And the winner is...

Hello!

On Tuesday we popped a giveaway up to win this here 'Mummy' papercut, made with my own Panda paws.

Reading through the nominations was lovely. They all showed how amazing each of your mums are. It was almost impossible to choose! 

The winner is...*drumroll please* 

 Carmel Clark. Nominated by Yvonne Jackson.

 'I would give this to my friend Carmel Clark. She is having a rough time at the moment. She has 3 children her son the eldest of which has Autism and Epilepsy and she has just received the news that he may not start school in September as planned, her daughters also have health problems, she has been working her socks off to make her children a sensory wall and never stops to take time out for herself (she's poorly at the moment and instead of resting as she has been told to do, she is still making stuff for the children). On top of all this her brother died 6 months ago suddenly following an Epileptic fit.She doesn't know what a lovely wonderful Mummy she is and I think something like this would help remind her that she is a Lovely Mummy to her 3 children x' 

Congratulations Carmel. *applause*

Please drop us an email to paperpandacuts@hotmail.co.uk  

A HUGE thank you to all of you that entered and a massive cheer for all the brilliant mummies out there. If you didn't win this time, why not pop over and check out the Mum heart template to make an extra special papercut for your mum/nan/friend. :)

*Squidge*

Who's the Mummy?

Let's face it, we all have the best Mummy in the world, don't we? I know I do! If you'd like to win this original paper Panda framed papercut then let us all know why your Mummy, (or a Mummy that you know) is the best. 
Post your reason under the photo of this cut on the PP Facebook page. The winner will be drawn on Saturday and announced here on the blog.
About the cut: The papercut is floating over a blue background, framed in a handmade box frame finished with the engraved Paper Panda tag 23x23cm. It was created to use as the master for the DIY ladies template (you can cut it yourself with a choice of words in the centre of the heart, available in the online shop) and no others exist that were cut by my own fair paw.
If you don't win, as there ARE lots of amazing Mummys out there, then try your own hand at cutting one here: DIY Template
Big hugs to all the awesome Ma's in the world!
Panda xx

Inspiration

In every interview (not that there are loads, but y'know!) I get asked where my inspiration comes from.
The obvious answer is books, old stories like Alice In Wonderland and the Grimm Fairy Tales, but when I actually thought about it inspiration really does come from everywhere. I have pinned down a few obvious sources that might make you say "oooh yeeh, I see!"....
The first ever hand drawn papercut design was this one. I sat one night in my living room with an empty sketchbook and a freshly sharpened pencil and chewed it a bit. I looked around...and spotted my lampshade. Pretty isn't it? It gave me to kick up the bum to actually draw something and to create Bird...

You can even see the position of the red bird at the top hanging from the branch used in the final design. You'd never think it looking at both the lampshade and the finished picture, but that's where it started.
At the time Mr P and I were listening to Josh Pyke's 'Middle Of The Hill' song every day - y'know how you get hooked on one song and play it to death? Well, that was ours and although not particularly relavent to our lives we DID live on a hill, so this papercut was born. This remains the only papercut I have ever kept and displayed as it shows our family...

I only just Googled for this song cover now - funny to see it's similar haha! Have a listen on You Tube though, you might like it. It's this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1kfwC72Ps0

A friend was needed to develop Bird's character. There are only so many ways you can display birds in trees y'see and so Bunny was born. Why a bunny? I always shrugged and said "dunno!" but I was being daft as it dawned on me a year or so later that I woke up every morning looking at this large print hanging on the chimney breast of my then bedroom - "Hare In Boxer Shorts"...doh! So I guess this is where Bunny came from...actually trying on clothes would make a great cut! *gets pencil out*...

More recently I've been collecting my old childhood story books. Matilda Jane was one of my favourites. I base my recent designs on the layout of these pages, see? The wording surrounded by decoration outside of a 'frame'. I now have all my old books in the studio next to me to dip into for inspiration.

Jess & Brown Bear really do exist!!

Earlier this year there was a Facebook search for Brown Bear who had been lost by this little girl, Jess, on a trip to the hospital. It went viral and yes, she was eventually reunited with her beloved bear. She takes him everywhere with her. Jess doesn't speak a lot so I found this little relationship between her and her bear really quite touching, like they have a secret world together. *waves to Jess*...

 These are a selection of cards that are sitting on my desk at the moment sent to me by lovely PP friends. The cupcake looks super scrummy for a bit o'cardboard doesn't it? So it gave me the idea for this recent miniature - with a Wonderland twist ;)

Speaking of Wonderland, I make so many Alice inspired pieces because I myself am Alice inspired. Meet some of my, um, skin...? (and there's that cake, again!)

