The Final Product

What I have accomplished this week

This week is the last week for our Genius Hour project. I finished my final product on Wednesday night, which was the product that I have promised to do for two weeks, a birthday card with two crafted roses on it. The picture is on the right.

I love this pattern, it's creative and easy. I used a blue hard paper on the top, and the left over of the colored paper from last week's Butterfly Birthday card on the bottom.

Since this is my final product for the project, in order to remember it, I also took a video about me doing the final product. I edited the video on Wednesday night too. The video was too long (last for more than 20 minutes…), so I cut some unimportant parts off and made the video play 5x faster than the original one. I added the background music into the video to make it more interesting, it is a solo piano song called Lyrical Stories. Here is the video. Hope you'll like it.

It has been such a long project, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. I wish if I can get a chance to take my project to the next level. 

See you guys! Hope you enjoyed my blogs and products.

Eighth Try

What I have accomplished this week

In last blog, I said that I will do a crafted-rose birthday card this week, but so sorry… I changed my mind to make two crafted book marks for my teachers due to our success in Science Olympiad last weekends. Last Saturday, our team got the third place in Regional Science Olympiad of Tower Building. My teammates and I were so happy. In order to leave some memories of this competition and the hard work we put in over three months, I made two book marks for our leading teachers, Mr. Zab and Mrs. Adkins. The book marks I designed and made have blue or pink as backgrounds with a tower on each of it. The towers on book marks looks similar as the real one we made for competition. The picture on the right are the book marks.

Here are the steps of making them:

Draw the outline of the tower first; then, use crafted knife to craft it.

Cut the size of the book marks on a paperboard and glue a white paper on top of the paperboard.

Glue the towers to the paperboard.

Use color pencil to fill the background and use color pen to write the words or draw some decorations.

 

What I am doing right now &. What I am going to do next

Due to these meaningful book marks for my teachers, I will keep my words about doing the crafted-rose birthday card and finish it by next Friday. And it will be my last product for Genius Hour. I have already got everything that I will need for doing it, and I will start craft tonight. I hope that it will turn out good!

See you next week!

Seventh Try

What I accomplished this week 

This week started with winter break, which gave me plenty time to find the templates for creative-level online. I looked through so many cute ones and finally found five of them that I liked the most. After showing the five to my mentor, she gave me her advice about the templates’ hard levels. We combined my knife skills with template’s hard levels, and finally decided the three that probably will look pretty and be a little challenge for me at the same time as my creative-level product. This week, my pattern is a birthday with a crafted butterfly on it.

What I am doing right now

I am starting this week's product by printing the templates out with the size that what I want it to be. Since I am making a birthday wish card, I am not making it that big. It may look easy, but it actually takes me about three hours total to finish, and this is what it looks like (picture on the right). 

Here is the template that I am using this time:

Here are all the materials I am using. They are regular scissors, craft knife, cutting board, color paper, tape, and the template in the size that you want it to be. What I am doing to start making the crafted birthday card is, first, I cut the template smaller and taped it on my color paper; then, I carefully use the craft knife to cut the edges out; finally, I use the razor to make the edges less sharper but more perfect.

                             

What I will do next week

For next week, I am planning on finishing up my next product, which is a birthday card but with crafted roses on it. I will print the template out in the size that I will use. By having the template, I believe it should be easier to make. Hopefully that it will look good!

Sixth Try

Sixth Try

Hi, welcome back! ^

What I accomplished this week

I began working on my first hard-level product, which is a pattern of a rabbit with a cabbage, since last week. By putting in two more nights, I finally have finished the final parts of it this week. This is what it looks like. 

Rabbit is one of Chinese twelve zodiacs, and the cabbage in language Chinese means wealth. This pattern can be hanged on the window in year of rabbit to represent the hope of getting good luck and making more money to be wealthy in the New Year. 

What I am working on

Tonight my mentor and I are working on searching my next pattern online, which is in the creative level. After learning and practicing specifically in Chinese paper cutting since last semester, I would like to learn and practice some creative patterns from other countries that are pretty and interesting too. Also, this level will be focus on little decorations in life.

What I am going to do next

Since the winter break is coming, I am going to search all the patterns and templates for my creative-level and make a plan for the total number of products in this level that I am going to make till the end of the project. Moreover, I am also going to work on the new pattern for next week and finish it over the break.

And I want to answer some of yours comments. Someone asked me that how I am deciding my patterns. Well, I search them online, and sometimes ask my paper cutting teacher for some ideas. So if you have any ideas of GREAT patterns, please let me know! Thanks! ^

See you guys next week!

Fifth Try

Hi everybody, welcome back!

What I Accomplished This Week

This week I began to work on my paper cutting's next level, level of challenge. My teacher and I started to search for the pattern since Tuesday and we finally found a pattern of rabbit and cabbage which I thought was so cute. I began doing it since Wednesday but so sorry that I still did not have chance to finish it due to the busy week and stressful homework and tests. I am using a red paper with little white hearts on it. I had drawn the template out already and it is ready to be cut. This pattern is pretty challenging because of its non-symmetrical shape, so I will cut it carefully and use craft knife to correct the edge too.

 

What I Am Working On

I am still working on this pattern. Due to its non-symmetrical template, it requires both regular scissors and a shape penknife (craft knife), and also more patient. This pattern is a traditional Chinese pattern, which is shown as complex and very detailed.

 

What I Am Going To Do

I will keep doing this product next week and finish it by Friday. And during next week, my teacher and I will begin to search for a new pattern for next blog. If you have some great ideas to suggest some good patterns for me please tell me!!! Thank you for visiting my blog!

The picture shown below is the template that my teacher found for me.

Fourth Try and Vlog

What I accomplished this week

This week I finished the “vlog” about answering the questions, “who or what has inspired you in this project” and “how have your reading and resources informed your project.” It was the first "vlog" for my project.

And I also made a Chinese character “spring” by red paper because now it is Spring Festival in China, which is the most important festival in China. For traditional celebrations, ancient people liked to make red paper cuttings and put them on windows for decorations. So I decide to search one paper cutting, which can symbol spring festival and good luck. I found the character “spring” online and the template for it. Shown in the pictures.

What I am working on

Now I am planning on my next level product. Due to the “vlog”, I need to change the beginning date of level hard products, which was supposed to be finished by this Friday. It is going to be a very hard one, but at the same time, I promise that it will look amazing!

What I am going to do

I am going to find the patterns and the templates for hard level products by calling my paper cutting teacher and began doing them during weekends. I believe that it will take me at least three days to finish it. Then, I will upload the pictures and descriptions on my blog.

Third Try

Third Try

1/20/17

Hey! Long time no see!

In the past year, I have learned and blogged two ways of making easy level paper-cutting patterns. I am going to begin this year’s blogs by beginning a new level, medium.

By calling Medium Level, it doesn’t mean that the patterns are going to be hard to make. Instead, the products will not only be simple symmetry patterns, they are going to be animals or something more interesting.

Today, I made a cute butterfly. Here’s a random fact that today is the Chinese lunar year according to Chinese calendar. So hopefully the butterfly can bring good luck to the new year. I began the first step by cutting out a rectangle, which is the same size as two squares (about 15cm*30cm). Then, I drew the outline of the butterfly. An important tip here- do not draw the butterfly too small and save too little space for the edges. It exactly looks better with a bigger size and a thicker edge! Finally, I used the regular scissors to cut out the parts that I don’t want based on the outline (the white parts on the picture on the left). 

Yeah, a cute butterfly is done! Isn’t it pretty but cute! Try to make one if you are interested. It is not that hard and I believe that you can do it!