The idea for this project came from a Bible study I went to once. The main idea I took away from that night was that Earth is not just a place where we humans live, but that God lives here too. Of course I knew that before, but I'd never really thought of the whole entire Earth as being God's home for him to dwell with us.
custom illustration
custom typography
Cricut paper craft
So even if I travel to another country or just visit another city in the U.S., I don't need to be anxious about going to that new strange place because I know God lives there too and he will be with me.
One day Jesus will make all things new (the Bible study leader described it as the "biggest home makeover"), but for right now we get to live in this home, Earth, with him.
This paper cut project reminds me of the beauty of this temporary home that God has given us and lives in with us! And the composition being framed by a heart reminds me that God lives in my heart too.
"I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage."
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Each of the letters were first drawn on paper, then I vectorized them in Adobe Illustrator, along with the other shapes and illustrations. I had to make each shape precisely how I wanted it and layer them accordingly because I would then use a Cricut machine to cut out the shapes from card stock.
my Adobe Illustrator file
I decided to cut everything out of white paper and then add color myself using Crayola SuperTips markers for three reasons:
- I hadn't found colors of card stock that I liked in the store and I wanted to be able to use whatever colors I wanted
- I didn't want to only use a tiny bit of pink, for example, and then waste the rest of the paper because I had no other need for it
- I thought using marker would add an interesting texture to contrast with the smooth shiny gold of the letters and give the piece an overall hand-crafted, not-too-perfect feel.
You can see my planning and initial sketches below.
planning the composition for my paper-cut creation
this was from an exercise I did earlier in my typography class, where we drew letters based on type we found out in the world
this was the type specimen I based my "Victoria" sketches on, and later my letters G and D for this project
this was another sample from that type exercise, based on the "January" script in the prayer journal
Val Marie Paper's prayer journal from which I took the type sample for my "liberty" sketch and later the "lives here" part of this project
this was another type exercise was based on a found type specimen
this was the type specimen I based my "elegant" sketch on and later the "too" for this project