So really inspiration can whack you in the face at anytime from anywhere. Who knows what makes you draw one thing over another? If you create too then have a look at your work and see if you can see where the first spark of an idea came from.
Cheerio!
P xxx

#thumbsupforStephen Just Giving donation

#thumbsupforstephen

I don't know about you guys but we here have been following Stephen's story and are just amazed by his courage and the effort he's put into raising funds for teenage cancer. Jason Manford has been helping too and really helped to boost the total raised to 1.5 million (wow!) so we are doing our bit as well.
Text Stephen to 70500 to donate a fiver #thumbsupforstephen 

I usually cut straight into my work sketches, but this one is unusually still intact, having scanned it in to cut at a different size. It's 10x10 cm, signed by me (Panda!) and I'll post it to the person that places the highest sealed bid via email before 10pm tonight (24.4.14). I will donate all proceeds to the cause. Plus I'll pay postage worldwide, too. 

It's not mounted, or framed, but it IS rare, only being one of them and only one original sketch has ever been sold in PP history before, so dig deep as it's for charity!

Please email your bid to paperpandacuts@hotmail.co.uk and the highest bidder will win. 

*UPDATE* The winning bid was £250. The bidder will recieved much more than she bargained for ;) Will post the reciept tomorrow after we've paid into the Just Giving account. Thanks everyone, especially the winning bidder xxx

April 2014

April 2014 has totally sucked donkey balls. Honestly it's been ruddy awful! But you don't get a rainbow without any rain, huh? Everything comes right in the end and all that jazz.
I have left Facebook! Well, the social side, anyway. My old profile is still there as are the thousands of photos accumulated over the many years I've been glued to it, but I personally have cut the strings and walked away. And it feels good.
I joined Facebook in 2006- ish? I became one of the addicted and have spent more hours than I care to imagine on Facebook. My friends are inside my computer and I run my business from there, too. What's not to love? Well...people really. Where there is the internet you get people who hide behind their screens and the trolls came out to play, amongst other things. You can recieve 298073863 nice comments but there's always the few that really like to piss on your bonfire, and they are the ones that stick in your brain. Uggh!
In April the Paper Panda Facebook page passed 100,000 likers. Wow. And so we rejoiced! I gave away a free original cut on my personal profile to the person that guessed what day we'd hit the milestone and it was really exciting, especially as it was Dave's birthday who guessed correctly (he chose a Dormouse cut in the end).
Behind the scenes Paper Panda has grown. I do still pop on the FB page to see everyone as I'm too attached NOT to, but generally I now have Julie, Emily and Vicky who are all looking after the page and emails for me which leaves me to....cut paper! I've left my personal Facebook so never get group notifications, my feed isn't full of five million pages, I'm not distracted and it's BLISS. I do miss my friends, it's like something huge is missing, but I feel....free?
Nobody contacts me to tell me they hate me. Nobody contacts me to ask for donations. Nobody contacts me to tell me somebody is copying me or selling my designs. True enough, nobody contacts me to tell me my nails look nice today, but you can't have everything, right?
So I have looooads of time on my hands. I don't do anything but cut paper which is why I seem so prolific - I AM. I don't go out, don't drink, don't smoke, don't have hobbies, don't do housework, don't...behave like a regular human, I suppose, haha...all I do is cut paper to the point of obsession from morning through til bedtime. So now I have more time there are loads of original cuts - huzzah! 
I have been able to have early nights. I read a magazine on the loo instead of updating my status. I have been on four, yes FOUR dog walks so far (I really DON'T go outside unless I have to, usually!). Last weekend we went to York, didn't have internet access and THAT WAS OKAY. There is life outside Facebook....and it is sweet.
Will I ever go back? I don't know. I like this protective bubble. There may be WW3 going on and I'd have no idea. My mojo is coming back. Maybe I'll....write a letter? Or a book?
Nah...I'll just cut more paper *twirls scalpel*....

"You Are Loved" Giveaway

"You Are Loved" is very tiny and luffly, the whole thing is only 13cm and the papercut suspended inside is teeny weeny, hand drawn and cut and a little bit marvellous BUT I maffed it up a tiny bit trying something new. You'd hardly notice but as I'm a bit of a perfectionist I can't sell it - so yesterday, I decided to give it away for FREE!

All you had to do is tell me who you give it to! 

