Tag 18 count Aida

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

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front of cake cat card

top side

The PINK Flamingo is back!

CraftyK Leave a comment

It’s another multi-birthday day. My mom and a second cousin. This card is for my second cousin who loves flamingos. Not sure if it’s the color or just the love of the bird, but she’s loved them for years.

flamingo in progress

This one didn’t take too long to stitch, but my focus was a bit off and ended up with a small error in counting. It’s not really that noticeable, but the neck is a little farther over than it should be.

top half

I knew for this card that glitter glue was a must. I couldn’t find the color of paper I wanted so I went with construction paper in a hot pink (didn’t photograph so well) and some American Girl themed scrapbooking paper. I really wanted to emboss this one and then fill in areas with glue, it didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped, but it works.

bottom of flamingo

I used double sided tape for all the paper and foam tape for the cross stitch. The two papers are cut out and taped onto folded cardstock. I’ve found this works much better than trying to make paper be a card. Instead I try to assemble the card to a solid base. This also helps by making the inside and back of card white. Easy to write in and stamp the back.

Stitching

Started: July 13th
Finished: July 16th

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of card

top corner

Musical Owl

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card was a mostly last minute add-on to my Card Project 2019, yup I have named it and even hashtag the madness.

This card came about because my mom wanted help with a card she was going to make for my former piano teacher (not currently taking lessons) and good friend of my mom’s. She’s turning 70 this year, which happened to my mom last year. She received a mug from my aunt (her daughter in law made it) and wanted me to make one that said the same thing.

She also made a Scrabble® themed card with “seventy” on it. So I helped by using the Cricut to cut out the letters and my husband cut the pieces for her. She’s going to glue them to her card. I don’t have a picture of the Scrabble® card or anything for that part of the project. But her making a card spurred me to find a pattern that would be good for a card as well.

I went to dailycrossstitch.com first and found a pattern I liked. It’s a cute little owl with headphones and some musical notes around.

musical owl top

While my mom found some music note paper for her card, I went out and bought a music embossing folder. In the store I thought it was so cool! Well once I used it, I realized it must not have been made by someone familiar with music beyond the shapes. There’s no direction to it, the notes are going both ways, I’ll have to explain in the card that I know it’s not a legit song.

side view

I wanted the embossing to stand out, so I used a solid cardstock paper. Then I mounted the pattern using foam tape because I really like the stitching to pop off the card. Foam tape attachments are used on many commercial cards, and I enjoy it too.

 Stitching

Started: June 26th
Finished: July 2nd

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of card

close up of stitching

Rhino in a Tux

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card is for a cousin of mine who I hope likes rhinos. His company logo and business feature a rhino, and when I saw this pattern he was the first person who came to mind.

The Rhino in a Tux pattern cane be found at dailycrossstitch.com if you want to make it as well!

starting out Rhino in a Tux

This pattern has very few colors and was pretty easy to make. Counting the body takes a little bit of time, but once that first row is done you can base most everything off of that to eliminate long lines of counting.

The pattern calls for Anchor thread, I converted to DMC since that is what I have. CyberStitchers has a simple conversion chart in case you ever need it.

To get this pattern to fit on a smaller card I used 18 count Aida cloth. This time around I decided to also do it with only 1 thread for the x’s. It looks find in person, however I noticed in the photos the black looks a bit thin/see through.

front view standing

The whole thing was done with one thread, but for some reason black looks a little thinner than the rest. Probably the higher contrast between black and the white fabric. Either way, in person it doesn’t seem as thin.

standing side view

For mounting I used my mom’s really old interfacing fabric (I think). It didn’t make it stiff really, but seems to be holding up for all the trimming I did without any fraying. I used foam tape to mount the rhino to the front of the card.

Stitching

Started: May 15th
Finished: May 21st

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front view full card

the otter stitching

Otter Love

CraftyK Leave a comment

The newest addition to the family by marriage loves otters…and Harry Potter. While Harry Potter is great, a little harder to come by cross stitch patterns. And for some reason I remember her otter love before HP.

I went searching for an otter pattern on Etsy and ended up with one from dailycrossstitch.com that is pretty adorable.

the pieces

There are lots of browns in this pattern, with pops of color with the pink and blue. It’s a very easy pattern to work which is good when you need to move through them quickly.

standing front view

This card ended up using a few new things I have learned about over the past year. First is the super new interfacing fabric that I think I mention every post now. The next is embossing powder for stamping.

