Art: paper cut out - paisleys

Paper as an art form can lead to endless projects and ideas. This particular folk art of paper cut outs have become very popular. It soothes the eye to see something as delicate as paper being transformed into such intricate airy designs. The cut out that I made is nothing compared to the intricacy that is all over the place now. You can easily make these beautiful artful pieces and frame them in glass - you could really do a lot of other things with them as well. Paper doilies can also be made this way. I made a symmetrical design in this situation but you can do otherwise. This only took me a few hours - check out my entire process in this post. 

I used a regular sheet of printer paper, pencil, eraser, and most importantly an exacto blade. Be sure that your blade is sharp and not dull. Otherwise you will end up with crooked edges. Another very important material is the cutting mat. You cannot do this on any other surface because anything underneath the paper will be cut from the blade. 

 I folded the paper in half to form the symmetry.

I drew up my design of paisleys with a pencil starting from the folded edge. 

I cut out the entire outer border of my design first. 

Next I went inside of the design to cut out the smaller parts.

You can do some more designs in the center of course - but be careful in noticing that all your designs are connected to each other.

This is the paper itself after I cut out the outer border - beautiful, isn't it?