day 1 - framed paper cut leaves

I know—this may not be terribly exciting since I just showed you this paper cut a couple of days ago. However, it is very exciting to me since I gave this piece a frame (I'm bad about that), a place (for now), I'm starting my idea to get more artwork around the house (not all necessarily mine) and we're enjoying it already.

When I first started working on this paper cut it was about 2am and I really had no plans for it. I just went for it. Yes, you've seen these leaves before—here and here. It's just feels like one of my 'comfort' doodles (is there such a thing?). They always look the same and I thought a paper cut would be an interesting change.

I'm still debating whether I should change the white background. I really like it but at times it does seem to lack contrast. The great shadows are what keep me thinking. They wouldn't look the same on a colored background.

As you can see in the top photo, the afternoon light makes this really come to life. The way the shadows change as the sun sets is quite dramatic and constant—love that.

I wish I could've gotten a better shot of the three-dimensionality of the piece, to show that I didn't just lay the cut out on a piece of paper. I placed it in such a way that it is only attached at the top. The top corners are glued down closer to each other than if they were laying flat. That is what makes the whole piece pop up on its own and stay that way. The green leaves are attached to the background, not to the cut out.

So what do you think? Color for the background or leave it as is?

Cost of materials: $2 for paper and $20 for the Ikea box frame.

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This is part of a my 26 days of making series.

2011 calendar sneak peek

I dragged my feet long enough with next year's calendar. It almost got to the point that I thought I wasn't going to design a new one. But inspiration finally hit and I couldn't be any happier. I'll be unveiling the whole thing on Monday.



Friday Tidbit
For those of you that haven't seen them... Head on over to the Decor8 and Oh So Beautiful Paper for great calendar round ups. It's one of the things I look forward to every year. There are so, so many great designs.

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Thank you for all your sweet comments on my latest The Basics post. Sometimes I wonder if I should continue the series, because it may be too basic, but I guess some of you are getting some use out of it. That makes it all worth it for me. I'll keep the posts coming.

Have a great weekend everyone!

2010 paper + wood

As promised, here are my new pieces for the fall. This is a very limited edition of a family of paper + wood pieces that match my alphabet flash cards and Animal Friends fabric. I carried the idea of very small pops of color from the latter to these pieces as well. I cut everything except the wooden pieces by hand—so each piece will be slightly different from one another.





My trees are also making another appearance. I loved cutting them by hand but I had to stop because it was physically painful to do. For a long time, I tried to figure out another way to produce them. It turned out that laser cutting them was the best option.


More pieces will be forthcoming and they'll be showing up in my shop and at my virtual table at the Poppytalk market this month. Please visit the market and check out all the beautiful work that is posted. There's so much to look at!

Happy Monday!

fulfilled

There are times that I feel so accomplished and fulfilled with my work. This week has been one of those times. I worked on a new corporate identity for an interior designer and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. I'm finishing up a couple of other challenging projects and an interesting one came in today. It's been non-stop around here.

I've also been busy on the A Little Hut front. My shop has been updated with some gift tags and tealight covers that match the flats that made their debut recently. The tealight covers almost didn't make the cut. I'm not sure why I kept going back and forth with them, but they stayed.



I feel so in tune with this new collection of graphic images. I think that's why I'm really thrilled with it. I'm also proud about the fact that this is the most environmentally friendly product I've ever made. ALL the paper is FSC certified and produced in a paper mill the uses hydrolic energy. I've also saved every single scrap of tiniest cut paper because I have plans for it too. No paper is going to waste.



Tomorrow will be time to catch up on the house chores that seem to magically pile up (le sigh). I'm trying to avoid wasting the weekend away on any of it.

Have a great weekend everyone!