Comoros Layered Papercut {Tutorial}
We talked about the country of Comoros this week.
We have been crafting our way through all 22 Arab countries that belong to the Arab League and we are finally on our 22nd country: Comoros!
The Comoros (Arabic: جزر القمر, Juzur al-Qumur), is a sovereign archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel off the eastern coast of Africa between Mozambique and Madagascar.
The Union of the Comoros has three official languages – Comorian, Arabic and French. They joined the Arab League on in 1993.
The national flag of the Union of the Comoros (Arabic: الاتّحاد القمريّ, al-Ittiḥād al-Qamarī) was designed in 2001 and officially adopted on January 7, 2002.
The flag design consists of a white crescent with four white five-pointed stars inside of a green triangle. The flag has four stripes, representing four islands of the nation: yellow is for Mohéli, white is for Mayotte, red is for Anjouan, and blue is for Grande Comore. The four stars on the flag also symbolize the four islands of the Comoros. The star and crescent symbol stands for Islam, which is the nation’s major religion.
My teenage daughter made a paper cut of the islands, using the colors of the flag.
Supplies
Shadow frame
Card stock
Foam stickers
Xacto
Embossing tool
Carbon paper
Black and red Sharpie
I printed out the islands from a photo I found online, making sure to flip it backwards. My daughter placed the yellow card stock down first, with the carbon on top and then the islands. The lines between the islands were to keep them together during cutting.. They also represented different political connections between the largest cities.
The next step is to cut the outlines out with the xacto. Don’t worry about the markings, they will not be seen.
The next step is to flip the cutout over. Now the islands are clean and ready for the outline and dotted lines with the black Sharpie and the addition of the capital’s star with the red Sharpie.
I helped my daughter create this design on the blue paper that looks like waves. I didn’t really use a pattern, just practiced first on the yellow discarded paper. Make sure the waves cover the background of the entire frame.
Once the waves were done, my daughter added the green card stock and placed both in the frame.
Before adding the islands, my daughter placed foam squares on the back of them.
I helped her center the islands over the waves. The foam squares really make them seem to “float” above the waves once everything was finished.
To check out more tutorials that teach about the Arab world, check out some of Comoros’s closest Arab League neighbors:
Somalia Flag Pennant {Tutorial}
Please stop by A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more easy DIY crafts.
