Paper Cutting- banner & cards

So as part of my attempt to tart up the blog a little bit, I tried out some designs for banners. I didn't necessarily want to use doll imagery so I decided to start with paper. I love paper, love it. I practically hoard it but I don't have a lot of experience in paper cutting. I've helped my sisters with school projects, but those were more along the lines of chunkier "SouthPark"ish construction paper shapes.

I took the opportunity to recycle some book pages I had previously set aside. I cut out the letters and decided that before I glued them anywhere, I would play around with them first.

Kind of hard to read, yeah. But fun, no?

I pinned them to paper to play with shadows.

Both words once I finished the cutting

In the morning, I wedged some rocks in there.

Still not that easy to decipher but I like the look overall.

And of course once I got cutting, I tried out some shapes,

Excuse the stars, I'm using big, clumsy scissors for this.

I had been considering making cards/postcards available for sale in my shop (mostly composed photographs) but I'm also considering some cutout scans/ collages. I tried out a design from an old sketch,

Possible future Valentine's Day card characters?

Maybe I'll continue with it?

And of course, I'm still not fully decided on the banner itself but I'll try some other designs. In the meantime, I'm using one of the more legible first attempts.