A Winter Wonderland

Ready to see the finished product from the sneak peek I shared the other day?

In honor of the weather getting cold (below freezing tonight!) I decided to make a winter scene paper cut...or 2 in 1! I think my favorite part is the holly vines....or the ice skaters....or the mountains...I can't decide!

The finished product, mounted on a lovely blue:


Pics before mounting:



This paper cut will soon be for sale on Etsy. Keep an eye out!

If you'd like to commission a winter themed paper cut of your own, contact me!

A Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of an original I've been working on lately. Coming soon to the blog and to Etsy!

A 'Happy Birthday Big Sis' Card!

Happy Birthday to my older sister! With a fall birthday, it's become somewhat of a tradition of hers to go apple picking to celebrate. Since I live on the other side of the country and unfortunately can't be there for that, I thought I'd make her an apple picking card. Here's how it turned out!

A Personalized Birthday Commission

Here's another birthday commission I just did with some heavy personalization. I was asked not to emphasize anything about how old she is turning (I hear ya), so I chose a more neutral design of a flower pot with a fern plant. Given a ton of things to describe the birthday girl, I was able to fit in the following: a love of cooking and drinking, a job as a journalist, time lived in Maine, a love of travel and time spent in France (hence the Air France ticket and plane!). This person has accomplished so much by this birthday that I had to pick and choose just a few things so that the cut didn't look too busy!

A Baby's First Paper Cut

Here's a commission I just sent off to celebrate the birth of a new baby girl. I was asked to create something for the new baby and also for her sister, with the idea that there could be more kids to come in the future who might need their own paper cut. I chose a simple concept so that if they ever get a little baby brother or sister, it would be easy to make a new one to go with them.

And good news - these are now up on Etsy! The designs are 4"x7" and completely customizable. They can come in a 6x8" floating frame, or you can order them unframed. To request a commission, simply email papercutsbykatie@gmail.com, or head to Etsy using the link at the top of the page.

A 50th Birthday

Apologies for the long gap in posts. I have an excuse! I'm excited to say I recently moved from New Orleans to a teeny tiny town in Oregon. The move, while very exciting, left little time for posting. But I'm settled now, and expect to be able to post with a little more frequency.

To get started, here's a commission I finished recently for a 50th birthday. I was asked to create something unique and personal for the birthday of a man who "needed nothing". This thoughtful friend sent me a long list of his favorite things, and asked them to be put into the number 50. Here's the result!





In its floating frame, all ready to ship. I really need to learn how to take pictures of frames without glare!


I can't wait to hear how the birthday boy likes it!

To request a personalized commission, please send an email to papercutsbykatie@gmail.com.

A Wedding Commission

Here's a commission I did recently for someone who needed a gift for an upcoming wedding. The only personalization is the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date. For the rest, I was told to just come up with something. A summer wedding? Why not flowers in a heart shape!






The finished product, in its floating frame:


If you would like to order a commission, please email papercutsbykatie@gmail.com or send me a message using the link to the right.

A California Anniversary Paper Cut

Here's a commission I just recently sent off.
I was asked to make a paper cut as a gift for a couple that was married last year. In addition to their names and anniversary date, I was given a short list of things about the couple that I was asked to incorporate into the piece. Specifically, I was told they were married in Hawaii, currently live in San Francisco, love wine and have a golden retriever named Wrigley. As a fellow dog lover, Wrigley was of course going to be a big part of this one!
I decided to do the entire cut inside a map of their current home state - California. Here's how it turned out:


The client requested that I mount the paper cut and not frame it, but after finishing it I decided that it really would look best not mounted but just put into a floating frame. Fortunately she was easy to convince! Here it is in the floating frame, ready to hang on a wall of any color!


Sorry for the less-than-professional pictures. I really should learn how to take better product pictures!

If you would like to request a commission, click on the tab above or send an email to papercutsbykatie@gmail.com.

A Mother's Day Card

I know it's been a while...my full time job as a health coach has sort of been interfering with my paper cutting. But the good news is, I've got a few commissions in the works so there should be some more posts in the near future!

Here's a card I did recently for my own dear mom for Mother's Day. I wanted to focus on intricate lines and chose a floral theme that seemed fitting with the holiday.



Since it is very intricate and delicate, I chose not to mount it or back it on anything so as not to lose any of the detail in the background. I simply put it in the envelope shown above with some card stock to make sure it didn't get bent en route. Now it's free for my mom to either frame it in a floating frame, or mount it on a window so that the sun can shine through it, like in the picture below!

A New Line

Making the map of Cape Cod has inspired me…Introducing a new theme within my paper cuts: MAPS!

Look out for a bunch of maps coming from me. They will be available for purchase on my Etsy site. And, as always, I am accepting commissions and am happy to do a personalized map just for YOU of anything you would like. Want to show some state pride? Buy a map of your state silhouette, or perhaps the below map of the USA with your state highlighted!

