Papercut this book by Boo Paterson

It’s been a while since I reviewed any of my craft books. As you know, I love papercutting and bought myself a copy of Papercut This Book: techniques, templates and paper by Boo Paterson.

Papercut this book by Boo Paterson

Papercutting artist Boo Paterson shows you step-by-step how to craft your own intricate rainforests, jungles and the critters that live in them in this easy-to-follow, illustrative book. Learn how to cut and bring to life a variety of animals, from tigers to sloths, kangaroos to orangutans.

This book includes everything you will need to get started clear instructions, templates for cutting, as well as easy-to-pull-out, high quality art paper in a variety of colours. This book is perfect for beginners as well as those wanting to develop their skills at papercutting.

It starts with a chapter on tools, information on materials and step-by-step images on how to master the basic techniques of papercutting. The rest of the book is packed with 14 projects of varying difficulties, complete with full colour images of the finished work and clear, instructional templates showing you where to cut or bend the paper. There is also advice on how best to frame and present your complete masterpieces. This book provides all the paper, templates and instructions you need to start making your own beautiful papercraft, all you need to provide is a scalpel and a self-healing cutting board.

I think this is the first book I’ve bought containing templates of animals and nature. I admit to falling in love with the sloth which is my favourite animal! So obviously it was the first template I cut. I love that the pages are all perforated which makes them easy to remove from the book. I wasn’t so keen on the fact that you need to cut through the template and a piece of paper. I’m time poor and know it, I’m never going to re-use a template so I’d much rather cut the template in a book and frame it, than faff around cutting through two sheets of paper. I was a little slower cutting through the two layers and sometimes needed to go over lines more than once to cut through the two layers.

When you’ve finished cutting, you can then remove the template and back your design with one of the coloured sheets at the back of the book. You can create bas-relief with your design by manipulating the paper to get a 3D effect.

I adore my finished sloth but I’m not rushing to cut any of the other animals. With Halloween and Christmas coming up I’m hoping to make some handmade gifts with more festive designs. I bought my copy from Amazon for £16.99, which seems to be the average price for papercutting books.