Hamish, hearts and happy times

I forgot to mention in my last post, but it has been a whole year since I started writing my blog!

The 12 months since that very first post written in Malaysian Borneo has been a whirlwind. Finishing our travels, starting new jobs, moving house twice, meeting new people and of course a whole lot of creative bits and bobs in between have made this year fly past at 100 miles an hour. I've enjoyed every minute and am so glad to have this blog as reminder of all the good things which have happened.

Now I have a lovely group of followers on Facebook and Twitter, some great online 'blogger' friends and commissions to keep me busy in my spare time! Thank you to all who've been there from the beginning and those who've joined me along the way. :)

Now, on to this week's projects!

This is my latest paper cut heart, a (slightly belated) housewarming present for some friends. I asked for a list of what they would like included and drew out the design by hand before I started to cut. Can you spot a kite surfer, cupcakes, butterfly, teapot and teacups, poppies, hearts, Dartmoor, wine, stars, bees, 'love' and a bike?

Copyright Clare Willcocks

Here are a couple of close-ups. The kite surfer is about as small as my fingernail. I think I'll replace this background colour with a dark olive green to frame it.

This bank holiday weekend has been quite a productive one as I also managed to get started on another lovely piece. The 'Hamish' in today's post title was a very special Scottie dog of whom very few photos were taken, so this paper cut is to remember him by.

It's designed in a similar style to the cat paper cut which I did recently, although this time I've decided to feature the dogs and doggy bits and pieces as negative space.

It still has a little way to go but it's a lovely one to cut. As always, it started out as a hand-drawn design in reverse, rubbed out and tweaked until I was happy!

In fact, I've done quite a bit of drawing this weekend. This is a biro sketch I did while watching Sam fishing in Shaldon, South Devon.

Finally, I'll leave you with these photos taken on our walk today from Mortehoe, just a little further up the coast from Woolacombe in North Devon. We took a picnic and followed a circular route up and down along the cliffs and then back around to the village, finishing with a cup of tea in Town Farmhouse café.

Woolacombe beach looked very busy, it's clear that summer's on its way!

The bottom right photo below is a thumb-sized caterpillar which we came across on the path.

A nosy little lamb watched us from a precarious position where it was munching grass.

I ended up with loads of photos of these little pink flowers!

And that's all for today! I would love for you to pop by my Facebook page with a like if you haven't already.

Also, don't forget that if you'd like to have a go at paper cutting yourself, my free template and tutorial can be found on Hope and Chances Creativity. :)

Today I'm sharing this post on the following blogs: Handmade Harbour, Manon Popje's Illustrations, Be Different Act Normal and Beyond the Picket Fence.