Make. Paper Buildings from The Paper Architect

I wanted to try out a new craft for National Craft Month.  March passed by quickly but I didn't forget about my goal.  I decided to try my hand at becoming a paper architect.  I used the book, The Paper Architect from Potter Craft books.  

The projects looked challenging but accessible because all you need are paper and cutting tools.  The book has templates for all of the projects and you can either cut those directly, or copy them onto cardstock.  I decided to make some copies so I could practice.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge is the first project in the book and is listed as "easy".  It looks a little intimidating with all of the small cuts.  But, I've found that the cutting out isn't as difficult as the folding.  That's why this one was easy because is has few folds.  You can see that my cutting isn't that great.  I need some new blades.  Also, the cardstock I used isn't the best quality.  If I was going to make this for something other than just practice, I would have better cardstock and a new blade.  This took me just over an hour to finish. 

I got a little addicted and decided to move on to another easy project, the Eiffel Tower.  Now that I have the picture cropped and zoomed, I can see all the places I would like to improve.  I used a different sized blade for this one and I should have kept the other one.  I still think it is pretty darn good for my second one, ever. 

The book is really interesting because it includes information about the real life architecture.  If you've got teenagers that you're willing to let use an exacto knife, this might be a good book for them. 

The actual cut-outs are rather small.  I think I'm going to try and make some cards with these on the inside so they will pop up when you open them.  But first, I'm going to practice some more because I really, really want to make this one.

That's The Sagrada Familia cathedral.  It is found in Barcelona in real life.  It is for the advanced paper cutter.  Maybe I should work my way up by completing Chichen Itza or the Parthenon. 

Here's the link again to the book if you think you'd like to try out these projects for yourself!