Friends {Japanese Yorokobi}

I learned something new this weekend and I'm excited to tell you about it but first, let me show you something that I found out about the LD Japanese Yorokobi cutting file (SVG).

That there are some crazy intricate cuts in the files! I mean, they are seriously puny. I had imported the dolls at the original size (4" height), and noticed the fan and the mini slippers. They are super intricate! These dolls would look very cool when they are all layered and framed up as wall art but probably only when they are cut out in a reasonably large size. I can't imagine cutting them at a smaller size as the slippers would be challenging to cut with a personal cutting machine like the Silhouette Cameo. I had increased the size of the dolls as large as possible to fit within the registration marks for my hybrid (i.e. print-and-cut combined with traditional paper layering) card, and it was still impossible to cut the slippers out with my Cameo. Trust me, I tried. (UPDATE: I managed to cut the tiny slipper! See update at the end of the post).

The height of my dolls were 4.565" and 4.245" tall and all that I got from trying to cut the slippers out with my machine were shreds. Perhaps I could have had more success cutting them out with vinyl but at the time all that I wanted to do was to cut them out with the same papers as the outfit. If you  have tried cutting the tiny slippers out with vinyl, can you let me know if they worked? Anywayz...

...while I was picking at the tiny piece of what-should-have-been-a shoe-but-is-now-just-shredded- paper, it dawned upon me - why stop at a print-and-cut card base? I could print-and-cut a doll base!

And that was exactly what I did.

Click on picture to enlarge

The picture above show the layers that I cut out for traditional paper-piecing and those that I print-and-cut. Here are the dolls that I ended up with after putting the layers together:

Aren't they the cutest? Never mind the impossible (to cut) slippers, the printed faces looked so much better than if I had layered them. I was so happy that they turned out even better than I had imagined!

I assembled the dolls with foam tape and adhered to the card, a button that I made with my button machine. (More info on that is HERE in case you missed my post). Here are a couple of other buttons that I made with the same Japanese Yorokobi set ...

..and here's the finished card:

I took longer than usual to make this card because I was stumped by the tiny cuts but I am so glad that it all worked out in the end. In fact, I like the idea of a print-and-cut doll base so much, I'll be making cuttable dolls this way more often. Not only does a Hybrid Doll solves the issue of tiny cuts, it also makes it faster to put the doll together since there are less layers to assemble. On top of that, it saves me from using the skin-tone paper that may be hard-to-find. Sometimes a print-and-cut really works better than paper-piecing and if combining both would give a better end result, then why not? If you can't cut it, just print it, and chances are, it'll turn out to be quite alright. :-)

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Files used:
Japanese Yorokobi Cut It (SVG)
Japanese Yorokobi Paper Pack
patterned papers used for the dolls' kimonos are from My Mind's Eye- Stella&Rose "Hazel" 6"x6" paper pad.

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UPDATE: (10:18am pst, 9/30/2013)

I tried to cut the slipper again and I did it this time! It's really small but the Cameo did a nice job. Frankly, I'd still print-and-cut the doll base as I think it looks much better.