Thank you so much everyone for joining in - we had over a thousand comments and emails telling us all about your worthy loved ones, friends and colleagues! You are clearly a very special and extremely loved bunch - I feel honoured to have heard your stories and I am virtually sending each of you and your loved ones a huge fuzzy Panda *squidge*. :)

It was pretty much impossible to choose but I would like to congratulate Christina Wise, an amazingly strong Mummy and woman, who would like to give the cut to her children Oliver and Grace. I sincerely hope it reminds you every day of how much your Daddy loves you and that he is always with you.

Christina, please email me at paperpandacuts@hotmail.co.uk to arrange delivery.

Thank you again everyone! Toodle pip. xx

Twitter Design Competition

Last Friday we set a competition on Twitter to design an original papercut, based on your favourite song/lyric - the more inventive and imaginative the interpretation, the better! 

I have spent today reviewing all entries with Lou W and Julie (the PP admin team) and I am utterly gobsmacked by the talent there is out there! *runs away to join the circus instead* hee hee...

I thank you all so much for entering our competition. 

Massive thanks goes to Julie for helping run it, and a bigger thank you to everyone that took part. 

It shows me how much you love papercutting and I hope you've all enjoyed making these as much as we've enjoyed looking through your entries. It's been a right bugger trying to find our favourites. 

We've gone for a right mix from ones that fit the brief perfectly, to ones that made us go '"N'aaaw" and ones that really should be in a gallery... So - here are the results...!

We chose an overall winner between us and then each picked one runner up.

WINNER - @bellatilley.

For the cleverest, most amazing design!

Panda's runner up - @spooni_toon.

Awesome concept and totally different to other cutters - this should be in a gallery!

Julie's runner up - @annienaan.

Most unique interpretation of the brief.

Lou W's runner up - @kimbutlerdesign (on behalf of Kim's Mother-in-law).

Fantastic use of positive and negative space!

The winner gets a magnificent PP goody bag and each runner up wins a print of their choice. Please email your details to paperpandacuts@hotmail.co.uk

* * * * *

Here are collages of all the amazing entries :) Well done and thank you again for entering xx

February (bbbrrrr!)

It's cold, isn't it? It's bloody freezing in fact and I am very muchly looking forward to Spring. It's been an exciting year for PP already so I'll just bung on an extra wooly pully and quit moaning.
I have been approached by a publisher and asked to produce a 'How To Papercut' type book and it's just been approved which is a bit exciting, no? It will be filled with templates for people to make their own things so you'll actually see ol' Bunny & Bird in print amongst other favourite characters. I may have to leave out the Tiny Profanities, though as I don't think they'll go down too well on the shelves of WH Smiths.
I'm currently working on pieces for a new exhibition at Obsidian Art Gallery in the Spring, you can see the details as they emerge here: "The Art of Poetry" and yes, you'll be able to buy the pieces directly from the gallery without having to swear AT ALL or fight people (much) which will be nice, huh? 'The Stag' will be there along with spin-off pieces and the new Alice In Wonderland papercut. 
'The Stag' is finished already and I'm chuffed to bits with it, and no, o'er is NOT a spelling mistake, but a ye old English way of saying 'over'. I can't tell you the hearts attacks I had when people told me, "lovely, but it's wrong" when I uploaded the pictures, haha!

