The Tell-Tale Heart - an adventure in paper cutting

I've been working on the first stage of my new book. The paper. Nope, not even at the background yet. The paper's been folded and the large shapes have been cut out. And it's been taking quite awhile. Many hours at work the last couple of days, and then Pride and Prejudice at home. Is it even possible not to fall in love with Colin Firth after that? Hmmm, well.

So far, I'm fairly happy with this turned out. I may go through and add some small cuts along the edges. This photo of the first one didn't get much detail, but it got better as I went on, and I'll probably go back over this. I did rip a couple of things too, but the paper is thick enough that it doesn't matter.


Some of the beetles are meant to look, or at least be reminiscent, of gears.

I quite like this one! It's an escapement (that's what makes the tick-tock sound in mechanical watches) and gear train, and I think the negative/positive thing worked really really well.

It gets more complicated as it goes on, starting with the paper cutting, and it'll only get more complex as the background and text goes on it.