Sunday 9 November 2014

Festive Christmas Papercuts

Unique Christmas Papercut Gifts

It’s that time of year again  It always seems to come out of nowhere!  As soon as my daughter’s birthday is out of the way at the end of October, the shops seem to be filled with copious amounts of tinsel, glitter and sparkle, TV is overrun with Christmas adverts and the supermarkets are blasting out Christmas songs!

I'm not complaining, as I love all things Christmas!  But it's a big reminder that I need to make a serious start to my Christmas shopping list.  Especially as I am now 28 weeks pregnant, I feel like I should be more prepared in case the baby decides to put in an early appearance!  (Although fingers crossed it doesn’t, because as much as I love Christmas, I’m not so keen on having a Christmas baby).

So I really should make a start on my Christmas shopping list.  I don't know about you, but I always prefer to buy handcrafted items.  They always feel more personal and they are definitely more unique.  Plus, I prefer to support other crafters and local businesses where I can.  And I know I’m not the only one, as the run up to Christmas is always super busy here at Paper Petal.  Whether it be people wanting our Christmas themed papercuts as a unique addition to decorating their homes for Christmas, or people wanting to have that special unique gift for their loved ones.  We have paper cuts for all ages and interests at Paper Petal.

Snowglobe Merry Christmas papercut


A wonderful Merry Christmas papercut, intricately hand cut with even a glitter ribbon, and a tiny robbin with a sparkling red chest. The snowglobe has the words 'Merry Christmas' surrounded by christmas tree's, snowflakes, a reindeer, snowman and snow house, along with two penguins together under mistletoe.


Festive Voyage


This festive papercutting design encompasses 2 cute robins pecking under the mistletoe which hangs from a christmas tree on a boat accompanied by a owl and captained by a cute squirrel. Red glitter is added to the baubles, holly and robbins belly to add even more magic to the scene.

Believe miniature papercut

Believe in Christmas Papercut

This cute and tiny papercut design holds the word 'believe' with a swoosh of stars beneath. The believe papercut is intricatley handmade and floats over a shimmer blue (or glitter red) background.

Santa's sleigh ride in the moonlight papercut

Father Christmas riding reindeer in the moonlight christmas papercutting

This beautiful unique hand cut design is made up of multiple pieces of paper to create a magical christmas papercut scene of Santa's sleigh being pulled by his reindeer. Loveable Rudolph is at the front of the sleigh, leading the journey with his shining red nose. The background is a shimmer blue to add to the magic.

Let it snow papercut

Let it snow christmas papercut
A Traditional, yet modern papercut design at the same time! We created this let it snow papercut listening to the song (it's a favourite in our home).

Reindeer winter wonderland Papercut

Reindeer winter wonderland papercut

This classic ‘Winter Wonderland’ papercut design, is ideal for those who want a more subtle Christmas theme. An ideal gift, the beautiful reindeer snow scene was inspired by a family trip to Tattenpark, wearing our wide wellies and playing in the snow.


The above framed papercuts are available in our Paper Petal shop, or we welcome custom design requests if you would like to contact us on our craft website.

Friday 22 August 2014

Paper Wedding Anniversary

Perfect Paper Anniversary Gift
personalised anniversary paper cutting

Last month I celebrated my first ever wedding anniversary (exciting huh!), and I had spent quite a lot of thought into the perfect present to celebrate the occasion. As many of you will know each wedding anniversary has a theme, such as paper for the 1st anniversary, wood for the 5th anniversary and silver for the 25th anniversary.

What I didn't know until I did a bit of research, was that until around the 1930's, only 8 anniversaries had a material associated with them. They were the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 50th, and 75th anniversaries. But nowadays we have a material for all anniversaries!

I don't know if it's because I am recently married, but the first anniversary felt like a really big milestone and I wanted to give a gift that reflected not only the milestone, but also the tradition of it being paper too. And I know I'm not the only one. The majority of the custom papercuts that I am asked to create are to celebrate 1st wedding anniversaries. And I just love to hear other couples special lyrics or quotes, especially as I know I'm going to turn them in to a beautiful anniversary keepsake for them!

Love Tree Anniversary Papercut


love tree romantic papercut

Love birds perched on a tree in the shape of a heart, with the happy couples names placed in the center. Some custom requests included the date of the anniversary also in the central area of the Love birds papercut design.

Personalised Wedding Papercutting

personalised wedding venue paper cutting

This particular wedding paper cutting was creted from three photographs merged into a single design, all hand cut and framed in a hand made oak box frame.