+63623

Obsidian Art have also asked me if I'd like to exhibit all on my own sometime this year which is a huge honour and hopefully I can just do away with stuff like sleep and going to the loo in order to pull out the stops and make enough artwork to fill that gorgeous space. If you haven't yet visited then it's worth a trip. Filled with fabulous work by various talented bods. I'm pretty sure I spend more than I earn there whenever I visit. Shhh, don't tell Mr P!
2014 has also seen a rocket in the value of PP's. Why? I don't know!! I'm trying my best to please as many peeps as I can, though, by using eBay (ID theoriginalpaperpanda) and starting pieces at 99p so that you guys can determine your own prices and I'm also selling cuts in the online shop www.paperpanda.bigcartel.com at their regular price (as they've tended to skyrocket on eBay) so it's fastest fingers first for those ones. If you're trying to grab one from the shop I've found out how so many peeps have managed to nab one time and time again so I'll let you in on the secret, shhh, don't tell anyone else! See the 'like' button on Facebook? Hover over it and it says 'get notifications' and that way you are told the very second anything is posted on the page. Now, I know that 50% of page posts are me just waffling about my new blue boots or trying to make you buy a kit, but other times it's to tell you that something has been released for sale in the shop so YOU can get there first. Cunning eh?
For the time being the ones in the online shop will stay at a more 'normal' price compared to what they are reaching on eBay, mainly because I have no desire to start wearing ballgowns, and diamonds are sooo last year, dahhling ;)
In two weeks time there will be a three page feature in my favourite magazine Cotswold Life, the March edition. Candia, one of the editors, came to interview me and she was lovely and didn't mind that I had tattoos, a nervous twitch and was slightly 'odd' and didn't even flinch when Munch leaned on her. Nice lady. She has a cat called Sid Vicious which says it all, really. So you can catch up with the story of Paper Panda in it soon. I still find it hard to believe that anyone can write more than three lines about me, never mind three pages! I guess news is slow in the Cotswolds.
The biggest, and probably saddest news of all is that we are leaving our beloved Quarwood at the end of this month. It will always hold a special place in my heart and I cry every time I think of actually going, but we are overcome with boxes of cushions, trays of cards, knives, cutting mats, 263785 printers and there's just no room anymore. I looked into having a garden office but it didn't conform to planning regulations so alas we are packing up my ol' desk and moving just along the road to Bourton on the Water and *gasp* civilisation. Yup, there will be people, real life ones that can see me and everything. I may even have to get dressed in normal clothes and ditch the animal costumes and speak to people again. Eeeek! On the plus side we will have plenty of room for Paper Panda to expand and for me to run around, arms out, pretending to be an aeroplane which I do believe is mandatory. And I will also be able to swing a cat, apparently, so watch out, Mabel! *must not cry, must not cry*
Catch up with us on Twitter now, too if you want to be extra stalky as I can give away stuff on there. I knoooow you can do it on FB too, but they change the rules so often that it's difficult to keep up, y'know? So hopefully see you there!
Here's some bits and bobs I've been working on recently for your eyeballs pleasure. Toodles xxx

Rants of a pissed off Panda

Rant Alert - *woowoo woowoo* !!!
Phewee! It's been a bit of a crappy past week here in Panda cottage and I'm very much looking forward to a night off tonight - okay, well, a few hours anyway. 

As well as copyright issues (have I broken them - no, I haven't! Why not? This is why... *and repeat 326543 times hee hee) I've also spotted that someone copied my work and was selling each piece for about a tenner. The excuse was that she had no idea who I was and that she found the stuff on Google images (oh, well, that's okay then!) but with a stern legal letter it's been resolved and she's stopped selling them now, thank chuff. I just won't take it laying down, folks, so please don't copy my stuff. I am here to help you to learn this craft yourself, always here for advice and tips and I think I do a pretty good job so please do your own thing and stay away from my ideas and designs as a common courtesy as well as it being just plain copyright and I will sue the pants off you.

There have been a few people in the past week that think it's not at all rude to say that they think my stuff is too expensive. It's their right to an opinion, they say. Why do they think it's okay to say this? How on earth do they know what goes into each piece? I consider myself to be at the top of the game with perfect cutting skills, a nice range of original designs and I'm a little bit popular so why should I give stuff away? Everything sells within the first minute and to be honest I could put my prices UP but don't want to take the piss. 
Just as a wee breakdown for the rude ones amongst you, this is what goes into PP...

It is the sole income for me and Mr P. It pays the rent, bills - everything.
I employ three mums who work from home, with flexible hours and above the minimum wage plus bonuses.
I pay my National Insurance and taxes to the government.
I pay for all my fonts to be used commercially.
I pay for business insurance.
Only the absolute best top quality ingredients are used and are sourced from small family businesses in the UK. If something isn't up to scratch I don't stock it anymore and I look for something better. You will only ever buy the best from Paper Panda - not a £2 frame from Wilko's in sight.
The amount of things that go missing in the post add up to hundreds of pounds per month and this comes out of our pockets. No, we don't claim through Royal Mail as we simply don't have the time.
I support several charities as well as giving away hundreds of pounds per month to friends in need. I am a generous person. I do not sleep on a bed of cash.

I appreciate that this rant and breakdown of costings isn't something that every artist or shop does as a rule, but I have gotten to the point where I feel that I have to justify myself. Disgusting isn't it? 

