Category Made with Cricut

cactus card laying down

Cacti, Cactus?

CraftyK Leave a comment

In my quest for the perfect pattern for 50+ people I have acquired several magazines and books over the last year. Originally this card was going to be a cactus pattern from dailycrossstitch.com, I was never overly excited about it, but it would have to do.

Eventually through all of my pattern acquisitions I came across some Southwest style table runner that had these three potted cacti on it. I transferred just that part of the pattern using WinStitch so I could print it out and mark off where I am without disturbing the original pattern. I believe in the cross stitch industry this is called a “working pattern”.

3 cactus plants no backstitching

These cactus in pots are way cuter and much more card sized than my original pattern. I even took a picture of it before I added the backstitching. That’s what ups the cute factor.

cactus cross stitch complete

Since the cross stitching is on the smaller side I decided to add a Happy Birthday stamp. The modern handwritten font is what I went with. While I don’t have green ink I used a blue-green type one for it on yellow paper. The frame itself is wallpaper.

Happy Birthday stamp

As with just about all stamping that I do, I added embossing powder to it. The picture kind of shows it, but the camera doesn’t do well with focusing on something so solid like that. I chose a clear embossing powder over glitter. I didn’t want to detract from the stitching.

I also learned, don’t cut down the fabric until after the hole is cut in the frame. The top is laying just inside the frame, which is probably for the best since it is so close to the edge. Overall I am happy with how this one turned out.

Stitching

Started: October 27th
Finished: October 31st

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cactus full front of card

birghter card text

You Are Sunshine

CraftyK Leave a comment

Some of the cards I have made this year went through a few changes. Originally this cross stitch pattern was going to be made for my uncle, instead I made it for his wife. I was having a hard time coming up with what to make her.

My uncle is my godfather so in our family that meant I would exchange gifts with him every year at Christmas. He is also the godfather to one of my cousins. We would both receive a cross stitch ornament of some religious Bible theme (Christmas based) as the bow of our wrapped gifts. Every year my aunt would pick out a different pattern and stitch it for us, put it into a tiny frame so we could hang it on the tree.

sunset stitching bottom of card

My aunt is involved with several volunteering activities along with watching most of her grandkids on a daily basis. If you need her somewhere, she finds a way to make it happen. I’m not sure if she cross stitches much anymore, but a cross stitch card is very fitting for her.

The saying on this card is Some people make the world brighter just being in it. I feel like that is something very fitting for her. She gives of her time and talents as often as she can.

brighter card laying down

I chose the simple brown paper for the frame to really let the colors of the stitching stand out. I also used a lighter tan paper as the base instead of the standard white.

Besides the Cricut ripping up my first 3 attempts at cutting this frame, assembly went well. Double sided tape and interfacing fabric can be your best friends when making cross stitch cards.

Stitching

Started: October 26th
Finished: October 27th

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full front of brighter cross stitch

top of 40 card

Life Begins at 40!

CraftyK Leave a comment

Oh where to start with this one! It was stitched quickly, but the card making was one problem after another. This one was quite improvised due to extreme time constraints. When a birthday lands on a Sunday I lose a day. My goal is to have it arrive via mail on Saturday. Luckily it is only going a few blocks away (I think).

40 in progress

This card is going to a former co-worker of mine. We took walks pretty much daily for several months. During those walks I learned she was turning 40 this year. After acquiring several new cross stitch books this year I came across this pattern and decided that it would be the 50th card for the year. While it’s more like 45th in order of birthdays, this one brought me to a total of 50 cards to be made in 2019.

backstitching 40

Since this person shares a birthday with my brother the pressure was on to get them both done in time. And a mad rush to the post office to get them out on time! This pattern had backstitching which slowed down progress a bit.

The stitching and interfacing fabric went just fine for this one, it was the actual card part when things fell apart. Remember, a bit rushed on time for this one.

This person is super positive and bright. Even if things are going terribly, she’ll have a smile on her face and do whatever it is that needs doing. So a bright yellow paper for the card base what what I chose. This card is a 4.25×5.5, minus a little due to measuring errors.

angled view from bottom of 40 card

The butterfly paper was supposed to be a frame, but I didn’t measure correctly and cut too much fabric off the pattern. I was very glad to have the yellow base. Creating a floating cross stitch in the middle wasn’t so bad, unexpected, but it works. First time for everything!