The kiss, Anniversary papercut

The Kiss first anniversary papercut

This elegant design lends itself well to a first paper anniversary gift. A silhouette of the loving couple kissing under a tree with a personalised special phrase written next to the figures. Couples can choose any special phrase they have for each other, or a few special words from their first dance song.

Pair of Doves Anniversary Papercut

Pair of doves golden wedding anniversary papercut

A pair of tranquil doves flying inside a leafy wreath. The papercut doves in the example shown are cut out of cream pearlescent silk textured card, with a silver pearlescent background (colours can be altered). Typography flows inside the wreath detailing the Anniversary couples names and date of anniversary.

Hare and Bear Anniversary Papercut


A detailed design with a cute Hare & Bear kissing inside a floral heart. The loving couples names are scripted inside the heart with the date of the anniversary etched into the lower heart.

The Wedding scene Papercut

Wedding scene venue personalised papercuttings


A romantic papercut design, appropriately named ‘the wedding scene’ is a personalised illustration of any wedding venues, including a special message, the bride and groom's name, or even song lyrics of the first dance.

The above framed papercuts are available in our Paper Petal shop, or we welcome custom design requests if you would like to contact us on our craft website.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Peter Pan Papercut Collection

Never grow up


Peter Pan is the much loved story of a boy who never grows up.  Adored and admired by many (especially me!).  I used to spend my childhood dreaming of Peter Pan adventures, flying to the mystical world of Neverland.  As I’m a big fan of the story, I decided to design and cut a collection of Peter Pan scenes to remind me of those childhood memories.


Come with me where dreams are born

This lovely starry night scene whisks you away to the memories of Neverland. The phrase within the scene is "So come with me where dreams are born and time is never planned. Just think of happy things and the heart with grow on wings forever in our neverland" Phrase can be personalised.

Neverland papercut


Flight to Neverland

This magical Peter Pan papercutting scene includes Peter tempting Wendy to fly with him to a mystical, magical world that exists within a star, named Neverland.

Peter Pan Papercut, flight to Neverland



Never Grow Up

Here we have a layered shadowbox papercut scene with the foreground encorporating Captain Hook battling with Peter Pan in Neverland. Captian hooks pirate ship sails on the sea with palm trees and the phrase 'never grow up' in the foreground. This Peter Pan piece is a template for budding crafters to cut themselves and mount it in a box frame using foam board to create the depth between the two layers. You can even add stars to the background and enclose a led light in the frame if your feeling super adventurous :)

Peter Pan Shadowbox Papercut Template




Peter Pan's Escape

For my second Peter Pan paper cut, I focused on the Darling children and Peter, flying away from the crooked Captain Hook.  In the paper cut, Hook is confronted by a creepy crocodile, and battles with him on a collection of rocks, whilst Peter Pan makes his escape.  The background of the design, shows Captain Hook’s ship in the water, as well as magical swirls of stars flowing from the flying characters.

London Peter Pan papercut


The Fierce Battle

The third Peter Pan design I created, is set on the island of Neverland, where a fierce battle commences. This Peter Pan papercut scene is filled with action as Captain Hook fends off Peter and a Crocodile, whilst Wendy and Tinkerbell watch with fright.  The background of this scene shows a cliff face of the island with jagged rock below, and a cloudy night, with a moon in the sky. In this deign, I focused on the detail of the characters, by using miniature cuts to emphasis the key features of each character.

Peter Pan Captain Hook battle papercut


“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.” 


Grab a unique piece of art to reminisce those childhood memories, or create a custom papercut, designed, personalised and unique just for you. 

Wednesday 18 June 2014

How it all started


We are Paper Petal.  By ‘we’, I mean Graham and Melanie.  We are a husband and wife team, who design, cut and frame all of our beautiful paper cuts by ourselves.

Graham has always been a creative type.  In his day job he works as a web designer.  Melanie’s day job isn’t creative at all.  She’s a cost management analyst, but she does love doing all things crafty with our little girl Emily.

Emily is the reason we started Paper Petal.  It all started nearly 3 years ago, when we had just bought a house and were very heavily pregnant.  We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl, so we went for a neutral theme.  We looked online for inspiration, and came across wall decals and thought that they were a brilliant idea.  But being the fussy people that we are, we couldn’t find anything that was just perfect, so we decided to design our own.  We drew out various designs onto paper, but thought if we could cut them out, it would give us a better idea of how it would look.  So that’s what we did, and that is how we discovered a secret hidden talent, and the rest is history!