I awoke this morning to a staggering amount of likes, comments and shares on my latest 'The Stag' papercut. I lay in bed reading all the comments and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. I love it, I do. I take every comment on board and it proper warms my heart. Until I come across some guy who wrote:
'Hard work, very clever, but wouldn't getting a life be more satisfying?'
This horrible comment ruined my day. It made me cry. I suffer from terrible anxiety and haven't left the cottage since last Monday (8 days ago) and this really hit home. WHY do people feel the need to be so utterly vile? Can you please remember that behind every page there is a person with feelings? There are 4500 'likes' on that piece of work so far and that one stupid comment ruined it all for me. I know it shouldn't, but there it is.
Thankfully I have a merry little band of followers that loyaly stick by me and know that my work is worth every penny, and I love them for it. My heart and soul goes into every single piece and if you own a Paper Panda then you'll know this. I also know that I should concentrate on the positives, but as any artist knows this is almost impossible to do. We are sensitive souls y'know!

The ultimate aim of this piece is to please think before you type and always be kind, it doesn't cost anything. My Mum always said 'If you haven't got anything nice to say then don't say anything at all'.
Also, stop bloody copying me, yer' buggers!

 

My journey through the minefield that is copyright

This is a subject that's cropped up a lot recently so I thought that by detailing my accounts it may help some people who are starting their own papercut business not make the same mistakes that I did.
Like many crafty folk I'd already dabbled in glass painting, card making and other craft hobbies and I'd decided I'd try papercutting after seeing it on Etsy back in 2010. I made one for myself and uploaded it on Facebook, then a few more and very soon I had old schoolfriends asking me if they could buy them so I opened a page. Extra money for Christmas, awesome! I was the first crafty papercutter on Facebook. Oh, you should have heard me roar when Amy from Paper Dreams rocked up selling them too, haha! (Best of friends now, thankfully). Imagine it though, being the only one and there's hundreds now! Being the only one meant I was hugely naiive though, and I didn't have anyone to discuss anything with. Thankfully it's not the case now.
This is where I bare my soul - don't judge me too harshly! 
In the very beginning (first couple of weeks) I used Google images to add accents to my papercuts. I thought that the skill was in actually cutting the paper neatly rather than the design aspect, like "look at what I made! See how it's all attached and cut from paper?!' rather than 'this design is a reflection of what I was feeling that day and it's soft lines...oh, and it's also cut from paper'.
After a while I found Shutterstock, a bank of designs and images that you pay for. I had also found some papercutting buddies by then, too, so we all grouped together and bought a subscription. Suddenly we had all the images in the world! Brilliant. And we'd paid to use them so it was all good. We assured eachother that there were plenty to go around and if xxx was making that design then xxx wouldn't. Excellent. No problem there then. Or was there? See, after a while we realised that the images had a little bit of small print that said 'not for commercial use'. Did this apply to us? Oh dear, yes it did. Pants. Scrap that idea, then.
The key then was to obtain swirls and accents and to make them unrecognisable from the original, so a bit of a design helping hand. So you take a bit of swirl from one vector, then a leaf from another and maybe alter the shape a little by tweaking the nodes. That, and we found websites that offered commercial images for designers. Yes, you have to pay, but if you can't draw then it's the best way forward. I'm not sure the swirls I used were unrecognisable enough though, and by this time I was a bit spooked and unsure of what was and wasn't allowed. I couldn't draw myself. Hadn't done it for 15 years so I couldn't possibly make drawings good enough for papercut designs. (haha!)
At this point I decided to make papercuts using purely typography. Fonts are pretty in their own right and don't need accents! Hooray! Hang on a sec...why are some free and some you have to pay for? Here's that 'personal use only' term again. But I use loads of fonts!!! I have to pay for them ALL? Well, yes, yes you do. Your papercuts are getting quite expensive to make by this point, huh?
I went to buy a pencil.
A customer approached me and asked me to make a papercut based on their wedding invitation. I said yes, of course, but I'll have to alter it to make it my own. So, I redrew the invite, cut it out and it was lovely. I was so proud of myself, I'd drawn my own papercut design!
No, no, I hadn't. I'd taken somebody else's original concept and slightly adapted it, to which I found out when the original designer contacted me with a 'cease and desist' formal letter. I had never felt so bad since the day I gave my neighbour a cat foot sandwich instead of beef paste and she ate it (I was 10). I felt sick to my stomach. I honestly thought I'd done the right thing! I couldn't apologise enough and spent all evening in a turmoil. The lady thankfully believed that my intentions were good, forgave me and helped me with the best bit of advice I ever had, and that I'll pass on to you:
If you are an artist/designer/crafter and you sell your items then it's your duty to read up and know about copyright.
I have never been more grateful in my life for this piece of information that seems obvious enough, but it's not. Don't guess because it'll come back and bite you in the ass. She pointed me in the direction this book: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/patents-copyrights-trademarks-for-dummies-henri-j-a-charmasson/1100297683?ean=9780470339459
and for a few months it sat beside my toilet. It was really interesting and as well as telling me that I'd so far pretty much done everything wrong it also gave me some excellent tips for my new business.
The lass also went through my gallery and pointed out that the hare from 'to the moon and back' was copyright, even though it was silhouetted. The recognisable song lyrics (that weren't also regular everyday sayings) were copyright. The photographs I'd silhouetted? Also copyright.
I dumped 80% of my online gallery in the bin.