The fun curves of this pattern lent itself to being one that is cut out and mounted. Since it doesn’t take up the full space I also decided to pull out some stamps. Then I read that the ink was the kind you can emboss with…and found I had bought powder called “Tinsel”. Knowing that Iris has mailed just glitter in an envelope before I couldn’t help but add some to the card.

close up of stamping

I haven’t figured out how to “clean up” the powder before running the heat gun over it making everything permanent. So this attempt looks messy to me along with some areas being heavier on the glitter than others. Overall it’s a cute card that came together nicely.

Stitching

Started: April 21st
Finished: April 29th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front only

from the top

Scholarly Cat

CraftyK Leave a comment

When I asked my cousin what her sons like, I was told Larping. That is something I’m not sure has ever been captured in cross stitch form. I was also told they like cats (although one is allergic) and reading. Luckily these are things much more readily available in the cross stitching world.

all laid out

I found a pattern on dailycrossstitch.com with a cat sitting on a pile of books. This was the perfect fit! Logan is also off at college so the extra large books are also quite fitting for this stage in his life.

Yet again I found myself lost as to how I was going to assemble this card. The ideas aren’t coming like they were before. I’m in a Cross Stitch Club on Facebook and the day I finished this card she answered how she was able to cut around her patterns for cards and not have fraying.

Interfacing fabric. Who knew that you can make your own iron ons?! Luckily for me JoAnn’s was having a sale the weekend I learned of its existence, so I purchased a yard of the stuff to try for myself. Cost under a dollar with tax! Great price for trying out something new.

side view

You can see a little bit of separation of the interfacing fabric and the Aida cloth in the image above, but I don’t think it’s too bad for a first try. I was told it would be quite stiff, but it didn’t really do that to me. I think it was the kind of fabric I was sold, it was called “Lite” and I was told there were thicker ones, but the salesperson felt it probably wasn’t what I wanted. This seems to work ok, it holds well and give more “stiffness” to the piece than just tacking it on would.

from the side

The background is from my massive wallpaper collection. I thought the pattern fit a kind of Larping theme. It makes me think Medieval, something from a family crest maybe.

It was fun trying out a whole new way to mount a cross stitch to a card. Now I have square with frayed edges, mounted in a “frame”, and this, cut out no fray.

Stitching

Started: February 28th
Finished: March 10th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

full front of card

semi side view

Rocky Mountain High

CraftyK Leave a comment

It’s my sister’s birthday today. While really looking at the walls at my parent’s house I have noticed just how many cross stitches there are adorning the walls. Some of them my sister made. I know one for sure was for me.

Now it’s my turn many years later to make one for her. Mine is by far simpler as it is only one color and only a few inches high and wide, but it’s the thought that counts right?

the beginning

My sister loves the mountains. For a time she was going to move to Colorado however that hasn’t happened. She’s in Texas now, which is a bit different climate and view wise. I thought this simple image of mountains would be nice for her. She also did oil painting for a few years and many of those were of mountains. Again mine is not really comparable with its simplicity.

I finished the stitching in just a few days and started on the next one. It was coming up with how to mount this to a card that stumped me for the longest time. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to create a frame or put the raw fabric on black paper, maybe grey.

side view

The first step to deciding was to browse my wallpaper collection. I wanted something with texture which just doesn’t happen with standard cardstock. Even wallpaper can be disappointing at times, there were some marble looking patterns that were on the smoothest paper you can find.

The paper I finally settled on was the first one I pulled out. It reminds me of rock and looks like a close up of a real mountain (at least to me). I think it really helps the stitching to stand out, yet adds another level of texture to the card overall.

front view

I used my handy Cricut to cut out the wallpaper frame. Amazingly I measured correctly and didn’t cut off any stitching. Once I had it cut I was so glad I had enough cloth left at the top to run the bottom row of stitching along the bottom border of the frame.

This card is simple yet stands out to me. It’s quite striking now that it’s complete.

Stitching

Started: February 25th
Finished: February 28th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

close up front

from the side

Stormtrooper Line Up

CraftyK Leave a comment

My nephew Ben is going to start amassing quite the collection of Star Wars cards from me. I made one for his birthday last year and another for May 4th. Now he will have a more intricate card with Stormtroopers cross stitched on it.

This card is part of my 2019 project to finish one cross stitch card for every member of my mom’s side of the family who is over the age of 5 (had to draw the line somewhere). I am now in February and getting them done about a week before they need to arrive.

the pieces

This pattern came from an official Star Wars cross stitch book. While it is available in Whole Foods, I went with Amazon (same difference right?) since it was slightly cheaper. I recreated the pattern in WinStitch so I could mark the stitches off as I went. The book doesn’t stay open the best either, so this was the easiest way to work.

