Tag animal

Seasonal Goose

CraftyK Leave a comment

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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laying down ferret card

Dapper Ferret

CraftyK Leave a comment

We’re getting a little closer to the end of the #cardproject2019! This ferret was a pretty quick stitch. I got the pattern from dailycrossstitch.com. I chose to only do the Mr. Ferret part of the pattern. Partly for time, but mostly because of the space on the card.

This card is headed to my brother in law who once had a ferret toy. I was pretty young when my sister was dating him (and married him). I remember he bought this ferret toy that didn’t work right. I begged to go to the store with them while he got a new one.

This toy was a ferret attached to a ball, the ball was battery powered and when you turned it on it jumped around and looked like it was playing with the ball. I’m sure by today’s toy standards it’s pretty boring, but at the time it was the coolest thing ever.

side front view of ferret

Now you know the story behind this card. And I have no clue if he actually likes ferrets or not. When picking out cards I tried to find something that I know the person likes, or something that was from a memory I had with them to make the card personal. I chose the background paper for it’s pattern since my brother in law is a mechanical engineer. I was going to emboss dots on plain paper, then ran across this and changed my mind.

Stitching

Started: September 4th
Finished: September 7th

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full front of ferret 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

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full front of card

the otter stitching

Otter Love

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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

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front only

side view of card

Birthday Giraffe

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When I asked my cousin’s wife what were some things he likes (I did prompt with animals) she came back with giraffe. I don’t think this is a typical animal that people love, but it is fitting as he is well over 6 feet tall.

parts for giraffe

I immediately thought of looking through my Precious Moments books for a giraffe pattern and found this one. For some reason I think of Precious Moments when I think of this cousin. No idea why. Still after drawing the pattern, working on the pattern, nothing comes to mind that screams we have some event together that would make me think of them.

standing card

I used my WinStitch program to recreate the giraffe and added Happy Birthday text using a built in font. After starting I realized I had placed the text way too far from the giraffe. Luckily the file was saved and I was able to move it over and reprint the pattern. I’m not good at winging it, otherwise I would have tried to remember how far over I wanted to move everything.

To finish this one off I used the interfacing fabric again to stabilize it. Then gave myself a little more breathing room while measuring the cutout for the frame. I cut the green paper using the Cricut. Then double sided tape to hold it all together.

top corner

I use double sided tape twice for these, once around the frame and line up the stitching in it, getting it as straight as I can. It is movable which is nice. Then I put tape around the edges of the cardstock. I carefully place the frame with the fabric adhered to it onto the cardstock base and keep it as smooth as possible to prevent wrinkles and bubbles. I was impressed this one laid out very nicely.

I did some trimming at the end to remove any white edges from showing. I think the blade is getting dull, had to run it a few times making the card smaller and smaller before it cut smoothly.

Stitching

Started: April 14th
Finished: April 20th

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just the front