Skip to content
Menu
Guild of American Papercutters Guild of American Papercutters
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • GAP Strategic Plan 2021-2023
    • Visit Us
    • GAP Board Team
    • The National Museum
      • Core Permanent Museum Collection
      • The McDaniel Papercut Collection
      • What’s Cooking? (2018)
      • Feathers, Fur, Fins (2017)
      • GAP Celebration (2016)
      • Inspired by Music (2015)
      • Inspired by Nature (2014)
      • Inspired by Words (2013)
    • GAP Committees
    • The Harris Award
    • Our Founders
    • Papercutters Hall of Fame
  • Resources
    • Resources & Projects
    • Traditional Papercutting Styles
    • Traditional Papercut Valentines
    • Papercutters Without Borders
    • Papercutting Reference Library
  • Events and Artist Ops
    • Submit Your Artwork for “Understory”
    • Events Calendar
    • Opportunities for Paper Artists
    • GAP in the News
  • MemberArt
    • Member Art Links
    • Member Galleries
  • Become a Member
  • Log In
Guild of American Papercutters Guild of American Papercutters

Traditional Papercut Valentines

  • Linda Peck, My Valentine
  • Valentine with poem; pinprick patterns
  • Puzzle Purse Valentine, to be curiously
    folded (1816)
  • Roxanne Boyd

Valentines as a form of American folk art were used as tokens of friendship, love, or loss in the Victorian period. Paper cut into lattice shapes of hearts and hands, were symbolic of a charitable giving heart, and sometimes associated with Shakers and other religious or social organizations. Using hair braided or woven into knots could add a personal element to the card. 

Oberlin library special collections (tumblr 2020)
Meek Company, England, machine-made
lace paper Valentine, elaborately embellished
(circa 1850). Nancy Rosin collection, A Victorian Treasury: The Valentine Resource.

Link to images of several of Steven Woodbury’s donated collection of papercut Valentines as featured in the Oberlin Library Special Collections display in 2020.

Link to Nancy Rosin, A Victorian Treasury: The Valentine Resource

Eve M. Kahn, “Three Centuries of Valentines Offer 12,000 Ways to Say ‘I Love You'”, New York Times, 13 February 2018

Nancy Rosin, “Antique Papercuts and the Modern Valentine: The Fingerprints of Love” (self-published, 2007)

close
The Forest

Paper Work Fan?

Get news of upcoming GAP workshops and other events!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support Volha!

Loading…

Follow us

We're social!

Browse our Instagram feed

    Powered by Juicer

Take a 2-minute tour of the artwork in GAP's National Museum in Somerset, PA

Search

GAP is proud to be a member of the Arts Coalition of the Alleghenies! Check out their new website to see some of their exciting events, past and present.

Members’ Corner

  • Member Directory
  • All Groups
  • First Cut Newsletter Archive
  • BYLAWS of the Guild of American Papercutters

Guild Online Shop

"shopping bags" by franchiseopportunitiesphotos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A Word from our Museum Director

https://youtu.be/MDfcsR3A6s8

The GAP Logo Story

Read the story, get the stickers!

GAP Logo - calligraphy "Guild of American Papercutters"
GAP Logo – designed by Blanche Turner with calligraphy by Karen Shain Schloss

Laurel Arts’ Imagination Garden

Lovely local TV coverage of Laurel Arts’ “Imagination Garden,” with a few glimpses of GAP’s National Museum, whose home is within the Laurel Arts Center in Somerset, PA.

The Imagination Garden

A Home for Paper Artists

Through its publications, traveling exhibits, papercutting conferences, workshops, and demonstrations, members of the Guild of American Papercutters (GAP) seek to spread and celebrate the art of cutting paper. Whether you actively design and cut in paper, or simply appreciate the finished works of papercutters, we invite you to join our community. Our worldwide membership embraces all styles, materials, cutting methods, and experience levels. However you work, whatever your style, you will find kindred artists in the Guild of American Papercutters.

Guild of American Papercutters
P.O. Box 384
214 S. Harrison Avenue
Somerset, PA 15501
USA
Email: GAP@papercutters.org

814.443.2433

Volha Baburyna: Belorusian Papercutting of the UN Declaration of Human Rights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8LcY-kCTBM
©2022 Guild of American Papercutters | Powered by WordPress & Superb Themes