Tag 16 count Aida

Travel theme keychains

CraftyK Leave a comment

A request to write in a store bought card prompted this project. If you follow this page, you know I make a lot of cards. When I have to use a store bought card, it feels like cheating, even though I’m not the one who bought it.

I don’t know how official it is, but the company I work for celebrates customer service week the first week in October. The team I’m on was asked to write in some blank cards that will be distributed to the CSS team. While that’s nice, it’s not very personal. Even though what I’m doing is only personal in the sense that it’s handmade.

I knew I had several small travel themed patterns from World of Cross Stitch magazine. I went through all the copies I have and ended up picking 2 patterns that would fit the small keychain space.

To fit, the passports are stitched on 18 count and the globes on 16 count. I really struggled with placement and getting the patterns centered in the space. The fabric and thread are leftovers from previous projects. So the colors aren’t an exact match to the pattern, but it fits with the company’s drive for sustainability.

The backs are 4 parts of a photo I took while on vacation. There are 2 sets, I only took pictures of one because I finished so late.

I learned the keychains will be awards to CS reps who demonstrate over the top customer service.

Stitching

Started: September 19

Finished: October 1

Stitching time: 2.25 hours Passport (x4), 2 hours Globe (x4)

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

Make Your Own Kind of Music

CraftyK Leave a comment

I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to finish this one before my friend turned the big 4-0, in November. Clearly I was on top of it with plenty of time to spare.

I’m writing this in late July and you will be seeing this in November. I don’t want to share it early even though I’ll be sending it in a few days.

My friend is not only an amazing photographer and writer, she also has a passion for music. I found this pattern on dailycrossstitch.com and just had to make it for her.

I did a little modification of the pattern. For the arrows I used variegated thread to add some dimension. I also added backstitching around the word music. It wasn’t standing out enough against the lines.

I used a purple sparkle paper for the frame and cut it out with my Cricut. The back of the cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric.

Stitching

Started: March 30

Finished: April 10th

Stitching time: 11.25 hours

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

bottom up angle view of tools card

Tools of the Trade

CraftyK Leave a comment

What do you get when you cross a welder and a wood crafter? This card! Also you get the final card of the #cardproject2019. This has been an intense year of cross stitching for sure, but now it has come to a close. The final birthday today, December 31st.

I pulled a few tools out of a larger pattern called Grandpa’s Workshop from the May/June 1993 Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine. This way they would fit on a card and be relevant to his interest of wood crafting.

tools before backstitching

The saw blades were the hardest to stitch and outline. A bunch of quarter stitches all in a row is hard to do and keep consistent. I seem to have a hard time parting the fabric right in the middle to get a nice clean look. This might be something that is only noticeable to other stitchers too.

In my paper I didn’t find anything I liked much so went for my wallpaper stash. I found the paper I used first, then saw a foam wood paper that I considered for the frame. While wood seems to make more sense the tools seemed to get lost more with it, so I went with my initial thought of the silver.

Then it was deciding if I wanted to put the dark area in the middle or just the bottom. Putting it at the bottom won since it’s hard for me to line up the Cricut to cut exactly where I wanted. Getting a dark stripe right in the center would be too hard so I went with below and I think it works well.

front angle view of tools finished

The paper sample was smaller than most to begin with and my first try I didn’t measure the hole correctly. Luckily the pattern is banded so I flipped it around and tried again with more breathing room around the cross stitch. I used double sided tape to hold everything together.

Stitching

Started: November 16th
Finished: November 27th

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of tools card

eye of peacock feather

A feather for your card

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card is for my cousin’s wife. Last year my cousin got a card with a clown on it. Not a scary clown, just a silly one that had a Happy Birthday banner. Their daughter got her card this year the flamingo. Her mom loves all things peacocks, so I went on a search for a pattern for her card.

This pattern came from dailycrossstitch.com, it’s a bit on the artsy side, but you can still mostly tell it’s a peacock feather.

To be a little different I decided to pull out some rayon thread I have to stitch the middle purple and the darker green. This meant picking a different lighter green. The rayon I had was a true green color, not the turquoise usually associated with peacocks.

This cross stitch was mainly worked on in the car, lots of car travel lately which means getting better at working on this on the go.

I used a heavy scrapbooking paper that has some sparkle to it for the background and cut out the feather as best I could. Then using foam tape I mounted it to the purple background.

Stitching

Started: September 8th
Finished: September 12th

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of peacock feather card

angled fish

Fish in the Sea

CraftyK Leave a comment

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

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of fish card

bottom

Sleepy cat with books

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card is for a second cousin of mine and the brother of the Scholarly Cat recipient. This is the family where one of the kids is allergic to cats and they can no longer have one as a pet. So I’m creating a cat they can have around.

This one does have a fur from one of my cats that got caught under the interfacing fabric while I ironed it on. So there is some real cat on this card. Hard to avoid when they insist on sitting in my lap while stitching.

most of front of card top

This pattern and overall card is pretty straightforward, nothing too fancy this time. The cat body is in the colors recommended by the pattern. The rest are from my scrap collection to continue using that up. Once I got started counting the stitches was pretty easy.

side view

This one is mounted on a slightly textured wallpaper. Like his brother he is into something called Larping. It sounds Medieval to me so I found a more antique type wallpaper I thought was fitting. Using foam tape I mounted the cat onto the wallpaper. I used double sided tape to mount the wallpaper to the cardstock.

Stitching

Started: July 3rd
Finished: July 10th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of card

laying down bottom view

Wake up and MAKEUP

CraftyK Leave a comment

Birthday two of the day. This card is for someone I have known since middle school and reconnected with a couple years back at the gym. What was even more amusing is we were in the same gym class in middle school and ended up joining the same gym as adults, and happened to be there at the same time. We’re not in a huge city, but not small either and it’s a 24 hour gym, so the chances of our meeting again was probably fairly slim.

Since that re-connection we have had some ups and downs in our adult relationship. Sometimes it’s hard being friends with someone who is trying to rise through the ranks of the Mary Kay sales force. I ended up joining as a way to save a few dollars buying skincare and also to help unit out.

the beginning

When this pattern came in my email from Daily Cross Stitch earlier this year I knew I would be adding yet another card to the ever growing collection this year. This is the 19th card made this year.

ampersand

As I was stitching this card I fell in love with the ampersand. I don’t know that I’ve ever really stitched one before, but I really liked it. It’s a really strange thing to enjoy looking at after stitching. The words are also done in modern fonts which also added to my wanting to make this card.

front of card angle

When I was working on the cross stitch portion of the card I really thought I would put it on black paper. Then I started going through some choices, one was black, and found I like how the pink popped so much more on the paper I ended up choosing.

corner close up

In the spirit of MK and all things sparkly I cracked out some pink glitter glue. Waiting for that to dry so I could put the card in the envelope was so hard! Although I had thought about glitter glue earlier on, I almost forgot until everything was assembled. I didn’t put it everywhere, but found some pink squares that could use some dressing up.

standing front view

I used double sided tape for the colored paper and foam tape on the cross stitch. The cross stitch is backed by interfacing fabric (really light stuff) to help hold it together after being cut.

Stitching

Started: May 12th
Finished: May 15th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front of card layflat