I started the Day 24 heart working with blue gel pen on white card stock, and it just wasn’t working for me. The paper was not the right surface for the gel pen. I switched to a white gel pen on red paper and this time I was much happier with the drawing.

This drawing makes me think of elegant embroidery embellishments on clothing.

Day 23 came together in a snap. I immediately decided this 70s paper was the starting point of today’s collage, and then using the Bauhaus pattern seemed like the obvious choice for the second half of the heart. I really like the combination.

For Day 22, I was inspired by the work of Molly McGrath on the cover of The Papercraft Ideas Book, and created a composition of cutouts and collage.

I would love to do a variation of this in a more intricate way, and larger scale.

I decided to revisit paper embroidery again for the series, and went with bullion knots in blue thread for Day 21. I did not plan out what I was going to do beforehand so the design I came up with is a bit of an improvised mess, but I like it. 

Embroidering paper is unforgiving. Once you punch a hole through the surface to make a stitch, you’re committed, even if you misjudge the position of a stitch.

I had intended to use even more coloured paper in this composition for Day 20, but then making it started to feel too time consuming. I decided to leave sections of the white card stock, which is the base paper, showing through.

I try to limit the time I spend on these to an hour or under. Cutting, shaping, and positioning these pieces turned out to be surprisingly complex.

Day 19 is a drawing with coloured markers using pink and blue. This one of my classic ways of doodling that I love doing in gel pen on black paper, but it works so well in bright colours too.

I decided to tackle another paper weaving for Day 18, and work with the entire surface area this time. I also did a looser weave instead of having the intersecting pieces of paper tightly packed together. I left the ends hanging around the edges of the heart for now.

For Day 17 I wanted to try another paper cut + patterned paper mixed piece, but this one does not work as well as the one I created for Day 13. The two elements do not flow as well as the ones in the earlier version. I don’t like this heart as all, but I decided to leave it as it is rather than redoing it. Not everything can be a success.

But then, a few hours later, I changed my mind. I made a second paper cut + patterned paper combination for the 17th. I like this one so much better.

Day 16 started out as a collage but once I applied this art deco paper, I decided to leave it as is. I was going to combine three different papers but I love the flowing elements of this pattern and didn’t not want to cover any of it up with something else. 

Is a collage still a collage if there is only one paper element?!?

I used an incising and lifting technique for Day 15. The whole design is off-centre because I wasn’t quite sure of what I was going to do as I started laying this out on the back. My measurements were off but overall it works.