August Craft of the Month: Paper Cat Magnets!

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HELLLOOOO LOVELY CRAFTERS! This month is exciting because we get a special guest.... PIKA PAPER!!! Nikka, the creator of Pika.Paper has been my friend for 10 years and I am SO excited for her to share her crafting GENIUS with all of us. Anyway, this is all for me this month... THANK U NIKKA!

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Hellooo crafternoon club!!! I’m so excited to share some paper art for this month’s craft! I love making paper art of my cats and Gabby suggested doing a cat pyramid for weekly rankings so here we are!! I’m going to make each of my three cats with three different “hats” depending on their behavior this week lol

(the guests of honor)

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Materials:

Paper

• Since I started doing paper art, I’ve mainly used Recollections from Michaels, it is affordable and they have a lot of vibrant colors. A multicolored pack of 100 costs $20 but it will last you so long.

• You can also opt to buy watercolor paper which is what I’m doing for this craft (I’ve used Canson, Strathmore and Arches), and then watercolor for a little more color freedom. You can buy cheap palettes at Michaels too.

• OR you can use any recycled material you have!

Glue

• Rubber cement: I get a tiny jar at Michaels for $4 and this prevents your paper from wrinkling

• OR if you are using a thicker/recycled paper, I will sometimes use a tacky glue

Blade

• You can get an X-Acto knife with a few extra blades (again at Michaels lol) for about $9

• For this piece, I used 3 blades (when I need more, I usually get #11 blades)

Magnet Adhesive Strips

• I was able to cut these to fit the paper and I got a pack for $6 on Amazon

Optional: Any kind of tweezers

• I find it’s easier to pick things up with tweezers and less likely for my oily fingers to ruin the paper lol

Also Optional: Colored pencils

• I like to use colored pencils to put some detail in the fur but this is just a personal preference!
  

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Tutorial:

1. Sketch your cats! This always helps me visualize and plan for how many colors I need. TIP: If you eventually start collecting more and more paper, I like to organize the scraps in tackle boxes. For pieces like this where they are quite small, you don’t need a huge piece of paper so this helps me from wasting!
   

2. Start cutting! I like to sketch on the back of the paper then cut as I simply can’t freehand. Once I cut the cats out, I like to put little pink triangles behind them to indicate the ears! TIP: If you get the rubber cement in the tiny jar, to make it easier to glue, I pick the piece up with my tweezers, then pick up a little glue from the handle vs trying to apply glue to the tiny piece of paper.
   

3. Start detailing! I like to make the noses into little hearts then add in some strokes with the colored pencils to indicate fur. The added texture makes the cat feel a little more alive!

4. Start making your hats! I decided to do a bejeweled crown, party hat, and a sparkly dunce cap. TIP: I find it easier to cut my elements bigger than I need, because it’s much easier to cut them down once they’re glued vs trying to perfect the shape beforehand.

5. Cut your magnets and adhere. I ended up stacking three layers that way the hats popped out above the heads and could more easily “sit” on the head.

6. Tada - you are finished!!! Display them on your fridge (or lamp) and re-arrange hats as you wish.

happy paper crafting!! excited to see any creations and hope to be back for more paper crafting!

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If you haven't already please go give Pika.Paper a follow on TikTok and Instagram!!! I can't wait to try this ADORABLE craft out, and see what you all create! EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU NIKKA!