Tag 18 count

Succulent keychain

CraftyK Leave a comment

If you remember the travel keychains I made a while back, this project began by (a semi-joking) request from someone else at the office. We don’t know what happened to the original set so I asked some questions so I could find a more personalized pattern. Instead of adding a photo to the back, I found two fitting patterns to use.

The patterns also come from World of Cross Stitch magazine. Both patterns are from issue 335 design library. Aloe is stitched on 18 count and the cat + plant is on 22 count.

Aloe was a very quick stitch, about an hour including the back stitching. The cat + plant one took a but longer because there are a lot more stitches to begin with, plus more colors.

I used colors from my leftovers container for all except one. I wasn’t able to find a suitable replacement for one of the greens. On Aloe I replaced the pot color with a variegated purple I have in my leftovers. It added more dimension to the pot for sure.

Stitching

Started: February 11

Finished: February 12

Stitching time: 1 hour (Aloe), 3 hours cat + plant

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Seasonal Goose

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Where to start with this one. I completed the stitching so long ago I don’t remember much about it.

This pattern came with a tri-fold aperture card ready to use. I didn’t have to make any decisions on paper, colors, or final size.

While stitching did take a while it was very nice to have all whole stitches. French knots went pretty well too on this one. I don’t think any are loose. The photos below are of the stitching in progress. The one on the right is what the pattern looked like before any backstitching or knots were applied. Those two things really made a difference!

The card does have elements that most in the series of kits don’t have. There is embossing on the front and the inside left panel. The company also embossed their logo on the back. The other cards I’ve completed from this series didn’t have that much extra detail.

To get everything assembled I used a light interfacing fabric behind the design and double-sided tape to hold it all together.

Stitching

Started: November 8

Finished: March 28

Stitching time: 11.5 hours

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Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

Hocus Pocus cross stitch card

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It’s been a few years since I bought the Halloween Special Edition of Just Cross Stitch magazine. This year’s inspiration buy was because of someone I recently got to know a bit better. We worked together at my day job until she left to start her crafting venture Uniquely Crafted.

Now that you have checked out her awesomeness, here is the card I made for her. The pattern came from the 2021 Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch. She likes coffee and Hocus Pocus so this was perfect!

The original pattern was to be stitched on 28 count and would end up a little larger than a 5×7. I stitched this on 18 count to make it just under 5×7 to fit on a card.

The designer of this pattern did a great job with the colors for the word coffee. As someone I showed the finished piece to said, “very nice ombré.” It’s not variegated thread, it’s 4 colors. I barely had any left of one of the colors and managed to ration it just enough to have just a little leftover.

Since I changed the count this was supposed to be on the spiderwebs were extremely challenging to stitch. Lots of odd counting and trying to make new holes in the middle of things. They look awesome, but not fun when you go changing things around from what was intended.

Besides taking much longer to stitch than expected this was a fun project to make. For the inside of the card I added some pumpkin paper to bring some color to the card.

Stitching

Started: September 1

Finished: October 3

Stitching time: 19 hours 15 minutes

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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

top semi-angle view of bowling card

Knocking Down Pins

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I”m getting near the end of the birthday cards. This one is for a cousin who goes to Nationals with bowling every year. I am assuming he’s bowled a 300 at some point.  I don’t know this cousin all that well, so I needed some help from my mom for ideas. Bowling would fit several people in the family, and he’s going to be the lucky recipient.

bowling pins in progress

This pattern is from dailycrossstitch.com. It’s pretty simple once you get the first row done. Everything else can be based off of that one row for a while. Then once you need to go another direction (like the ball) you need to count another row and just keep going from there.

This one is sort of large, I stitched it on 18 count to fit on the smaller card size, so it takes a bit of time to stitch.

close up of bowling ball

For the card I wanted to mount the pattern. So glad I learned about interfacing fabric this year! Seriously the best thing ever! Anyway, due to the more “actiony” looking image I wanted it to stand off the page. I found a textured blue background to use for mounting the pattern to. The card base is just my regular white cardstock.

Stitching

Started: October 1st
Finished: October 6th

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full front of bowling card

cake cat laying down angled

A Cat Made Cake

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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

just books

Fight Back with Books

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As I got older at family gatherings I would have an aunt come talk to me about books. Mostly of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre. At the time that was also of interest to me, now I tend towards other types of books. This particular aunt also works within the public library system. I’m not sure if she is a regular librarian because I feel that she does a lot more than help people find their next read.

After doing so many single color patterns lately it was nice to continue on this bright colors theme. Like the last card, books are the theme.

the supplies laid out

When I came across the Books pattern on Dailycrossstitch.com I thought it would be the perfect front to her birthday card.

This design is stitched on 18 count Aida. Even with measuring I cut this one really close to the edges. I thought I had enough space, but I was stitching right up to the taped edges. Trying not to sew the tape into it. After doing that I realized maybe for the next one I should make sure to leave plenty of breathing room.

weird top-side view

The pattern was pretty easy to complete. The letters went really fast. Even on 18 count the card ended up being a 5×7. Width-wise it would have run to or even off the edges of my normal invitation sized cards. I was trying to keep the cards small it just hasn’t worked out that way for all of them.

For the frame, my original thought was to go dark. I picked out a few wallpaper pieces that I thought might work, but wasn’t happy with any of them. Then I started looking through my cardstock and found a blue one that made the stitching pop more than I expected. I went back to the wallpaper and found this green patterned paper that was funky and worked with the two thin green books in the picture.

 

standing up front view

The Cricut was how I cut the cardstock for the card and the frame around the cross stitch.

I also tried to stabilize the piece by using the interfacing fabric I learned about for the last card to see if I could keep this from stretching and bubbling so much. I think it may have worked since I had to try multiple times to line up the design where I wanted it within the opening.

I wasn’t able to do my normal pulling until it sort of fit, which is probably the cause of the bubbles. The “lite” interfacing fabric is still very flexible, I just can’t pull and tug on the fabric like I used to, which is a good thing.

 

Stitching

Started: March 10th
Finished: March 22nd

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the close up

Young Chef

CraftyK Leave a comment

When looking for patterns for this project of cross stitch cards for my mom’s family I found most at dailycrossstitch.com. The patterns are pretty simple and small which works perfectly for cards. I don’t even think the patterns have backstitching or odd stitch sizes.

This is going to be a huge help with getting around 40 cards (might be over that?) done this year. January and June are the busiest months for birthdays so in between I need to keep cranking these cards out.

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This card is for a second cousin of mine. His mom already has her card. Her son, while an avid football player, also enjoys cooking and baking. If I recall correctly he now has a Kitchen Aid mixer to aid in his baking endeavors.

So for his hobby of being in the kitchen I chose a chef pattern. I am trying very hard not to have a repeat pattern. Having many avid football fans in the family makes that a little more challenging and requires a little sleuthing to find additional interests.

I have many papers, but it was hard to find one that said “food” or “chef”. I ended up with a brown checkered pattern which mimics a traditional picnic blanket or pizza restaurant table cloth. This is actually wallpaper. I can’t imagine having something so dark on a wall, but I guess that’s why it’s now discontinued. It works well and doesn’t detract too much from the actual cross stitch.

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To cut the paper I used my handy Cricut. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done and I’m able to place the pattern neatly in the newly created frame. I mounted all of this with double sided tape onto my standard white cardstock.

Stitching

Started: December 31st
Finished: January 6th

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