In addition to OA, I enjoy listening to music (jazz, blues, and classic rock), watching ice hockey, spending time with my friends, enjoying nature (gardening, working in the yard) and my computer.
I discovered OA by accident back in 1990. I was looking for something I could hand-make to create personalized, one-of-a-kind greeting cards. I noticed the "White Christmas" pattern book in a gift catalog, thought it sounded interesting and decided to order it. Well, 9 years and 16 pattern books later, I don't think I'll ever lose my enthusiasm for making these wonderful pop-up creations. Over the years I have cut literally hundreds of these cards and I'm still amazed by each and every one of them. I've tried my hand at creating my own designs and I have had a little success. My original work will be in the gallery in the future. I've always considered OA to be a fun, relaxing, inexpensive and, sometimes, challenging pursuit. With a little practice and patience anyone can learn the art of OA.
The only tools you will need for OA are: an x-acto (or something similar) knife, a cutting mat, a stylus, a metal ruler, tweezers, glue, some card stock and some patterns. If you don't want to invest in a cutting mat, you can cut on several thickness' of newspaper, a magazine, a small sheet of glass or anything else you can think of to keep the razor-sharp blade from destroying the surface you are cutting on.
I have found that any paper in the 65 lb. - 100 lb. range works quite well for making these pop-ups. I prefer using 80 lb. cold press watercolor paper or 100 lb. Bristol paper. However, as you can see from my gallery, I also use a lot of colored paper.
Copyright ©1999 by Gerry Stormer. All rights reserved.
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