Storybox Commissions
Looking for a unique way to celebrate a special story or memory? Let's make a storybox together! All the info you need is right here on this page! See my previous storybox designs here.
Jump to:
Overview
My name is Jessica, and I'm the artist of Cuddly Potatoes!
For my wedding, I developed and designed 10 unique "storyboxes" to celebrate some of the most special moments and memories my partner and I made throughout our relationship. Now, I'd like to help you celebrate YOUR story!
I take a lot of pride and care in my commissions. During the process, I'll get to know you (and/or your loved one) as best as I can via your descriptions and photos, so that I can really reflect not only your likeness, but also whatever feelings and personality traits I can gather to make it really feel like your unique story! As with all my artwork, I strive to make all my commissions cute and meaningful, so the result is something special that you can cherish for years to come.
That means that this is a collaborative process! I'll email you throughout the process so you can approve the design each step of the way.
I've completed over 150 digital commissions with happy clients since 2017. 2024 will be my second year sharing my paper-crafting skills with clients, and I've now designed 15 storybox commissions in addition to my 10 wedding storyboxes (and making 20 extra copies of them). If you decide to work with me, I'll do my very best to make sure you're 100% happy too! <3
If you have any questions or concerns that aren't answered on this page, please don't hesitate to email me at jessica@cuddlypotatoes.com before booking a commission slot on ko-fi.
What's a storybox?
My storyboxes are made up of 5 to 8 layers of papercut art that are spaced apart with 3D adhesive dots and placed into a shadow box. (A shadow box is a picture frame with a deep interior, usually ~1"). Papercut art is not a new concept, but I call mine "storyboxes" because I like to give my designs that extra magic of, well, telling a personal story! :) I made my designs highly personal and specific, and I'd love to do that for you too.
A close-up look at some of my favorite personal details!
For technical details, scroll to the "Storybox Material Details" section below.
Customization details for Original Storyboxes are as follows:
Original StoryboxFull Design Customization $315 |
| Come with your own unique story OR choose a base from my storybox designs |
|
Fully new designs or re-design of up to ALL 5-8 layers |
| If working off a base design, you may request for any layers/details to be added, removed, or replaced! |
|
Many colors are now available!* |
|
Suggestions: - How you and your partner met! - You and your partner at your wedding venue! - Video game design totally altered to depict your 10 favorite video games! |
*Based on your preferences and the design we create together, I will choose colors from my swatch deck and custom order your cardstocks. My swatch deck covers a vast array of colors, but of course, there are still limits, as I can't create cardstocks that do not exist. That being said, I am confident that we will be able to find a combo of colors that works for you!
The green palette used in my wedding storyboxes:
If you'd like to make a storybox based on your relationship, these would be perfect for wedding or anniversary gifts*; they'll be wonderful keepsakes for years to come! We can also make a storybox based on yourself, and you'll have an awesome piece of personalized artwork for your home!
*Please note that as with all my commissions, I cannot guarantee timelines. See "Timeline" section below for more details.
Booking & Payment
Be sure to read all the info below so you know what to expect. When you're ready to start, visit my ko-fi commission page to book a slot!
If commissions are currently sold out, add your email to this form and I'll email you when I open up new slots!
Payment must be made 100% up-front, before I start the sketching process.
For most cases, you may purchase a new commission directly on the ko-fi commission page above! If you have a custom request that doesn't fit into the standard commission structure, you can email me at jessica@cuddlypotatoes.com to discuss. From there, I can take payment via venmo (@cuddlypotatoes) or via a donation at my ko-fi page: https://ko-fi.com/cuddlypotatoes
Commission payments are non-refundable.
Pricing
Original Storyboxes (Full Design Customization):
- $315
- Come with your own unique story!
- OR, choose a base design / idea from my existing storybox designs
- I will newly design up to ALL 5-8 layers in your storybox
- Full involvement in my 4-step process
- One assembled 8" x 8" storybox, ready to display!
- U.S. Shipping included in price.
- Int'l Shipping will cost extra; currently able to ship to Canada and Australia.
. ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .
If you have any questions at all, feel email me at jessica@cuddlypotatoes.com to discuss.
Storybox Material Details
Storyboxes are made of 5 to 8 layers of papercut artwork, assembled with 3D adhesive dots, and placed into a shadow box.
Each layer is designed by me (hello!) and cut by a papercutting machine. The cardstock I use is solid-core, archival quality, fade-resistant, and varies between 65lb to 110lb cover weight, depending on the design, purpose, and color of each layer.
The exterior dimensions of the shadow box are 8" x 8" with a 1.2" depth. There is a glass front, and a sawtooth hanger attached on the back.
Care & Handling
Please avoid putting your storybox in direct sunlight. Indirect sunlight is okay!
I use high quality fade-resistant cardstock, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for it to fade; the sun is crazy strong! I've hung my personal storyboxes near a window (indirect sunlight) for over a year and the color has been perfectly preserved, so they can definitely sit in a sunlit room, of course. But I recommend avoiding any spots where the sun directly hits it through the window.
Examples
Please see all previous storybox designs here to assess which designs you might want to use or base your ideas off of.
Below are some examples of how my friends and I have displayed storyboxes in our own homes. :)
Timeline
The design process usually takes approx. 8-10 weeks, provided you respond quickly to emails. However, this timeline is not guaranteed. Please kindly understand that I am working on several commissions at a time, as well as my regular projects and designs for Cuddly Potatoes. I balance it all as well as I can, but sometimes things don't go as planned! Rest assured, any delays on my end will be communicated to you in a timely manner.
Given all the projects I am concurrently working on, I cannot accommodate any specific deadlines. If you are hoping to have a commission done by a certain date, I recommend starting at least 3 months ahead of time. This gives you the biggest chance that it'll be done in time, but again, I cannot guarantee it.
If you are commissioning a storybox as a gift, please be understanding if our design process extends past the estimation! I will always try my best, but again, I cannot guarantee that gifts will be done or delivered by a specific date. Thank you.
One last note: you're an important part of this! Once we get started, please try to respond to my emails within 1-3 days so we can keep things moving. :) The "8-10 week" estimation relies on the assumption of your timely responses. If the delays are on your end, then please understand that the process will take even longer.
My Design Process
Storybox commissions work in four stages, spanning over ~8 to 10 weeks. When I finish a certain step, I'll send a photo to you. You can tell me you approve of it and we move forward, or you can ask for tweaks, and I'll revise it as needed! Generally, once a "step" is approved, it shouldn't change anymore moving forward or it would create unnecessary work.
- Concept(s) - With text descriptions, I'll describe some ideas I have for your storybox! Since the many layers make it such a complex design, we want to have a pretty solid concept before I dive into sketching.
- Sketch - These are rough, but we want to be able to have a sketch that depicts an idea that you're happy with before we move onto the drawing stage.
- Digital Mockup / Line Drawing - We can adjust the line drawing until you approve of it, modifying lines and details but not the whole idea since that should be finalized at the sketch stage. This "Line Drawing" will essentially be a digital mockup for how the final set papercut layers will look.
- Paper-Cut Layers, Pre-Assembly - I will have your layers cut out, and show you a photo of all the cardstock layers before assembling the entire box with the adhesive dots. This should just be a final check with no additional changes, but if you notice something you don't love, this is the last chance to say so!
When you want to make changes, it helps most if you provide detailed descriptions of all the changes you'd like to make at a time, in one email, instead of making the requests separately. To keep things moving, I'd like to keep the number of revisions under 3 for sketches, 2 for line drawing, and 1 for paper cutting. Rest assured though that with your detailed descriptions, we often don't need many revisions.
Personal Use Terms
Commissioned designs should be for personal use only. (e.g. for your own enjoyment, as gifts to friends/family, etc.) The design is not to be used for logos, branding, business, profit, or anything other than personal use.
The artist retains all creative rights; I may produce, post, re-use, or re-color any part of the image for my own business needs. I may post the design on social media, post examples on my websites, use the design for future products to sell, etc.