I entered the wrong numbers in the design space for the Cricut, so the ‘s’ on ‘roses’ was cut off by time I was done trimming it back to fit the actual card base. As I was laying the frame on using double sided tape the paper bubbled up. I’m assuming in my rush to finish everything lots of things went wrong, but the card is bright and exciting to look at, which is all that matters.

Stitching

Started: October 21st
Finished: October 23rd

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full front of Life Begins at 40! card

top of Boba Fett card

Boba Fett

CraftyK Leave a comment

Anyone else have some Star Wars fans in their life? I have a few and bought the AMAZING Star Wars cross stitch pattern book (not an affiliate link). It’s so nice to have a book of patterns that are official to use for people who really love this universe.

Boba Fett in progress

You may remember in February I made the 3 Stormtrooper pattern for my nephew (my brother’s kid). My brother is more known for his Chewbacca costume, but I swear at some point he has mentioned Boba Fett. So on that point I’m hoping for the best. There just weren’t any Chewie patterns that I liked.

This card ended up being a 5×7 because it is fairly tall. I special ordered some sage colored 14 count Aida cloth. I think the book called for something even darker, but I think this worked out well. The photos don’t capture the color of the cloth, either too blue or yellow, just wasn’t into balancing today.

laying down angled view of Boba Fett card

The inside of the card is also unique. I have a daily calendar from 2016 that I’ve been slowly using on Star Wars cards for my brother and nephew. This time I used 3 pages to line the inner left side of the card. This makes it even more Star Wars-y right? Even though it’s from the beginning of A New Hope, it’s still the right movie series.

reusing daily Star Wars calendar

The frame and stitching are mounted on regular white card stock. The black frame was cut out with my Cricut. Everything is taped down using double sided tape.

Stitching

Started: October 16th
Finished: October 21st

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Boba Fett full front of card

top down angle of fairy in rain with flower umbrella

A Fairy in the Rain

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This cross stitch was a long time in the making. Not the physical making, but the “I’m going to make this someday” making. The moment I saw this in the April 2018 issue of Just Cross Stitch (you can buy it here, just a link direct to the issue, I don’t get any kickback) magazine I knew I wanted to make it for my best friend.

Then last year we started talking about another book I had gotten that was Care Bears. So she got that instead. You can see that one here. That was my very first 22 count pattern. I did 2 threads on that thing, tons of quarter stitches and enormous frustration. The only thing I learned on that one was to use a smaller needle. Unfortunately it took until earlier this year to learn that in addition to the smaller needle you use 1 thread.

Even though this year has been madness and adding another more challenging pattern to the mix wasn’t advisable by anyone, I was determined to make this pattern.

bottom up view of fairy card showing text

I did recently use the same paper for another more complex pattern that I just had to make and felt it was fitting for this card as well. My friend is an artist, graphic and mix media. For a long while she was really into watercolors and this paper reminds me of that so I wanted to use it. It pulls some of the colors from the pattern, but really it was for the watercolor effect that I used it.

The frame was cut with the Cricut. I’m still fighting with it to cut correctly the first time, hopefully we’ll come to a resolution soon.

Due to the time constraints I’m under to finish these cards and working two other jobs I didn’t take any “in progress” photos except on Snapchat. I broke with my (until the last few months) tradition of doing all backstitching at the very end and was doing it as I went along for the most part. Showing that contrast is always awesome, I hope to do more of the before/after photos in the future.

Stitching

Started: October 6th
Finished: October 16th

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full front of fairy card

finished card laying down side view

Birds on the House

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card has gone through several patterns. The first one was from dailycrossstitch.com. Every time I went to order it, there wasn’t a pattern. The one pattern that is missing from their site. I tried reaching out, but no one responded.

in progress birdhouse

I had found a different pattern that was more complex, but not as bright and fun. Then I got a new cross stitch book and ended up finding this pattern that seemed to fit what I wanted. I don’t know my aunt all that well, so my mom came up with birds and flowers.

pre-backstitching of birdhouse

My aunt used to make beautiful cards for people by stamping and coloring them in. She stopped making them years ago and I am a little sad I wasn’t able to fit any stamping onto the finished card. I do like the paper I found though. I think it really fits with the style of the cross stitch.

I used the Cricut to cut out the frame, used up all the paper since the Cricut messed up as usual and cut off the paper and on the mat instead. Sometimes it likes to do that, other times it works just fine. I never know and can waste a lot of paper and need to pick something else before it cuts right. I’ve been told what it’s doing isn’t normal, so if you end up with a Cricut it will probably work just fine.

