paper crafting

It’s a bit of a story how I ended up doing this particular cut-and-color. I was making paper mouse and cat puppets on popsicle sticks at the urging of the boy who has been studying and creating fairy tale puppet shows in school. The puppets he had brought home were all colored on one side only but I thought it would be nice to have both sides of the mice colored so I cut the teardrop body on the fold so that I could enclose the popsicle stick. While the boy was busy coloring the simple mice and pasting on the tails and ears, I went to work on the cat. It wasn’t so easy to make a good cat shape that would fold over the stick in the same way. But the attempt set the wheels in my head turning.

Later I googled images of hunting cats until I found several with their backs straight and heads and tails down. This allowed me to place the spine of the cat on the fold of the paper. It then occurred to me that I could make the legs on each side of the cat different for a more realistic pose. This was a bit tricky but I think it turned out rather well. By creasing the spine and then gluing just the head and tail, your hunting cat will stand up on its own with a bit of a three dimensional look. I could probably carry that idea further but I’ll leave that for another time. I knew this one was a more difficult cut so I asked a nine year old friend to give it a try. He made the larger orange cat and I made the tan cat. As usual, the pdf pattern is best printed out on cardstock but will work with regular paper.

With all the birds chirping outside lately I thought we’d have fun making some birdies for inside the house. Both the girl and the boy were able to cut these out themselves and color them. I cut the slits in the body for them and they put the wings in and then we just hung them with thread taped to the dining room ceiling. Then we admired our handiwork swaying happily.

They enjoyed it so much I thought I’d include a downloadable pdf for you to cut and color your own birdies! The shapes are very simple for easy cutting for little hands. Best printed on a bit heavier paper if you have it. Don’t forget to color both sides.