After this I went and purchased all of the fonts that I used regularly. I contacted a few font designers directly and got bulk deals in some cases.
I contacted as many of the Shutterstock designers that I could remember (and find) to offer them the profits I'd made from using their designs in part or full as my own and my apologies for not knowing any better. Funnily enough none of them ever came back to me, probably because they weren't interested in the measly £20 I'd made in profit and I was being up front and honest that I'd done something wrong.
I scrapped every single old design that 'I'd' made and started again. With a pencil and a sketchbook and NOTHING ELSE.
Funnily enough that's when Paper Panda took off and became popular. It never really was about the skill factor of being able to cut paper (in fact I know some papercutters that suck at cutting but they sell really well because their designs are the shizzle) but it was about the composition, the drawing, the characters, the originality of design.
I hold my hands up in that I did wrong, I absolutely did wrong and I totally should have read up on the whole shebang before I ever started selling papercuts (or anything else!) but now I know and I wouldn't go back again for the world. Want me to make a Tinkerbelle for £1000? No thanks, contact Disney.
Now there are thousands of papercutters in the UK and the trend is spreading daily. Many of them are going on to sell their wares and bloody good for them, I think it's marvellous. There are lots of papercutting groups you can join that give advice and hopefully you'll be told immediately if you're doing something wrong - or you'll read this, and it'll change you for the better. It took me a good long while, trial and error, being shouted at and talking with my very small group of about 5 papercutters before I got it right. Hopefully you'll get it right from the get-go and will never have to feel the way that I did when I recieved the email from the lady that changed the way I worked forever.
(Thank you to the Hummingbird Card Company).

DIY Kits

So, recently you all seem to have bought a kit and got the papercutting bug. It's good, huh? Super relaxing and annoying in equal amounts? Yeeeh, it's great! I love that everybody is having a go themselves and finding a new hobby - and in some cases opening new businesses. Fab! If you haven't yet bought a Paper Panda kit then WHY NOT? It's seriously addictive and you can make all your Christmas pressies on the cheap, hee hee! You can buy kits from the shop here: Paper Panda Full Kit or if you already have a knife and a cutting mat then there's also this one (same but without equipment) Paper Panda Indroduction to Papercutting.
After that there's lots of little downloadable designs that you can buy in the shop from just £3, or you can have this one here for free House Rules Template just download it and and save it to your computer and print it out. This 'House Rules' one shouldn't be attempted by beginners though as it's a bit tricky and you might swear lots and that's never good. It's copyright to Paper Panda so don't be selling it or owt, okay?
When you've finished it should look like this:

But nobody will shout if it doesn't!
If you are unsure of how to use Dropbox, or are struggling to download please ask your friend/brother/postman etc (not us) because it's nearly Christmas and we're reet busy and can't deal with 45,000 emails asking us about downloading stuff as it's just a freebie. Fanks ;)
Enjoy!
Panda xxx

Bunny & Bird Template Giveaway

So! Hello there and welcome back to my quiet space, aka The PP Blog!
I have these two sweet lol' framed papercuts that the Bunny & Bird DIY templates were made from recently. Those that bought a template since release day and today (25th) were all stuck into a virtual hat and I've pulled two names out to recieve the originals. They are the only Paper Panda original papercuts that will exist of this design, so that's quite cool, no?
*drumroll please*
Angie Partridge & Penelope Bates will each win one of the originals! *applause*
Now, it'll be a suprise which one you recieve to be fair, I've already boxed them up, so I hope that you recieve your favourite :)
Thank you to everyone that has purchased a template so far and I really hope that you're enjoying making your own papercuts.
*squidge*

Go Sober Winners!

Well it's been a tough month for lots of you but you raised a serious amount of money for Macmillian so you should be proud of yourselves.
As an added incentive I offered up two prizes for Paper Panda liker Go Sober peeps. One to whoever raised the most dosh and one to a random luck-o-the-draw type person. Here's the results...

