I’ve recently been experimenting with using the Brother Scanncut machine to cut out leaves. These are quite small and normal paper tears easily. I tried pastel paper which worked well as it is thin and strong but it has bumps. I tried the Luke Towan method with sticky back plastic but it’s a struggle to glue wires to and sticky back plastic is to be avoided at all costs!
Thankfully a large number of people have written in with suggestions so here are some I will be trying soon:
Paper
From Bill Gill:
- Onion skin (sometimes called ‘airmail paper’). It is very thin, but strong as it has a high cotton fiber content. It ought to cut well and can be colored after cutting.
- Some tracing papers are also thin and strong, (some are brittle if bent or creased, but others are good).
- ‘Japanese foil paper’. Here’s one example:
https://origamiusa.org/catalog/paper/type/japanese-foil
It is sometimes used for origami because it is very thin and strong and can hold curved shapes. The shiny metallic side can probably be airbrushed to give it a better, flat color, and the metallic side can be turned to be the underside of the foliage with its paper backing on top. The paper side can also be painted. - And one very interesting option is a foil-backed tissue paper. I read about an origami artist who made his own laminating tissue paper to household aluminium foil using a spray adhesive. The artist said it was very thin but tough. The paper can hold curved shapes, creased very finely and can be painted as needed.
From YouTube –58Kym:
- Yupo or one the other ‘plastic’ papers? They don’t have any surface pattern and they are very resistant to fraying and tearing and have a matt finish. You can get them in various weights just like paper. Yupo takes ink extremely well and doesn’t swell like cellulose paper does. They feel like paper but a little more……’flippy’.
From YouTube –miezpiez, MRKapcer13, Melton Pieman
They all suggested plasticard or thin styrene:
- 0.3mm or 10 thou plasticard for cutting
- Up to 0.5mm or 20 thou plasticard for scoring and then snapping
Glue – for shiny plastic to wire
From YouTube –58Kym:
- Glossy Accents is a clear almost epoxy-like glue. Its used in Scrapbooking to gloss over parts of pictures and embellishments to give a glassy finish. Its also a very good adhesive for metal to paper and remains flexible.
- Another alternative would be bookbinders PVA glue – it also stays a little flexible.
Further Inspiration
From YouTube – Melton Pieman
- RMWeb has a 78 page thread on the silhouette and some of the wagons, carriages and buildings are amazing. It is a mammoth read but worth it for inspiration and tips. I am sure that the Brother will do the same. The RMWeb link is: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/
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