Hand Cut Paper Cutting -My first try!

Ok, I apologise now for my lack of posts recently. I've been sooooo busy, and my littlest hasn't been well (measles, poor chap, he's only 7 months old, not to mention he's just got his first 2 teeth and has had an ear infection to make it worse!) so I haven't managed much 'real' crafting. I have however been working on some digital designs for my new Silhouette. I'm hoping to post some soon, but some are still works in progress. I got a book on papercutting for my birthday, because I was looking for inspiration for doing some designs, and also some hints and tips on how to make a paper cut work, but unfortunately the book didn't really do that, so I've just been studying lots of talented paper cutters like Rob Ryan,
 and the wonderful blog of Elsa Mora.

I have also found some AMAZINGLY talented people on facebook, making a living from this fascinating art form. Like Gemma Esprey

 and Charlie Trimm. 

Wow, these ladies are talented.

 Anyway, even though I have a new fangled cutting machine on my shelf it was always my intention to have a go at some hand cut paper cuts myself, and reading the facebook updates from these ladies has been my inspiration. I decided yesterday that as I couldn't go to church as I had to stay out of public with EJ (he's possibly still contagious), I would have a try at designing and cutting a piece. Now here comes my biggest problem. I'm no artist. Crafter, yes. Artist, not really. Joey thinks I'm fantastic because I can draw pretty much anything he asks me too, but he's 3, and doesn't have high standards! I managed to get an A in my art GCSE, but I think that was my patterns and attention to detail really. I've come to realise that being a great papercutter isn't just about the cutting, or the concept, but about actual artistic design. Gemma and Charlie can really draw. So I stuck to basic shapes and letters, and hoped for the best! I wanted to do something for myself, as this was always going to be my first ever papercut, and I wouldn't want to give it away, so I did something I love. Rainbows! And what better thing to write, than the verse in Genesis where God promises the rainbow will be his covenant with all people never to flood the entire world again.
So I did the sketch, fiddled around with it a bit and when I was happy scanned it into my computer and printed off a spare copy (just incase the first one was a cutting disaster!). I waited until the boys were in bed last night and started to cut. I knew it was going to be tricky, but hey, its tough! I was using 160gsm paper (which I gather is too thick, but as a card maker I normally aim for 250gsm for cards, so didn't have much white card which was thinner) and trying to do circles and hair pin curves is so hard. I was turning the paper like I'd seen suggested, but it was still really hard. Straight lines are my friend. My next design is definitely going to have lots of straight lines!!!lol!!!
Anyway, here is the original sketch (all back to front of course!)

 Here is how far I got after one hour...

and two hours...

Thats all so far. I'll possibly have to wait for Tuesday night to get this finished, but will post the finished article then!
Let me know what you think, and definitely pay a visit to these supertalented papercutters!
Bx