Party at HQ

A bit of a lie in at Rosie and the Boys HQ today as we are celebrating the youngest boy's 1st Birthday! Known to us as Dove, we can't believe that it's only been a year - we can't remember what life without him was like!

So in honour of Dove's special day and to give you an idea of what might be coming up in designs later in the year I thought I would show you the birthday card I've made for him.

Cut directly into the card I've included two doves, a star and a heart in the design as well as his date of birth and lots of stripes. When I edited the photo I emphasised the shadows to help you see the cut more clearly.

I put some coloured paper behind the design in this shot. The great thing about cutting directly into the card is that you can then add any coloured paper as a card insert. So it could be as masculine or feminine a colour scheme as you like!

I cut the card last night and the shadow effect on the inside of the card when it was in artificial light was really stunning. I waited until this morning to take the photos though so the effect isn't as clear (especially as the sun kept disappearing behind clouds!) but hopefully you can still get the idea.

Decorative number cut outs are definitely something I will be exploring - I'm thinking special birthdays, wedding anniversaries, important dates etc. I'll keep you posted. 

More bugs!!

Bugs aren't just for boys and I wanted to include a few designs in the range that appeal to girls. So here is a taster.

I'd be really interested to here people's thought on the colour choices. Do you think they'll appeal?

The Upcoming Bug collection

As promised lots of pictures today.  I have been working really hard to get the bug collection finished and ready to launch. Some of the pieces are going off to a fine art printers this week, so that I can offer a range of prints as well as individual paper cut pieces. So I am proud to present my beautiful bugs...

These will form a postcard set - perfect for thank you notes from (or to) boys, or to create your own piece of wall art.  I love the way the colours interact. The red and blue larger bugs really play with your eyes and give an almost glowing outline to the bug. Major influences on the patterns include crochet design, Islamic art (and John Squires interpretation in his recent series of Islamic art inspired pieces), Butterscotch and Beestings fabulous combination of Blue, Red and White (thank you Camilla!).

I wanted to create some statement pieces for the collection which would be larger scale and designed as wall art. Why not count bugs when you're having difficulty sleeping rather than sheep?

Each of these bugs is cut by hand, from the oil beetle in the centre to the tiny ladybirds and house spiders scuttling all over the place!

When I was researching creepy crawlies for this series I was really struck by how varied and often brightly coloured bugs were. I wanted to reference this in some of the greeting cards. Again, I'm sure the colours of the bugs have many uses including confusing predators. Some of my colour combinations also seem to play tricks with your eyes. Even though these bugs are cut very precisely with no fuzzy edges, the way the colours interact makes it seem otherwise.

I am very fond of the centipedes. When I grouped some together they reminded me of go faster stripes. What do you think?

They certainly move faster than these friendly chaps!

And to end, I'll let these guys express my very sincere hope that when the bug collection goes on sale in a couple of weeks, you'll come and join the creepy crawlie party.