An Angelic Scherenschnitte Ornament

July 8, 2008 · Crafts  ·

Papercutting (called kirigami, scherenschnitte, messenschnitte and papel picado) has existed as an art form for centuries. Some papercutters have traditionally cut farm scenes, still-lives or religious images, but today they cut any designs they want to create amazing works of art.

By using a printout of our scherenschnitte design, you can use scissors to create an angel ornament out of paper and experience this great traditional art form yourself!

For this activity all you’ll need is:

* a printout of our angel design (click here for the print out)
* a pair of scissors
* crayons, colored pencils, or markers, and
* a ribbon to hang the ornament with.

First, have an adult help you print the scherenschnitte design onto regular printer paper.

Use your crayons, colored pencils or markers to decorate the angels (or leave them plain, which was also traditional).

With adult supervision, carefully use your scissors to cut around the outside of each angel.

Now, have an adult help you cut out the part between the wing and robe, between the arm and horn and the hole you’ll need to hang the ornament with your ribbon.

Finally, put the ribbon through the hanging hole and tie it in a bow so you can hang your new scherenschnitte ornament for the holidays!