It took a few days to complete the whole thing. Dark fabric 18 count is hard to work on! You need so much light to really see what the heck you’re doing. The black was even harder to see. Luckily a few days before I started my husband needed extra light and borrowed my knock-off ice light. After much frustration I remembered the light was in the next room and grabbed it for my purposes. Boy did it make a difference!

the 'troopers

I was able to see what I was doing and finish stitching with much more ease. After I finished that part I pulled out the handy Cricut to cut my frame and text.

For the frame I wanted to have the cutout closer to the top of the card and give a little breathing room around the heads.

The text I did in Star Jedi font (pretty sure it’s on dafont.com) and added the lines at the top and bottom. I decided to do one long line of text and probably should have split it up. I think it still looks ok the way it is. Not sure that I got it straight though, I tried a few times laying it down before going with it.

inside

On the inside of the card I used a couple of pages from an old daily calendar. I’ve been using these for my Star Wars cards and felt it was another good use of them just to add some color to the inside.

Stitching

Started: January 30th
Finished: February 3rd

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

front of card

side view

For the Love of Football

CraftyK Leave a comment

I’m not sure where to begin with this one. I put it off for as long as I could. My time is being split more and more between photography and my “day job”, leaving less time for cross stitching. The impending holidays also brought on a new low for me mentally making it hard to want to start up another cross stitch.

beginning

One night I managed to just get this started. I had everything ready, but never started. Eventually mid December I finally managed to get this one going. It’s so basic it really should have been quick, but there are so many stitches!

This card is for a new member of the family. He married in a few years back to a cousin of mine. I don’t know him all that well. I do know he loves football. He’s always full of energy and extremely nice to everyone he meets. Since he loves football I found this pattern from DailyCrossStitch.com to be the perfect fit.

finished card standing

I picked out 3 different colors for this card. My first choice was brown to not detract from the cross stitched piece. I selected two more in case the Cricut didn’t cut the card correctly. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to line things up on the screen to match what happens in real life.

Even though the outside is a “drab” brown the inside is a party! I found a bright balloon paper to finish the back of the cross stitch. I wasn’t able to find anything I liked and I didn’t want to use white, so this is what happened instead. It is a birthday card after all.

backing

Another card down and delivered and a lot more to come.

Stitching

Started: December 13th
Finished: December 30th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

close up of card

Flutterby the Butterfly

CraftyK Leave a comment

I started this pattern at Side Projects Club. It is because of this group that I have gotten through so many cross stitches the last couple of years. This year is turbo mode with all the cards I’ve been making.

cards_0718_23

I found this pattern in a library book called Stitch Graffiti by Heather Holland-Daly. I enjoyed this book so much I bought it! I can only dream and aspire to create fun and creative patterns like she has, but for now I will continue with the ready-made ones. I have yet to venture off cloth, but I would like to try stitching on screen sometime, it never would have crossed my mind before reading her book.

cards_0718_024

Although I’m not to the point of creating awesome designs, I did do my own thing for the colors. I don’t have the correct variegated thread, so I combined two colors that are close to create my own version of variegation. The colors work well together and stand out from the dark cloth.

cards_0718_027

This is the first project that I am branching out from the usual white or cream colored Aida cloth and trying the dark blue. To make things even more complicated I thought I had purchased 14 count, turns out it’s 18 count. So this project got extra small very quickly. Luckily at Side Projects Club there’s lots of light and white tables to bounce light back to see the holes in the cloth. Working on this at home is a bit more of challenge.

cards_0718_025

To finish this card I used E6000 to glue the corners to the paper. This thing isn’t moving at all! I think it ended up a little crooked, but overall it turned out very nice. I also used a small corner rounder tool per my mom’s suggestion to make this look a little softer.

This is a birthday card for someone I used to talk to a lot, but we recently had a falling out. I hope she gets it and enjoys, but I can’t be too surprised if it comes back to me as I am not certain of her new address and sent it to the only one I have.

Stitching

Started: July 14th
Finished: July 20th

Follow along on Snapchat!

wp-1517196741806..jpg

This post uses affiliate links. This just means that if you go to the site and end up buying something I’ll get a small percent, this doesn’t increase the cost to you at all. 🙂 Thank you for your support!

cards_0718_026-PN-edit