Tag birthday card

2026: April update

CraftyK Leave a comment

I took a day off work and managed to make a few cards. I’m easily distracted so it did take the majority of the day. I also recorded myself making them, so be sure to check out my Instagram for that. The base paper I used is from a wallpaper piece featuring sunflowers. The initial card was a commission for a 70th Scrabble card.

To work through my stash more efficiently I am trying to use a sheet to its fullest before moving on. I have the rest of this sheet plus a couple others I’m trying to finish up to use up as much of the pages as possible. It is a challenge, but I am hoping to get through some scraps and be able to start fresh soon.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+598

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+635

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+677 and a room finish!

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+411

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+510

Monopoly update

I landed on an unowned property and the WIP number corresponded to Dolphin Family. That means only one pattern isn’t started yet. It got off to a bumpy start. This pattern has several nuances to it with floss amounts. Hopefully as I work on it, I’ll get more comfortable with it.

+558

How did April go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5‘. I added more math to my tracker to attempt at an estimated completion date based on my current rate of work. McGonagall came in at being finished sometime in 2100…

Here’s how I did in April for chipping away at these: 2,831 stitches across the five.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 4.24% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering I have limited time to work on them.

Need to make it an FFO

There is one project, Red Panda, that has been sitting fully stitched since October. I entered it as an auction item in the St. Jude fundraiser MocoMade hosts. It’s an application process, and I don’t have this finished yet to show them what it will be. But the board is cut so I can get started now.

Happy crafting!

See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

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2026: March update

CraftyK Leave a comment

One of my cousins had a milestone birthday in March, so one card was made! I was really struggling that day. The card was supposed to be horizontal, but ended up vertical because I stamped happy upside down. Whoops. Cursive font threw me off. Here it is:

I do like the purple paper as a cutout versus a background as I have been using it. I set out the last (I hope) of the purple paper for another card, but working multiple jobs has left me with little time for card making or stitching.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. So far the progress on these has not resulted in an official update photo, but there should be progress photos coming in April. Follow my Instagram to see them when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+587

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+339

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+626

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+1,013

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+968

Monopoly update

So far only Safari has come up for Monopoly and was a new start. McGonagall is also coming up and getting more stitches completed on that one as well.

Turtle Tower from DailyCrossStitch.com, Dolphin Family, and Nativity remain unchanged.

How did March go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5‘. All five are now in progress. I put in a total of 3,533 stitches on those in the month of March. Which is more than February with a total of 1,515.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 4.03% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering I have limited time to work on them.

Need to make it an FFO

There is one project, Red Panda, that has been sitting fully stitched since October. I’ve decided to turn it into an ornament, but that’s as far as it’s gotten. Once that gets finished up, there will be a blog post for it. (Yay bonus post!) < This is the same update from February, no progress has been made.

Happy crafting!

See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

$ Buy stuff $
top of 40 card

Life Begins at 40!

CraftyK Leave a comment

Oh where to start with this one! It was stitched quickly, but the card making was one problem after another. This one was quite improvised due to extreme time constraints. When a birthday lands on a Sunday I lose a day. My goal is to have it arrive via mail on Saturday. Luckily it is only going a few blocks away (I think).

40 in progress

This card is going to a former co-worker of mine. We took walks pretty much daily for several months. During those walks I learned she was turning 40 this year. After acquiring several new cross stitch books this year I came across this pattern and decided that it would be the 50th card for the year. While it’s more like 45th in order of birthdays, this one brought me to a total of 50 cards to be made in 2019.

backstitching 40

Since this person shares a birthday with my brother the pressure was on to get them both done in time. And a mad rush to the post office to get them out on time! This pattern had backstitching which slowed down progress a bit.

The stitching and interfacing fabric went just fine for this one, it was the actual card part when things fell apart. Remember, a bit rushed on time for this one.

