Living Artists Art Project - Annie Howe

I love art history and learning about all the great artists who have come before us, but this month I really wanted to focus on living artists.

I wanted the kids to see Art as a means to a career and that you don't have to be dead for your art to be meaningful and worth something. 

ANNIE HOWE

Materials: cutting pattern (mine is linked below), Exacto knife, A4 cardstock in a variety of colors, double-sided tape

A friend introduced me to the paper cutting artist, Annie Howe, and I thought it'd be fun for us to give this form of art a try!

I didn't have a pattern on hand nor could I find one I liked for free on Pinterest, so I headed on over to Etsy and happened upon Not Just Paper Boutique, with readily available paper-cutting designs. 

It would be the kids first time working with an Exacto knife so I wanted the project to be something they didn't see as a chore and wouldn't mind spending the time tediously creating. Mastering the Exacto knife, itself, is an art and not fun for everyone.

The kids chose the llamacorn and the sloth. What I thought would take two weeks to complete, because it's such a time-consuming art, only took one.

Luckily, I had all the tools on hand. Cardstock, Exacto knives, and a cutting mat- All things I've kept handy since my scrapbooking days.

Getting started the first day was a tad brutal, though. Learning how to angle and hold the Exacto knife correctly and cut vs. scrape was a skill set that doesn't come so easily to everyone. Also, the first cut-out layer was kind of a boring one so it was hard for them to see the bigger picture.

The second day, after a few more layers, the design was coming together, and they were getting anxious to finish it out of excitement!

They learned how delicate paper is, and there were a couple of vines that tore, but it wasn't noticeable enough to redo. The kids pushed through, and their work turned out beautifully.