{"id":546,"date":"2008-10-08T07:38:29","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T11:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=546"},"modified":"2015-10-14T04:38:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T08:38:55","slug":"shadow-decorations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/shadow-decorations\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadow Decorations"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have noticed the black papercut trees I made for the background of my Halloween design<\/a> photos. I was wondering if I could reuse them somehow to create a new tutorial for Folding Trees, and I came up with the idea of using a candle to create a large shadow silhouette of the tree on a wall. The trees I had cut before weren’t suitable as I had cut them as background pieces at the edge of the scene (so there was only half a tree in each case!), so I drew and cut a new complete tree from black cardstock for this project:<\/p>\n

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And here it is by the flickering light of a candle:<\/p>\n

\"shadow<\/p>\n

What a transformation! I’m so happy with how it turned out! My papercutting attempts are getting better each time I try it, and I’m finding it easier to do simple freehand drawing without a reference photo too.<\/p>\n

Oh, and if you’d like to see the finished tutorial, you can now find it below!<\/p>\n

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This tutorial was originally published on my old papercraft site, Folding Trees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Use the magical effect of candlelight to turn a papercut template:<\/p>\n

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…into a striking shadow decoration:<\/p>\n

\"shadow<\/p>\n

In the following\u00a0tutorial I’ll show you how to make a stylish decoration like the one I made above, using only cardstock and a simple tealight candle…<\/p>\n

I drew\u00a0my tree freehand onto black cardstock. To draw a tree,\u00a0you\u00a0need to remember two basic things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tree branches are\u00a0thicker at their bases<\/li>\n
  2. Side branches are usually offset from each other<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Firstly, draw\u00a0the trunk and a few\u00a0main branches, then add thinner branches coming off the\u00a0main branches. Keep adding branches and twigs until you like the overall shape and effect.<\/p>\n

    Easy option: <\/strong>If you’re not comfortable with drawing, you could use a stencil to trace a shape onto the cardstock, or print\u00a0a shape\u00a0directly onto your cardstock (the card doesn’t have to be black;\u00a0it just has to be\u00a0thick enough to cast a good shadow). I think the branches of my tree make for a very effective shadow shape, but you could keep it really simple:\u00a0cut out the silhouette of a cat or a pumpkin and just cut holes for the eyes (and mouth for the pumpkin) to give you some easy Halloween decorations.<\/p>\n

    Remember to give your shape a\u00a0wide base (grass\/bushes in this example, but it could be a plain horizontal band) to help it to stand up securely. Carefully cut\u00a0out your shape with a sharp knife, being careful not to chop off any of the details!<\/p>\n

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    Papercutting tip: <\/strong>In the close up photo below, you can see how I cut out the overall shape (the rounded shape of the bush)\u00a0before cutting the fine detail (the leaves). From this stage, it’s easy to cut out each small triangular shape. I find this method much easier and faster than trying to cut the whole outline in one step.<\/p>\n

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    Make a stand for your\u00a0template by cutting a\u00a0modified L-shape or a right-angled triangle\u00a0from some\u00a0card. Make sure it is tall and wide enough to support your shape. I used a leftover corner of my piece of card to make this simple stand shape:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Position the stand so\u00a0the bottom is\u00a0level with the base of your design, and the\u00a0vertical edge\u00a0is in the middle of\u00a0the design. If you still have visible pencil marks on your design, make sure that side is face up for this stage, so\u00a0the pencil marks will be on the back of the finished decoration! Tape one side\u00a0to the back of\u00a0the template:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Flip the stand over, and tape the other side to the template.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Now when you stand the shape up, the stand should stick out behind\u00a0it and keep it upright.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Here is the finished papercut tree:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Now\u00a0stand\u00a0your\u00a0template up on a table close to a wall, but not touching it. Place a\u00a0tealight in front of it, dim the lights, and\u00a0watch out for the shadow on the wall! You can alter\u00a0the size and\u00a0definition of the shadow by moving the candle\u00a0and\/or the template towards or away from the wall.<\/p>\n

    CAUTION:<\/strong> Candle flames and paper\u00a0are not safe playmates! Never leave a burning candle unattended, and make sure your paper template is secure and will not fall or bend forwards towards the candle flame. For maximum safety, use an LED tealight (although you may find that it is not bright enough to cast a strong shadow).<\/p>\n

    \"shadow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You may have noticed the black papercut trees I made for the background of my Halloween design photos. I was wondering if I could reuse them somehow to create a new tutorial for Folding Trees, and I came up with the idea of using a candle to create a large shadow silhouette of the tree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paper-crafts","category-tutorials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}