I finished cutting the leaves and berries part of my papercutting today. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect. Now I have to think of something suitable to put in the heart. Yikes - hope I don't ruin it! I've also begun to think about the backing colour. I definitely won't go for black as that'll be a bit too harsh for this particular design. I'm thinking of a more earthy tone, like an olive green or sepia.

Leaves and Berries papercutting (48cm x 33cm)

I'm making slow and steady progress with this papercutting. Hopefully I'll have the foliage cut by next week - then I'll tackle the heart.

I'm persevering with this one as I really wasn't sure whether I liked it at the beginning. But now that I've completed almost half, I think I like it a little better. I still haven't decided what's going to go in the central heart motif. I'm thinking two birds, but they'll have to be more natural and realistic than my usual style, which will be a challenge. So maybe that would be a good thing! Any suggestions anyone?

I've always been interested in botanical drawings, so I've decided to experiment and combine the botanical drawing with a papercutting. This is the result so far. It's the leaves and berries of the Juneberry shrub/tree which I thought lent themselves very well to my design idea.

For a change I'm cutting this piece from white paper, instead of black. I'll need to decide what colour backing to use as I think it'll make quite a big difference to the overall picture. I've got a hunch that black will be too harsh.

I can't really decide whether I like the way this is looking or not. My style is usually so smooth and stylised that these more naturalistic leaves and stems seem a little odd for me. But I'll hold judgment until the whole picture is completed.

Constructive criticism and opinions are more than welcome!

I finished my papercutting today - hooray! Those leaves took me ages - much longer than I expected.

50cm x 35cm

Today I drew in and cut the lady in the bottom left corner. I'm satisfied that she suits the chappy on the other side - they look very happy together! Now I just have to draw in and cut the top two corners. I've got a pretty good idea of how I want it to look, so watch this space. Hopefully the whole picture will be completed over the next day or so.

I recently visited moo.com and designed a set of my own mini business cards from a selection of my papercuttings. You can customise a variety of proucts, such as notelets, Christmas cards and business cards. Or you can just choose other people's designs. It's fun to have a look at. Here are some of mine:

www.moo.com

Today I managed to finish cutting the main part of the leaf design. Some bits work better than others, but overall I'm quite pleased with the effect. Now I just have to work out what I'm going to do with the remaining three corners.

Folk Art Leaf papercutting (18" x 13.5")

I created my second Etsy treasury today. Thank you Moonflygirl for teaching me how to take a screenshot! The bottom three pics are missing because of my small screen - if you want to take a look at the whole treasury, visit the Etsy link below.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=81382

I started this papercutting a few months ago, but then the kids' summer holiday started and it got shelved for a few weeks. So finally today, with the boys back at school and Poppy at kindergarten for 3 hours, I managed to get it finished. Yay! Hope you like it.

Jewish Wedding Papercutting (13.5" x 13.5")

I finally managed to create my first Etsy treasury! Lots of lovely green things.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=80721

Since I can't afford to buy a Rob Ryan print, I did the next best thing and bought this tea towel. The limited edition print of this picture is about £180 - so I saved myself £170! Now, do I frame it, or use it - that's the question?