Hello, I’m Helene

I started scrapbooking about ten years ago, the way most people do. A box of photos that deserved better than a box, and a paper stash that kept growing every time I passed a craft shop. It took over my evenings and I let it.

We live in New Zealand, which is a long way from most of the places I want to put on a page. Travel has always tugged at my sleeve, and my layouts drifted the same way, toward somewhere older and further off than the view out my window. Eventually the papers I could buy stopped matching the places I had in my head, so I started making my own. Artful Safari is what came of that.

Most of a collection gets designed in my small office at home, with a cup of tea going cold beside me and three ragdoll cats who are all boys and all certain that the best seat in the room is the one I am using. My husband looks after the shop and the website so I can stay on the drawing side of it. It is the two of us, and that is the whole company.

What I make

Themed collections rather than odds and ends. Each one brings together coordinated papers, clipart and elements, ornate frames and display alphabets, all designed to sit together on a page without a fight. You can buy the whole collection or just the piece you needed today.

Everything is hand-designed at 300 DPI and arrives as an instant download the moment you pay. It works in the apps you already have open: Procreate, Photoshop, Canva and GoodNotes. Print it, or keep it on the screen.

Who it’s for

Scrapbookers, junk journalers, memory keepers and quiet creatives. Anyone who would rather spend an evening building a page than scrolling past somebody else’s.

There are also the journaling games, which started as a side project and became a favourite. One page a night, a story that builds as you go, and papers to keep it in.

How the art is made

The illustrations are a blend of hand-drawn work and AI-generated pieces, edited and reworked by me until the collection holds together. I would rather tell you that than have you wonder.

Come and have a look

Pull up a chair and have a wander through the shop. If you have a question about a kit, or you want to know whether something will work for what you are making, just ask. It comes straight to me.

Helene 🤎
Artful Safari, New Zealand