Hocus Pocus cross stitch card

October 21, 2021August 8, 2023CraftyK Leave a comment

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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Fight Back with Books

April 12, 2019March 24, 2019CraftyK Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.

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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For the Love of Football

January 22, 2019January 15, 2019CraftyK 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.

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.

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.

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

Stitching

Started: December 13th
Finished: December 30th

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Mother’s Day

May 13, 2018June 17, 2018CraftyK Leave a comment

This was a close one! 11am on the 12th I was finishing up my mother in laws card to take to the Mother’s Day celebration that day. The cross stitch portion of my mom’s card had been done, but it wasn’t assembled until today.

Like the last few cross stitch projects I am working with the materials and leftover thread I have to match as close as I can. I don’t feel like there’s a dent in the thread, but it’s slowly getting labeled to the nearest DMC number I can find for it.

My mom’s card: started April 23 — finished May 6

My mother in laws card: started May 6 — finished May 12

How they were made:

I started out re-graphing flowers I found in The Big Book of Cross Stitch Design from the library. Then I added the Mom part using the WinStitch software to default fonts.

Once the cross stitches were done I went to the Cricut to cut out my rectangles. Unfortunately I still have not mastered lining things up on the preview board with the actual board I’m cutting on. I use double sided tape to adhere the cross stitch to the card.

Finally, to spruce these up a little I use washi tape. This I bought a bunch on eBay and just went through the bag to find something that would work. My first time using washi tape and found that it’s not overly sticky. I have no idea if brand matters on this kind of thing or not.

On the inside I cut some white cardstock to write Happy Mother’s Day on so it could be easily read. I used those fancy scissors to cut around the box to add some flair.

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. 🙂

Birthday Panda

March 19, 2018May 13, 2018CraftyK Leave a comment

The combination of two wonderful things, cards and cross stitch. This project combines both in a wonderful way. I got the Birthday Panda as a free chart from cross-stitching.com. When I saw it I just knew it had to go to my cousin Amanda for her birthday. (Which is today by the way)

She is finishing up her podiatry residency all the way on the East Coast (we’re from Nebraska) and I wanted to send her a little something special. I’m on a card making spree this year!

The full card took probably 12 or so hours to make. And that’s not including the time to hunt down the colors for it (which aren’t all “correct”) I’ve been trying to use up thread from years of previous projects. I think it turned out pretty good.

I was going to use ribbon at the bottom like the example, but found this adhesive rhinestone ribbon stuff at my mom’s in with her other ribbon and felt it was just perfect for this project. The next cross stitch card I am making my mom told me I have to use this on as well. (Coming August 2018) So you’ll have to wait a while to see that card.

I used the Cricut to cut a box the size I needed, it took 4 cards (2 nice pink ones, then 2 practice sheets) to place the square where I needed it. Eventually I got it and away we went!

I used double sided tape to attach the design to the blue paper, then used the non cut half of my white practice card to hide the back of the design, using more double sided tape to hold everything together.

Feel free to share this on Pinterest or make one yourself!

Baby Girl Princess Cross Stitch

May 12, 2017September 8, 2018CraftyK 1 Comment

UPDATE 11/24/17. Project is finished and framed!

UPDATE 10/21/17. Went to goal day meeting, met previous goal of finishing all stitching. Just the back stitching left now.

UPDATE 10/3/17. My dad passed this morning. Progress on this project has been put on hold for now.

UPDATE 9/23/17. Due to my dad being in hospice since mid-August I am now making loads of progress. I work on this every day while I’m up there. There are days when he sleeps a lot and others when we have time to visit. He has enjoyed seeing the progress made and how “full” it has gotten.

I finished the cross stitch for Brett yesterday and took it in for framing. I was told 2 weeks (sad) because they order frames on Wednesdays only. So me being slow didn’t finish until a Thursday.

Now it’s time to start birth sampler No. 3. As of yet there hasn’t been an announcement for baby 4. But I’m not ruling anything out at this point. Baby No. 3 was born at the end of January this year! So maybe she’ll have hers in a more timely manner.

I started this the evening of 5/11/17. (Yay documentation!) Usually I don’t start posting until I’m months in (and have no idea when I started), but I have vowed to be better about keeping up this blog, and with the Side Projects Club meetup I have motivation to work on these projects and *gasp* finish them. So if you want to follow the progress of this cross stitch from start to finish, just bookmark this blog, or maybe RSS it? I have no idea, but be sure to check back. It will be updated every 4 weeks (Goal Days at SPC).

Let the stitching begin!