Stitching

Started: September 26th
Finished: September 29th

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full front of birdhouse card

cake cat laying down angled

A Cat Made Cake

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card finishes out one of my cousin’s families. This particular card is for his wife. While I tried to make it the same size as the other cards, the stitching ended up being too large and had to be placed on a 5×7 card.

If you would like to see the rest of the family cards you can find my cousin, his oldest, and youngest. I can’t remember which one is allergic to cats, but they used to have a couple. I wanted to give them all cats they can keep. And probably includes some authentic cat fur in the mix, because, well, my cats like to leave their hair on everything!

before backstitching on cake cat

I got the pattern for this card a long time ago off of the cross-stitching website. It is no longer available and I have been unable to find another copy. I believe it is in an old copy of The World of Cross Stitch magazine, but I have no idea how to get a hold of one since I am not in the UK.

This is the most adorable pattern and one of my favorite cards I have made this year. This one took a little longer than I expected. There is a lot of detail in it. So many colors to create all the shading. Then the backstitching took quite a while, but I finished that on a plane ride. Backstitching really does make a difference.

front angle of cake cat

I used the Cricut to cut out the frame, the paper is from a book of scrapbook paper I bought at one point. It turned out a lot nicer than I expected when I picked the paper.

Stitching

Started: September 13th
Finished: September 26th

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front of cake cat card

angled fish

Fish in the Sea

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This card is for a cousin (married into the family) that I have only met a couple of times. I called her husband to get some ideas of things she likes. I have heard about some from others, but decided to ask someone closer to her for ideas.

During the conversation I learned that she likes to scuba dive. I had seen this pattern on the cover of an old cross stitching magazine I have and immediately thought it would make a great pattern for a card. I wasn’t able to use their full pattern as it was too big, but I pulled this smaller section to use for the card.

fish card laying down

On this card I did backstitch as I went. The crunch for time is on and I have to change up how I work a little bit.

fish under the sea

 

For the frame I used a thicker wallpaper that has some sparkle in it. I wanted to make sure to use wallpaper because she sells luxury custom built homes. Wallpaper seemed like the perfect touch to finish this card. As usual the frame was cut out with the Cricut.

 

Stitching

Started: September 2nd
Finished: September 4th

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full front of fish card

another fisherman laying down photo

Gone Fishing

CraftyK Leave a comment

The second birthday today. And this time it is for twins. This card is for the twin of the uncle who received the golfer card (sorry it’s not linked because the post isn’t live yet).

My husband and I took a quick trip to Texas while I was stitching this one. I didn’t have much time to work on it while we were away, and with a cancelled flight, well it put things a bit behind.

fisherman before backstitching

I did manage to take a picture of this one before I started any backstitching. Most of the way through I really debated whether I should backstitch as I went. Obviously you now know the answer to that one.

just the fisherman stitching

This pattern does have quite a bit of detail to it. The hardest was making the plaid shirt. I had to go back and add some lines that I had previously missed, but I think I got it all in the end.

laying down fisherman

I used the Cricut to create the frame for this card. I have a thicker blue paper with texture to it that I really liked. I felt that the browns and greens were a bit overpowering so I wanted to show more “water” and added the blue paper frame to create that effect.

Stitching

Started: August 28th
Finished: September 2nd

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full front of fisherman card

Happy Birthday text in focus

Teddy bear

CraftyK Leave a comment

Birthday twins in the family are becoming more common. Not just the actual twins, nope, these are the new people marrying in and having babies. There’s just under 60 people in the family and there are 365 days a year. We have at least 5 overlapping birthdays already of non-twins. That just seems so crazy to me!

Anyway, this card didn’t take too terribly long to stitch. I actually outlined the letters as I went since I wanted the thin parts to be thicker, so two threads across the board on that one.

The bear I wanted to show a before/after of the stitching vs stitching with backstitching .

teddy in progress

Here’s my wonderful cell phone photo of the bear before I got out the black thread for it. It’s always fun to see the before and after on these and the difference it makes.

side angle right

The assembly of the card didn’t go as I’d hoped. It was a bit like the Hippo I made earlier this year. The paper is the thinner I guess regular printer paper weight and doesn’t handle being cut and taped down over the fabric very well.

It seems to go ok until the bottom and I get a bubble that turns into a pronounced crease. Other than that I like how this card turned out.

Stitching

Started: July 16th
Finished: July 20th

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teddy card full front