I belong to a group on Facebook that posts old items to see if anyone recognizes them. The last post was one that I instantly recognized. It was a paper cutter. I have at least two of these at home, but they differ slightly from posted type. The type posted was what I would call a heavy-duty model.

I am not sure if they went out of favor in the elementary school, but I used it all the time. I did lessons with shapes that I cut on the paper cutter. I had the children identify the shapes, then make a design out of it. For instance, I would give the children four black circles, two red rectangles with one slightly bigger than the other. They had a sheet of paper to glue on the shapes. First, they cut circles from the squares. They would be the wheels. The two rectangles would make the engine (front part) and the bed of the fire truck. They were free to add extras such as ladders, doors, windows, and firemen. Whatever they felt necessary to make it look like a fire truck.

They were always so pleased when they were finished. I always cut extra black squares because inevitably there would be accidents and you could not make a fire truck with three wheels.

That was just one of the activities that I did using the paper cutter. I invented other things that could be made with triangles, squares, rectangles, and parallelograms. I had fun devising the ideas and the children had fun making them. Of course, all of this took good listening.

I recall my years of student teaching. That was where I picked up some of my ideas. My supervising teacher encouraged me to experiment. I taught about three little pumpkins and we put together an art project with the fence(rectangles) and pumpkins(squares). Children did not need to be so particular with their cutting to make the pumpkins. I do recall the art teacher calling me out for ugly pumpkins. I reasoned that pumpkins did not grow in perfect shapes. The principal did not make me take them down. I realize it did not create a perfect display around the building, but oh well. My class enjoyed the activity.

When we did our trip around the world I used the paper cutter once again. This time I cut the covers for our passports and the pages inside. Each student got one of their pictures to use inside. It was a lot of work because I made passports for the whole school.

At home I use my paper cutter when I make cards. Each piece of paper needs to be cut so they will fit into the envelopes that I purchase. After my first husband died, I did a lot of stamping. I attended card making classes. They were a lot of fun. The instructor had all the parts ready for us. It was up to us to assemble them.

It amazed me how many people I heard from. They enjoyed getting the homemade cards. Now, I was not professional, but I put together some cute cards. My aunt was in a nursing home at the time. When I went to visit with her, I saw the cards I made on her bulletin board. When she died my cousins gave all the cards back to me – I think so I could remember the ideas.

I have not made cards in quite a while. I still have all my stamps. Maybe I can work on some to send out to our shut-ins from church.

My granddaughter and I used my paper cutter when she was creating cards to sell. We used my printer, too, to get colored images. Her pictures of dogs were quite popular. Usually, we got a special request for a certain type of dog on the card. She did custom make some and sold them at a higher price since she had to create a new image.

The cutter I use at home also punches paper. I used that when I was secretary for our local UMW group. I kept a notebook with the minutes – punched to fit.

Teachers, if some of those old cutters are still around, try a project with your students.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.