Joanne Regan raised a whopping £1175 as of midnight last night. She wins a Paper Panda goody bag including the gold 'You Star' Teeny Weeny papercut and as yet unreleased new Paper Panda goodies.

The other lucky lass who was pulled out of the virtual hat is Kerry Ryan who also wins
a Paper Panda goody bag including a red 'You Star' Teeny Weeny papercut. She raised £210.

WELL DONE to you both and to everyone else that went sober for charity. *applause*

P xxx

Diary of a miniature loving papercutter

So this week in between rescue attempts at car accident scenes and pooping on a London surgeon I have been experimenting with miniature papercuts. I should say it's been a resounding success, I mean, who doesn't like tiny things? There's something a bit magical about something small, like it belongs to a fairy or you could find it in the niche of a tree somewhere. Let me rewind a bit. I recieved from eBay a vintage letterpress printing tray and popped a hook on it and it's on the wall in the hall. I then scoured the cottage for tiny things of wonder to put in the little spaces, then pootled all over Etsy for other oddities of the itsy bitsy variety to add to it. The next day some new frames arrived from Dave the farmer, and oh my...they were so small! After I'd stopped laughing I saw the potential and got to work. Miniature is the new black.
PP has, over time, developed with the farmer a seriously cool way of floating papercuts in gorgeous handmade frames, and on a small scale this technique has worked brilliantly. Bunny was able to float with a 'shmall' balloon next to bird which is always a bit special and reminiscent of the recent popular House floating papercut that reached a record price when it went up for auction. I'm enjoying cutting the tiny pieces so much I wish I could make them all the time, just getting smaller and smaller. Have you seen the guy that carves animals from burnt matchstick heads? Ooooh I'd love to try that!
At the other end of the scale I'm battling with a massive A1 papercut that I spread over the kitchen table every few days and add a bit to it. I just sketched very loosely a nature inspired design and I'm busy ignoring all that and just cutting freehand. It's scary and I'm not sure it's going to work, and if it DOES work how on earth will I frame it? We shall see. I'm not a big fan of working on a large scale so far, that's for sure. So if I ever pull off a fabulous large piece of papercutting then you know it's pretty much a fluke and I'm feeling rather relieved that a cat hasn't used it to dance on. Or maybe it has and that's why it looks fabulous, who knows?
Apart from small things, something else has happened this week and I'm still not sure if it's really happening or if there's some kind of Facebook bug. My Facebook likes are increasing by approximately 800 likes per day. Where on earth are they all coming from? Why is there a sudden influx of people clicking the 'like' button? I'm getting quite obsessed. I'll go for a wee, come back downstairs, refresh the page and announce to Mr Panda that we have gained 8 likers in the time it took to visit the lav. I'm sure my time can be better spent but right now it's quite exciting to watch.
Usually, with Facebook, you'll find people with other crafty business type pages will come and 'like' your page and leave a copy and pasted message asking you to return the favour, but this isn't happening. These are regular people who are liking it for, well, me and no other ulterior motive. How strange! My likes have increased by 34 whilst I've been writing this, if you are interested.
Is my ol' mum paying them?
Well, I best go and get out of these panda printed pyjama's and start some cutting. It's 12.55pm and all I've done so far is drink two cups of tea and eat a boiled egg from a Holly Hobbie eggcup. Artists keep such odd hours, you know - well, this one does ;)
39....40....41....

 

Go Sober 2013

Heard of it? I hadn't until very recently but I think it's a grand idea. I gave up booze in June 2012 so I can't be a part of it myself because it's waaaay too easy and nobody would sponsor me - but you guys can give it a shot!
So, as an added incentive every Facebook Paper Panda page liker that signs up for Go Sober 2013 will be entered into a draw to win a wee Paper Panda goody bag. In fact, there will be two, one for the person that raises the most money for Macmillan and the other will be randomly drawn from the entrants.
Part of the goody bag is the tiny weeny papercut below, one in gold for the person that raises the most money, and one in...'something else' (because I haven't made it yet!) for a random person, as well as other PP goodies just to say BLOODY WELL DONE, YOU.
Once you have signed up, pop your link on the Facebook photo the same as the one below so I can see how well you are doing - and so can everyone else! You may even get some sponsors :)
This is not in any way linked to Facebook.
1. Be a page liker.
2. Sign up for Go Sober 2013
3. Pop your link in the comments below and/or the FB picture pinned to the top on the FB page before 1st October 2013
4. Be sober for October and raise lots of pennies!
Find out about Go Sober 2013 and sign up here: http://www.gosober.org.uk/about/
You can do it, YOU STAR!

