steps, but also provides over 20 papercutting templates to try out for yourself. The book begins with a design section in which Paper Panda provides a personal account of what inspires her, how she works, and how Paper Panda came about. This is followed by the techniques section, in which step-by-step demonstrations illustrate various techniques, including infilling. There follows a fascinating insight into how the author creates finished artwork suitable for papercutting, then how to make the template itself, and how to use the finished papercut to make cards, framed pictures, and so on.  

There are 20 papercut projects in the book; five from Paper Panda herself and five each from three of Paper Pandas friends and colleagues (Sarah Trumbauer, Louise Dyer and Suzy Taylor) all accomplished papercutters in their own rights. Each project consists of a template, which is reproduced at full-size at the back of the book, and a finished paper cut, together with some simple instructions. The designs are simple enough for beginners, though attractive and interesting enough to inspire more advanced papercutters. The projects themselves include cards, decorations, and mounted and framed pictures to hang on the wall, all using a variety of coloured and patterned papers to show off Paper Panda and friends distinctive and beautiful designs to their best advantage.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Art

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2016

Reviews

[Sarah Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent if you are looking into paper cutting as a hobby or a business. The author even explains a bit about copy write and why it is important to learn about if you are thinking of selling anything that you create. This has many very detailed and cute designs with full size templates for all of them in the back that is on sturdy paper you can cutout and use as is or photocopy/transfer onto other papers that you want to use. The author explains how to create your own designs and feedback of where you might be able to purchase some commercial designs if you did want to sell your artwork. I am using this book to learn more about paper cutting and how I can apply it to my machine. There are many different types of projects from cards to wall hanging artwork to help get your creative juices going. I highly recommend if you are looking into paper cutting by hand or with a machine (though there is no reference to machines in this book).

[Nicki Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always appreciated beautiful papercuts, but having seen some again on TV over Xmas, I decided I would like to give it a go myself, especially since I already have a blade and cutting mat from prior crafting, so I bought this book to start me off. Paper Panda's Guide to Papercutting offers great advice for the novice papercutter, covering everything from technique to equipment. The book also provides some practice templates. Having now read through, I am excited to give it a go myself shortly!

[Ligaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing book on the craft of papercutting! It covers the tools and materials you'll need, moves onto technique, and then shows many projects with the templates included in the back of the book. I have no intention of papercutting but was very impressed at the beauty and complexity of the designs. I'm sure, with patience and practice, one could create some impress papercut pieces using this book as guidance. One issue I had was that most of the designs are very twee and definitely skew feminine. I'd love to see more subversive designs in this very delicate craft.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so badly want to try papercutting. This is a good book for a beginner and to learn the techniques for papercutting.
I loved that she shared her story regarding copyright issues. I think this will be very useful for a beginner crafter.

[Justkeepreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really lovely book. Which gives great tips and helpful hints. Wonderful designs. I can't wait to get started on the designs in this book.

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from GoodReads giveaways. It has some great tips and techniques. I thought it also had some wonderful patterns.