In the late 1970s, artist Nancy Shelly, home with her chicken pox-infected three children, decided to make homemade Valentine's Day cards.

"I got out the paper and cut out some hearts," Shelly said. "I had no art training, but one of the hearts I'd created looked really interesting. I couldn't figure out what it was about that heart and it bothered me.

"So I kept looking and monkeying about. Maybe I became a bit obsessed. And I played around making hearts for the next few years."

Shelly, of Bethlehem, continued to create hearts and other small paper cuttings based on vignettes she drew.

In the early '80s, a good friend who sold antiques at the Allentown Fairgrounds Great Eastern Antique Show, asked Shelly if she would be willing to have her framed Sherenschnitte decorate the booth.

A local artisan shop owner in Allentown saw Shelly's work, contacted her, and soon Shelly was designing and cutting and selling her work.

The art of Sherenschnitte, or "scissor cuts," developed in 16th century Switzerland and Germany and migrated with immigrants to Colonial America in the 18th century.

The intricate paper cutting, which often incorporates symmetry within its design, was used in silhouettes, valentines and love letters.

In 1985, Judy Clap, who worked with Burnside Plantation, saw a Valentine Shelly had designed and given to her husband, Dave, and invited her to participate in a demonstration of her art at the Blueberry Festival.

This event was Shelly's first show.

Shelly has been "schnitting" for close to 30 years.

"I submitted my work to the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen and once they approved and accepted my work, I qualified to participate in juried craft shows," Shelly said.

Early on, Shelly didn't paint her work, as she often does now, once it's complete.

"I didn't know you could buy commercial patterns, either, which is good, because I distinguished myself among other sherenschnitters by designing and drawing my own patterns.

"I ended up creating my own style, because I had confidence in my work."

Shelly said she wasn't initially confident about painting the pieces.

"But when I made a birth announcement for [daughter] Jessica, I looked at the finished cutting and decided it needed something more, so I painted it," she said.

"Today, some of my customers always buy painted work and others always buy unpainted work," she said.

"When I start a new design, sometimes I intend to paint the piece when I finish, sometimes not. It depends," Shelly said. "What's important, when I do decide to paint something, is keeping the busyness under control, and part of that is color intensity."

Shelly said if she plans to watercolor a piece when she finishes cutting, she creates samples she paints first to determine the correct balance of color.

"I joke really I'm a wallpaper border designer," she said. "I usually design the border first and then decide what to put in the middle."

Shelly gathers much of her inspiration from nature.

"I seem to like insects. I find their intricacy interesting. The mosquito, for instance, is a great looking bug," she said. "I also find ideas in books, including the Bible stories, which were the basis of several pieces I created a few years ago."

Included on the back of each framed piece is a brief note Shelly writes, with some small detail or observation. The note, dated Sept. 11, 2010, on the back of a piece that features a squirrel snagging acorns from an oak tree's branches reads: "As I water the plants on my studio window sills, I brush against the rosemary topiary which I hope to keep alive all winter. Just for a moment, the room smells like summer!"

"I knew a potter who scratched notes into his pots before firing them," Shelly says. "I do something similar, now, with my own art because someone may turn it over one day and say, 'Hey! This was made by a human being.'"

Shelly has exhibited her art in many places including the Brooklyn Branch of the New York Public Library, Boston Symphony Hall, State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the New York Interfaith Center.She was also invited, in 1999, to create an ornament for the White House's Blue Room Christmas tree.

"I received an invite in the mail. The challenge, that year, was called 'Saving America's Treasures,' so I did some research on Benjamin Latrobe, [a neoclassical architect who designed the US Capitol in the early 1800s].

"He had designed furniture for the state dining room, but when the British attacked, the furniture was destroyed.

"However, the water-colored drawings of these beautiful chairs made from tiger maple with scarlet silk cushions trimmed in gold braid with golden tassels survived.

"I recreated the chairs, added the White House cat, Socks, on the pillow, and used gold foil I braided for the trim.

"I was among the 350 craftspeople whose work was chosen to decorate the tree. And because Dave and I do high-end, juried craft shows, we knew about 150 people at the reception. They took the ropes down and permitted us up close looks at many of the White House rooms. It was an amazing experience."

"I've learned that it takes a bit of obsession and determination to do something well no matter what it is, and I regard all I do as practice for the next piece. It gives me great joy to [create] this art," Shelly said.