A Map of Cape Cod

My sister recently had something pretty big to celebrate, so I wanted to make her a little something. She LOVES Cape Cod, and we've spent pretty much every summer there since forever, so I decided to honor one of her favorite places.

I created a silhouette map of the Cape all in black, and to really highlight the little details of the map, I framed it in a floating frame. A floating frame holds the picture between two pieces of glass and no other backing, so it's great for paper cuts. Unfortunately it's not so great for taking pictures of it. I just couldn't figure out how to not have my reflection show up in there, so sorry for the poor photo.

Oh, and congratulations Jessi for finishing your degree and becoming the one and only Dr. Beaver!



If you would like to order a commission, please contact me at papercutsbykatie@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on the right.

A 20 Minute Engagement Card

A few months ago my boyfriend and I drove to Dallas for our friend's engagement party. Derek asked me to make them a card, and since we originally planned to leave on Saturday I expected to have all Friday to make it. Well, Friday morning Derek decides we're leaving by noon. This gave me about 2 hours to do laundry, pack, take care of the pups, and make a card. Somehow, I pulled this one off in about 20 minutes. Just in time for an 8 hour road trip to an Indian engagement party!




Since Indian weddings are full of bright, fun colors, I decided to back this one on a bright, fun color!

A Vine Birthday Card

My good friend turned 30 a few weeks ago (I'm a bit late in posting this), so I made her this card! It was a simple design of vines going through the numbers, and I mounted it onto the card itself instead of cutting through the card and backing it like I usually do. Happy birthday, Lisa!

Another Bachelorette Paper Cut

Here's another glittery bachelorette paper cut card in honor of the launch of www.thebach.com!

Thank You Cards

Thanks to another one of my awesome cousins, I got another commission! He commissioned me to make two thank you cards. Here's how they turned out!



This commission was extra special because I got paid with a copy of my cousin's book of short stories based on his year in Israel! Order your copy here.

The vine thank you card is now available on Etsy and you can buy them in a pack of 5 (remember, they're handmade so each one will be a little different than the rest!). The tree is not yet on Etsy but will be soon. And either of these, or any other type of card can be commissioned offline, just use the contact form on the right!

A Bachelorette Paper Cut

I made this bachelorette-themed paper cut card in honor of my cousin's recently-launched site www.thebach.com. Check it out!

This card is also available on Etsy.

A finished commission

Remember that post I wrote about my first commission? The second part of that commission was a big ole paper cut. My friend's parents are going to be celebrating their 50th anniversary soon, and she wanted me to make them something special. She wanted a card, but not one that you'd put in an envelope. She wanted something bigger, than she could both write a message on, but then frame for them to keep on a mantle.

My friend gave me some background on her parents to help me create a great and personalized paper cut. I decided to focus on locations - they met in France, and now live in Buffalo near Niagara Falls. I wanted to incorporate both those locations in the cut, and cue the most intricate paper cut I have done to date!

That Eiffel Tower was a lot more work than anticipated! Here's a shot from when I had finally finished it, and you can see some of the teeny tiny trimmings it produced.

And the final product, mounted on a color of my friend's choosing (gold, to represent their gold anniversary). Not bad!

Special thanks to my mom for helping me out with the drawings!

I'm on Etsy!

This just in....I'm on Etsy! Click the link on the right to check out my new Etsy shop and purchase one of my original handmade paper cuts! As of right now I just have the tiger up there, but I hope to get more up soon! And of course I'm available to do commissioned work as well.

You may also have noticed that I changed the name of this blog from "Cards by Katie" to "Paper cuts by Katie", as I'm trying to steer more towards just paper cuts. The URL for this blog has stayed the same.

Evan's Paper Cut - Updated

My little nephew turned one this past summer! For his birthday, I wanted to give him something that I made myself that he could have in his room as he grows up. I had a couple of things in my childhood bedroom that my aunt made me, and I wanted that for Evan. So I made him a big ole paper cut (8.5 x 11) that I had framed.

For the design, I decided to do a bunch of different scenes in one cut. They're all original, and this is the final product, after many different renditions.

UPDATE:
I wanted to share with ya'll what this paper cut looks like in its "natural habitat", aka on the wall in Evan's room. Thanks to my sister for sending the pic!

Oh and, as a side note, I made that circle mobile hanging from the ceiling for him too! He'll not forget who is favorite auntie is! If you're interested in that, here's what it looked like all put together, and here's the link for the tutorial.

A little afternoon paper cut

Here's a little paper cut I did the other day when I was bored. I'm trying to decide if I should cut out the rest of the negative space to leave just a thin outline of the tiger, or keep it as is...what do you think?