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Patience, paper and glue are all that Sherill Anne Gross needs to create a masterpiece.

The Greenbelt resident recently displayed her cut-paper illustrations at Artomatic in Washington, D.C., and is working diligently to complete her next pieces for the upcoming show at Brentwood Arts Center in Brentwood.

Her studio, located in the Greenbelt Community Center, is filled with her art, which she also displays the first Sunday of every month during the center's Artful Afternoons. Gross has been an artist in residence for a year and a half. Her custom artwork, mostly 4-by-6 inches, hangs on the wall behind her workspace, a desk strewn with scraps of cut paper and a hot pink chair.

A 2000 graduate of Florida State University, Gross majored in studio art with an emphasis in graphic design. It wasn't until after college that Gross, who said she was always interested in print making, gathered up her scrap paper and an X-ACTO knife and created her first piece of art: Beauty Ritual #1. Printmaking is a process of making artworks by printing, with each print usually being an original with a medium of paper.

"I always loved the aesthetic of print making," Gross said. She also loves sets, which led to Beauty Ritual #2, #3 and so on. Each took several hours to create, with tiny pieces of cut paper depicting scenes like a woman curling her hair, a nail salon or a shower scene.

Gross said her ideas come from everyday life, such as glass bottles, hamburgers and peacocks.

"Over the years, we have enjoyed seeing artists work with paper in a variety of innovative ways. Sherill's approach is unique, balancing precise and painstaking technique with unusual perspectives and a playful sense of humor," Nicole DeWald, Greenbelt Community Center arts supervisor, wrote in an e-mail. "She has really been an asset to the program, bringing a fresh aesthetic and a personal demeanor that continue to enrich our community of participating artists."

Gross is currently working on recreating images of vintage pinup girls provided by Atomic Cheesecake Studio owner Stacey Barich.

"I think her interpretations of my photos into paper art are really amazing and interesting," Barich wrote in an e-mail. "I was so flattered that she asked to use my pieces as source material. She's very talented."

Gross said she felt like she wasted 2006 because she only completed 12 cut-paper illustrations, so in 2007 she began a self-imposed schedule. Her rules were that she must begin and finish one piece of artwork a weekday, before 11:59 p.m.

"I wanted to get disciplined enough to work every day and I also wanted to practice different subjects," Gross said.

By the end of the year, she had 209 4-by-6 creations, each of which cost $75.

Since then, she's sold roughly 100 of the 209, but all the works are still able to be viewed through her book, "2007 one-a-(week) day."

"I wanted them all to be the same price and the same size. Art should be affordable," she said. "People should be able to have something that makes them happy."