ChinesePaperCut

Chinese paper cutting depends on the fold. Cut one notch into a sheet folded into five sectors and it comes back as five matching petals. Chinese Paper Cut builds its lessons around that idea, and its online studio lets you watch it happen before you pick up real scissors.

The site has three parts. The printable patterns come as PDF and SVG files, with beginner designs like the plum blossom and butterfly and intermediate ones like the fish and the Fu character for good fortune. The how-to guide walks through folding, cutting and unfolding, with sections on printing and troubleshooting. The culture pages explain what common motifs stand for, which is useful if you're cutting decorations for Chinese New Year and want to know what a fish or a gourd is meant to say.

In the studio you either follow one of 24 reference patterns or cut freely. You pick the paper and the fold, then cut with scissors, a cutout tool that removes the inside of a loop, a punch for round holes and a zigzag edge. Undo takes back a cut, and unfolding shows the whole design. Finished work exports as a PNG with a transparent background or as an SVG.

Two cautions from the site itself. Your work only lasts for the browser session, so export before you close or refresh the tab. And the studio doesn't simulate how strong real paper bridges are, so a delicate design that unfolds cleanly on screen may still tear in red paper.

The patterns, lessons and studio are free, and artwork you make stays in your browser rather than going to an account. The site also lists a printable collection for sale, but the shop is marked as a sandbox preview with test payments only, and the about page describes those designs as practice studies still awaiting physical trial cuts. The privacy page names Stripe for payments, Cloudflare for hosting and Resend for email. The site doesn't name the person behind it, and it states that no tradition bearer or museum has endorsed the project.