I need to teach more often

For a few hours of the past two Saturdays I've had the opportunity to teach. It has been really, really fun. It's amazing how something as simple as some paper crafting can bring people together so easily. On the 16th, I made some trees with the class—and we made a terrific mess!

This past Saturday, I finally made good on my silent auction item, of teaching a class of how to use the Cricut cutting machine. The funny thing is that the class was supposed to last 2 hours and I think it ended up being twice as long. We just kept talking and making, talking and making. I really could go on forever.

These gift tags/small note cards are one of the projects that I made for the class (using shape No. 8 in the Accent Essentials cartridge). My intention was to show that even though the Cricut is mostly used for 2-dimensional projects there is no reason why you shouldn't give your projects some volume—it's so easy to do. I also wanted to show how you can get more milage from the cartridges. [The non-existent limitations of SVG files, that are used with other digital cutters, is what makes me so fond of them.]

These star-type shapes are cut in increments of 1/4" and all stacked one on top of another. That's it! Can you imagine a bigger one of these on top of a gift or as wall art inside a box frame?

I still thoroughly enjoy paper cutting by hand, but digital cutters are definitely a lot of fun to work with. At first I thought I was cheating by using them, but they are just a tool. The creativity that goes along with the use of that tool is what counts—just how a graphic designer uses a computer.

For those of you that don't have a digital cutter, the lesson you can draw from this project is that repetition and symmetry go hand in hand. If you cut out any symmetrical shape in different sizes and overlap them, the effects can be really interesting. Even hand cut elements can have a great impact as you saw in last week's flowers.

Like I said it's all in your hands—not in the tools that you have.

Have a great Monday!