Diary

So I seem to have found a little place on the interweb that I can ramble away on and only 6 of you see it. I like that. It's cosy. It can be quite daunting when you make a spelling mistake in front of 13,500 Facebook people, (where the hell did they all come from?) especially if you write like me with some kind of odd Northern accent and my typo's are usually on purpose. Why am I Northern when I type? I have no idea! I have quite an odd, silly voice like a guffaw type drawl, not Northern at all even though I grew up in sunny Widnes.
I digress. As usual.
Today I took a trip to the garden centre and had lunch with a friend. This is unusual for two reasons. One: I generally don't go outside as a rule. Two: I don't have real life friends.
So how did this come about, then? I met up with Kath from Genie Lampshades on Facebook, she lives down the road from me. I actually warned her right in the beginning that I don't make friends because real life people can be a bit bastardy. She wasn't phased at all though and just keeps coming back! The lil' monkey. So, she is now my friend, only taking the title because she made me see that not all people are bastardy (new word for you there) and some can actually enjoy roaming around garden centres, looking at material, saying how expensive everything is and cooing over the pottery.
She bought some lovely Emma Bridgewater fabric and made a shade this afternoon and sold two of them immediately. She's a bit clever. It's handy having such a talented friend. All my lights look AWESOME.
Am I rambling? Tough. This is my diary, um, blog, so the 6 of you will just have to wait until something more interesting happens.
So I came home, drew a picture of a cat, ate a 'Cook' ready meal (fab posh quick food, I don't cook) and cut the cat out of paper, like you do. Photographed some cushions that have just arrived from the fabulous Ohh Deer and already half of them have sold to friends before I've even put them on the website. Um, sorry! They are nice though.
Tonight saw the release of the very first collaboration piece between me and Rebekah Heyburn Jewellery. She has taken my papercut design and turned it into a silver masterpiece. I adore it. So I popped it on eBay at a starting price of 99p and an hour later it's on £36 - cool huh? No idea what it'll reach. I love that about chancing it with the 99p start, it lets other people decide what something is really worth themselves rather than me putting a ridiculous price on it and hoping for the best. Oh, and it's really good fun watching it!
I blame Miranda for all this writing a diary/blog lark. I just finished reading her book and found it rather jolly. If you haven't read it then give it a go.
Right, I'm off to show those Facebookers my picture of a cat called Bruce, then off to watch Big Brother (I know I know, it's naff). Cheerio!

Big Fat FAIL

So today I've been framing a lot of cuts that have been hanging around the studio for a week or so before they get damaged. So I wasn't concentrating and ripped one. POO! Yes, I swore a little and was about to chuck it in the bin when I figured that one of you guys might like it.
I stuck it on ye olde Facebook and got hundreds of comments before I called down Minecraft addict, Poppy (age 10) to scroll through the names and randomly pick one.
I video'd (how DO you spell that?) it all on my little phone fandangle, but being completely crap I couldn't get it to upload to Facebook. Tried Instagram instead but it'd only show snippets and 99% of you guys don't even have Instagram (you should try it, it's pretty addictive!) so all in all a big fat FAIL.
So here I am to write in these black and white wordy things that I'll be sending *goes to check spelling* Jessica Kyei-Yamoah this sadly ripped yet magnificent papercut.
Thanks for your support guys. You are, as always, a bit odd but I do like you ;)

 

Fame & Fortune

....may one day be something that applies to me. Until then I'll make do with being in this months Craftseller Magazine. I jest, it's been great and I'm still astonished that anyone would want to read about lil ol' me.
When the nice lady came to interview me I was so scared! I hadn't seen any people (apart from my husband and daughter) for about a month, being a proper loner oddbod artist, so to meet this wildly enthusiatic little jumping-bean of a lady was quite astonishing, but pleasantly so. She soon had me at ease, complimenting me on my nail polish (always a winner) and before long I was nattering away almost oblivious to the tape recorder.
Then the photographer arrived. He was incredibly stern and professional. He never did edit out the spots on my chin like he promised, though. He took some very good photos, but you didn't get to see the REALLY good ones as they would have had my heavily tattooed arms in them which wouldn't be a good look ;) We had a good 'ol romp around the garden with the cats. I sat on the strawberries while I posed. I tried to go for demure but ended up looking slightly awkward, but the effort was put in and I think, in the end...it turned out rather well. Don't you?
Pick up September 2013 copy of Craftseller in all good retailers. And possibly some not so good, but we won't hold that against them.