I will only draw what I am comfortable with. I reserve the right to cancel & refund the commission for any reason.
By purchasing this commission, you agree to these conditions. :)
Thank you, and I look forward to making something special together!
Client Reviews <3
Customer Reviews
I loved working with Jessica on both of my custom story boxes. Yes, you heard that right, this is the second box that I’ve purchased from her… (and possibly not the last!) 😊 For each of the story boxes, I had many ideas for our story boxes for my husband and myself, and Jessica went above and beyond to bring them to life! She asked all the right questions and was extremely transparent about each step of the process, including timelines and expectations of the digital sketch vs the physical product. There weren’t many revisions needed because she nailed it. My husband was speechless when he saw the physical story box, recognizing each layer as a milestone in our lives – from the day we met to when we got married. It sits happily in our room, where we've put all our memory trinkets from our adventures together <33 Additionally, when the product finally arrived, shipping was fast, and it arrived super snug in its box with a lot of packaging, as perfect as it would have been when first shipped.
I also do my art on the side, but I look up to Jessica and feel like I’ve made a friend in this process 😊 I can’t wait to see what she has in store next and future story boxes! Thus, I highly recommend Jessica and her flawless, creative, and most perfect artwork! 😊
I absolutely loved working with Jessica on the custom storybox. I had so many ideas in my head for my first anniversary gift to my husband, and Jessica went above and beyond bringing them to life! She asked all the right questions and was extremely transparent about each step of the process, including timelines and expectations of the digital sketch vs physical end product. I appreciated how flexible she was when I asked for revisions (though honestly, not many were needed as her first drafts were nearly perfect) and took feedback incredibly well. I came out of the process feeling like we both got to know each other a bit better, as it felt like we had more of a dialogue instead of merely a transaction. My husband had a blast looking at the physical storybox and recognizing each layer as milestones in our lives, including little Easter eggs of how we met! It now sits happily in our memory cabinet, where we've put trinkets from our current adventures together.
Additionally, when the product finally arrived, shipping was SO fast and it arrived super snug in its box, as perfect as it would be when first shipped.
My fiance and I absolutely loved working with Jessica on our storybox. We enjoyed the process because Jessica was so organized, transparent, and was meticulous in capturing all of our important details. We loved how she walked us through the process of each layer and we were able to give feedback and adjust anything we needed. We are happy that she was able to capture our memories in such a unique way!
I really enjoyed the collaborative and transparent process to build the custom storybox. Jessica asks warm and engaging questions that reflect how special she wants to make your storybox. She also lays out a clear process for the storybox with milestones so it's completely transparent where she is with the progress.
Jessica also gives examples of revisions so you know what's reasonable to ask (yet she is so nice and open about it that you won't feel bad about asking first!).
Regarding the storybox content, I had a specific scene I wanted to recreate, and Jessica provided different sketches that we refined together. She gave a warning that facial expressions can be hard to capture because of the small scale. So one revision we ended up dropping the facial expressions, and Jessica mocked up exaggerated but clear body language that I think the silhouettes are a perfect medium for. Jessica maintained the best balance of honoring my memory of the scene and adding her own artistic / cuddly / blobby interpretations. Which is what I want because I love the art style of cuddlypotatoes!
I gave the storybox to my husband on our anniversary. When he opened the note, saw it was from cuddlypotatoes, and looked at the storybox, his first question was, "where's the potato corn?" Then he realized what the scene was and loved it -- our only dilemma was where to put it so we could appreciate it the most. In person, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the layers pop out that pictures couldn't capture.
The attention to detail, dedicated time, and collaborative process makes the storybox commission price completely worth it. Thank you for sharing something you created for yourself with others to also enjoy!
As soon as I saw the story box on Instagram, I knew I needed it. I had a rough vision in my head of what I wanted to make for my wife and brain dumped everything to Jessica. She took all that and created something better than I could have imagined. She was awesome to work with every step of the way and I'm so happy with the final product!