A Love Story and a Super Easy Craft

I am in love.  Now I know what you're thinking, I've said it before.  But this time it's different.  I have found the one.  The most perfect craft knife...ever. It's the small things in life, really.


You may be wondering what's so great about a craft knife and that they're basically all the same: a sharp razer blade set into a pen shaped object.  Wrong.  I have seen some beautiful works of art made out of paper.  Like the photo below.  Aside form the insane amounts of patience and love that go into those thumb prints, I  knew she couldn't just be using a regular craft knife.  I can barely cut a simple circle with my craft knife, much less a thumb print the police department would be jealous of.

Image from http://loridanelle.com.  She sells these beautiful creations on her site.  They'd make a beautiful wedding or baby gift.

And then one day I discovered the answer.  While perusing my local craft store, I came upon the Fiskars Swivel Detail Knife.  So what's so great about it?  The. Razor. Blade. Swivels.  Which means that when you come to a curve or a circle or really anything other than a straight line you can use the knife like a regular pen, enabling those hereto impossible circles to actually look like circles and not some jagged mess.  Best of all it's less than $10.  And that's why I fell in love with a craft knife.

Now that you have a new love, I mean craft knife, what to do with it?
I am currently working on a collage installation to go above the currently very large and very bare wall above my headboard.  I've decided to do a whole mess of photos, paintings, graphic art, phrases, etc. that all center around love and life.  So that's what this piece is for.  And here it is: one of the easiest crafts you can ever make.  Seriously.

Materials:

• Swivel Head Craft Knife
• Cardstock
• Cutting Mat (not even necessary, but makes the cutting process easier since you don't have to worry about damaging whatever surface you are using to cut on.)

Instructions:

• Pick out a phrase to cut out. I chose "Our Togethers Are Forever."  I read it on a blog somewhere forever ago, and really liked it.  Type the phrase using a word processors and print out on your cardstock.  Helpful hint: Change the font color so there is only a faint outline around the letters instead of them being solid.  It makes the cutting out easier.

• Slowly and carefully begin to cut out each letter.  The last thing you want to go is cut off part of a letter and have to start over.  I kept the cutout letters.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Ta-Da!  Took about 10 minutes.

Find somewhere cute and hang it.  I chose my nightstand and just hung it with tacks as a temporary place.  Once I finish the entire installation it'll be part of that.  I have definite plans for some more difficult cutouts, but I figured this was a good way to test out the new knife.  Give it a try!  It's really not hard!

My nightstand is clearly a work in progress...don't judge.

Thanks for stopping by!
And for those of you who are tired of looking at my terrible point-and-click digital camera pictures, fingers crossed a new Canon EOS Rebel will soon be heading my way!