Cricut Paper Dolls Sailor Bear - Tear bear instructions

I am having so much fun making these little bears (and animals) and dressing them with my Cricut! I know there are lots of instructions on these on the internet alread – that’s where I learned-but I thought it would be fun to write one with a Cricut in mind. This is my first tutorial…so BEAR with me.

You will need:
Handmade Mulberry paper, 100 gsm, tan, cream
Paint brush and water OR aquapainter
Chalks
Adhesive (I use glue stick)
Stiff brush to fluff paper (I use a stiff toothbrush)
Paw print punch or CRICUT
White gel pen
Black pen
Pencil
Cardstock (white, black and your choice of colors for clothes)

1. Begin by either drawing a rough sketch of a bear head and cutting it out OR if you have a cricut, cutting a pattern (the lion head on pg 69 of the Paper Dolls works great cut at 5 ½ inches) – its pretty much just a circle-ish for the head and two smaller circles for ears, so if you don’t have the cricut, no worries-just draw. I do the ears separate from the head, with practice and patience maybe they could be done as one, but I like the layered look anyway. Paper dolls/clothes cut at 5 ½ inches are great patterns for bear arms, legs and feet . If you are making just paws, use the foot part of the pattern, you really just need a small oval – I use my thumb print but I know some people like an actual pattern. For a leg or arm, use more or less of the pattern, see dashed lines in photo.

2. Use the brush to fluff up the front side of the tan mulberry paper, then flip the paper over and trace your shapes onto the back with a pencil.

3. Use your aquapainter or wet paint brush to go over the marks. Tear paper along water line. I find it best to pinch the paper between my thumb and finger along the line and tug with other hand so you get a tear exactly where you want. When in doubt error on bigger – it is easy to wet and re-tear a little farther in, but you can’t put it back if you tear too much.

4. Fluff your second (cream) color and make smaller oval for face(the same pattern you used for paw will work for face), wet and tear

5. Now you need some clothes! I’ve been cutting clothes at 2 inches (real size dial on) and headwear at 4 inches. It really depends on the outfit and how round you’d like your bear to look, but those are good places to start.

6. Assemble your bear parts. I use some tiny bits of the lighter fluff to accent the inside of ears and bottom of feet. Next I use chalks to do some shading, and a pencil to draw little lines on his paws for claws.

7. For Eyes and nose, I have always used a paw print punch, but for this one I wanted to use the cricut only, no punches, so I went looking and there are lots of noses in animal kingdom, there is one in Paper Dolls too, but you have to cut out a whole cat face. Hearts make cute noses too. For eyes, any little oval or tear shape will do, I used Animal Kingdom Rabbit nose at 5 inch for eyes and bear nose (go figure) at 4 for the nose. Accent white eyes with black pen, and accent a black nose with –it seems like it always takes me a couple trys to get eyes I like and that match – so you might want to save some time and cut several eyes out to have ready.

8. Use a black pen to add wiskers, mouth and –if it’s a girl bear-eyelashes. Use your bear for scrapbooks, cards or crafts. Don’t just stop with bears, if you have Animal Kingdom you have a LOT of animals patterns to choose from, so go wild and have fun!

Here is my final page for the sailor bear: