Making Paper Illustrations in July 2026

Electric Caterpillar, 16x9cm, 19/07/26

I've made paper collages and paper cut illustrations before, but I think this is the smallest I've ever managed to go with hand cut stuff. This was insanely fun to make. I first plotted it out by drawing it digitally, flipped it, and then printed out all of the individual shapes onto white paper.

I then stuck those onto the separate colours of card and cut those out by hand. I also printed a sort of stencil, so all of the pieces stuck together in the same orientation. I started by sticking together the body pieces, stuck that to the background piece, and then added the feet, face and antenna, on top. I think the scale I went for was perfect for this design, and was definitely a challenge for me to cut out all of the detail pieces. I had to use tweezers to position and glue them in the right place! This was made as a card for my friend.

Three Little Guys, 7.5x15cm each, 27/07/26

These guys were the project I took with me on holiday in July. I knew they wouldn't consist of too many pieces or colours of card, so it was easy to pack the supplies with the rest of my stuff. I had already planned them out digitally and printed the pieces, so all I did on holiday was cut them out and glue them together. I love how they came out, I wasn't sure I was going to have enough shades of each of the colours to make the features, especially the ears, but I managed. The orange guy was originally going to be pink, but I liked the texture of the orange card I had much better. These were not made to be cards, but instead came to me in a flash of inspiration and had to be made. ♡

My Initial Sketches of each of these Illustrations

Stuff I Made in May - June 2026

Digital Drawing of the Hand

Like many artists, I have been cursed with carpel tunnel, as well as generalised hand pain, for going on 5 years now, on and off. It got so bad that I even got it officially diagnosed by a doctor and everything! Luckily (?) I only get it in my non dominant (right) hand.

Because of all of this, I have been looking at various diagrams of hands recently. This lead me to drawing my own, with all the overlapping layers. This was originally going to turn into a paper diagram but with how tiny all the elements are, as well as the aforementioned hand pain, I don't think that's going to happen. 

Swallows, 7.4x7.8cm, 09/06/26

This is another hand drawn design that was made for a birthday card. This time I went even smaller, with each of the pixels being 1mm by 1mm, whereas my previous designs were 2.5mm by 2.5mm.

I have fallen in love with drawing these swallows, I first used them in a Mother's Day card in March, and have been using them in everything since. They are very simple but very pretty, and I like that they're not quite symmetrical.

A Pink and Purple Lighter

I had to buy these lighters for another craft I was making and ended up covering them in my sticker collection. The animal crossing characters and Gogo's, I made myself by printing them on sticker paper and the rest are from Sticker Magic, which is a website I would spend all my money at if I could. 

17 Sea Creature Fabric Patches

These fish prints were originally on the back of an H&M shirt that I ended up cutting up. It was a white t-shirt that I was just never going to wear, but I couldn't bring myself to part with these beautiful fish. So over about 4 days, I cut them out, sewed them onto felt backing, and then stitched around the edges. Initially, I was just going to do a blanket stitch around the edge, but the t-shirt material is quite thin, and would have frayed if I left any of the edges exposed. I think it looks better like this anyway. My plan is to either make them felt pins, or sew them onto other stuff, like a hat or a bag.

I also made some more stuff on my jewellery course but included within the cost of the course, we get the opportunity to get stuff hallmarked, so I've sent off all my precious creations and I will get them back by the end of this week! ♡

More Pixel Designs

I'm still having fun using pixels and grids to make designs. These were also made to become cards, the first for Mother's Day in March and the other two for various friends. I love them all and want to make more already.

Sparrows and Flower, 11x11cm, 11/03/26

Heart, 6x6cm, 14/03/26

Stem, 4.5x12.5cm, 12/04/26

Recent Creations November 25 - March 26

Here are a few of my latest experiments, I wasn't able to properly scan most of these as they were made as last minute birthday cards that needed to be sent ASAP, but oh well. Something about a grid has really been calling me recently, it's just such a fun way to plot out drawings and shapes (blame my gridded journals, idk). I also love the look of filet crochet and lace, and wanted to make my own paper versions of that. All hand-drawn/ hand-cut ♡

Year of the Horse, 01/03/26

Adapted Dragon, 23/02/26

Rabbit, 08/11/25

Doily, 18/02/26