Now, before we get stuck into this nifty make project, I’d like to point out that there is a world of difference between paper cutting (eg. proper art) and what I’m about to show you, but we all have to start somewhere, particularly if your helpers have small fingers and craft scissors.
I was taught stole this from my mum, who could always be relied upon to produce chains of paper dolls, and even more excitingly, dress-up paper dolls with outfits (but we’ll save that for another post).
I never quite could make out how she did it. Where a few snips of her scissors would produce a long chain of figures, happily holding hands, my scissor work often resulted in disaster. Or rather a mound of confetti-like individual figures – nice enough in their own way, but couldn’t really be called a paper chain.
There is one golden rule when making paper chains of anything. BEWARE THE HANDS. You can make any shape into a paper chain, as long as it easily joins another. Cut the hands or the paper-join too thin and it’s all over.
With that in mind, here are two templates for beginners and small people who would like to try their hand at paper cutting. We choose two simple shapes – Harajuku-style girls holding hands and elephants joined trunk to tail.
USING THE TEMPLATES
Print out the templates on A4 paper. You’ll see that the first shape is clearly outlined – perfect for coloring-in – and the remainder are feintly outlined, so that you can freestyle it with the decorating, as takes your fancy.
Fold the A4 paper into a concertina of 4 sections, placing the folds where the hands/trunks join. It’s important to get the folds fairly central.
Trim off any excess carefully, but be very careful to keep the link intact.
USING DECORATIVE PAPERS
We enjoyed cutting out and coloring the basic templates, but once we got the hang of it, we got a little bit fancy. We cut out a single doll shape, placed her at the edge of some old wrapping paper, and drew round her. We folded the paper back and forth until we’d run out of paper and, hey presto, a cute chain of patterned dolls.
We also tried our hand at brown paper bears, which worked a treat.
We’d love to see what you can make.
Find us on pinterest at trulymadlykids
[stextbox id=”tmk-box”]DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATES Download doll template here | download elephant template here [/stextbox]