This person is super positive and bright. Even if things are going terribly, she’ll have a smile on her face and do whatever it is that needs doing. So a bright yellow paper for the card base what what I chose. This card is a 4.25×5.5, minus a little due to measuring errors.

angled view from bottom of 40 card

The butterfly paper was supposed to be a frame, but I didn’t measure correctly and cut too much fabric off the pattern. I was very glad to have the yellow base. Creating a floating cross stitch in the middle wasn’t so bad, unexpected, but it works. First time for everything!

I entered the wrong numbers in the design space for the Cricut, so the ‘s’ on ‘roses’ was cut off by time I was done trimming it back to fit the actual card base. As I was laying the frame on using double sided tape the paper bubbled up. I’m assuming in my rush to finish everything lots of things went wrong, but the card is bright and exciting to look at, which is all that matters.

Stitching

Started: October 21st
Finished: October 23rd

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full front of Life Begins at 40! card

Birthday on my mind

CraftyK Leave a comment

I somehow managed to not make any cards in the entire month of August. All year I made a point to make at least one a month. I missed the mark last month.

The card featured here was on my mind since I finished my last set of new cards in July. I knew I wanted it to be a birthday card. I would cut an oval with the Cricut, stamp Happy Birthday with a script font in blue, and mount it to the card using foam tape. I had the wallpaper piece ready to go and everything, but for some reason I put this off for over a month.

 

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I have been working on another cross stitch card for October, it’s just nowhere near done yet. More on that one later.

Back to the new card I made…I was doing my normal mass scrolling through Facebook and saw a new event pop up from a former teacher. (I only knew her through National Honors Society, never actually had her as a class teacher) Anyway, at some point we became friends on Facebook. So this event is to send her snail mail birthday cards. She is turning 40 and wants to celebrate with everyone by getting “a boatload of mail” for her birthday.

I wish I had thought of that last year when I turned 30. I love getting snail mail, but sadly my mailbox is filled with bills and junk.

Even though I don’t know Ms. Connors that well I decided that the reason I wanted to make this card and had the idea for it for so long was to send it to her. One of those odd the universe is trying to make something happen, just listen!

I hope she likes her custom hand made card from a former semi-student.

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Happy Birthday from the Party Elephant

CraftyK Leave a comment

It’s finally here! The post I promised in March. It’s the elephant birthday card for another cousin of mine Casey. She is obsessed with elephants! I am hoping that no one else has made her an elephant card, or at least not with this pattern.

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This is the earliest photo I have of this project

I officially started working on this January 30th and finished April 23rd. I even took a photo of everything when I started, but it seems that photo is lost forever. I can only assume I took it on Snapchat.

This cross stitch pattern was hand drawn, small and full of quarter stitches. cards_0518_11

Like the Panda birthday card I used the “diamond” embellishment at the bottom. Makes the card more 3D and jazzes it up a bit. cards_0518_12

To cut out such a nice square to place the cross stitch in I used my nifty Cricut. Because I made so many cards in a row I was able to better compensate for placement on the screen vs where it actually ends up cutting. I’m not sure if this is because of their quarter inch no cut zone or what, but it still drives me nuts.

On the inside I used the fancy scissors to create an insert. Since the paper is dark blue I wanted something to help balance my cross stitch back and the right side inside. And now I have a pretty place to write my message.

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And another birthday card to a cousin this year is complete!

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90th Birthday

CraftyK Leave a comment

There are only 2 living grandparents left in our family. They are my husband’s paternal side. On May 2nd his grandfather turned 90 years old! We went to Des Moines, IA that weekend to celebrate with him.

The night before I did a mad rush to make a card. It went over really well since they love art. Something handmade is different than the store bought cards. Apparently I did well enough that at first they thought it was purchased and were impressed it was so on the mark.

cards_0518_01

I chose green paper since it’s (finally) spring. And my paint options at home are limited, so I chose a yellow because it would be bright enough to stand off the green. Not on purpose, but a bit John Deere nonetheless.

How it was made:

The letters were created in using the writing feature of the Cricut. The barn and tractor were cut using the Cricut as well. These are the gold adhesive, so they are shiny and stick to the paper easily.

 

 

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. 🙂