About a week ago, I crafted the cutest little robot cat out there, Doraemon on my Twitch stream. One of my favorite things to do when working on a piece is using textured paper to add a more dynamic element so that it does not look like a flat piece of art. I bought the blue paper used for his body and the white paper used on belly on a whim during a black Friday sale last year at Joann’s with no ideas in mind, but I knew that when I started this piece that this would be the perfect paper. Here are a few screen caps from my stream of him coming together.

Every piece I work on, I always create a card stock template for it. It allows me to have a rough idea of what I am going to do and gives me some direction. Not every piece has all of the details fleshed out, and usually I end up adding a lot more detail than my original template design, but having a template helps keep me on track.

As I work, I layer all the pieces before putting them down permanently with glue to make sure that I like where the piece is going, and that the colors are working for me. Sometimes I have things in mind and when I actually cut them, I don’t like the shape or color once I put it all together. I did however make a mistake while working on this piece that luckily I caught before the glue dried (the glue I use not only drys quickly, but is permanent) where I glued the foot down before putting on his little tummy accent. I could have fudged it and just cut out the part around his foot and glued it down, but I prefer the layered look.

I often use a burnishing tool to put glue down for small details. I really like adding dots to my work (maybe I’m obsessed with halftone?) so I added some to the bottoms of his feet. I also use the burnishing tool to smooth down all edges cut just to give it a more finished look.

Here are a couple more pictures!

I will also be participating in my first show for this year on February 11th! Super excited about that, but feeling the pressure to get some new stuff made! It is being hosted by my friend Charity, and I was fortunate enough to show in one of her shows last year and had a wonderful time. Can’t wait to show you all the new stuff that I am creating for the show with the theme being ‘love’. One of my goals this year is to participate in more local events so this is a great way to kick off the year!