Tag crosssticher

side view of stitching

THE Cowboy

CraftyK Leave a comment

This one was another stitching down to the wire. This card is also the largest card I’ve made with a cross stitch. I stitched out this pattern on 22 count off white Aida cloth using DMC 3371. I know this color quite well because I had to buy more of it to finish at the very end.

 

the supplies

The amount of thread I had in this picture was what was left in my mom’s collection. Then I moved onto a (presumably) full skein from my cousin’s collection. Then had to finish with some from a brand new skein.

 

side and back view of card

For being a non-contact-non-sport I hurt a lot after finishing this one. Hours and hours of hunching over to see the little holes has taken it’s toll. I also hand-held the thing which isn’t recommended. This pattern is over 90 stitches wide and 115 high.

close up of corner

To create this card I wanted to make it look “rustic”. That’s the word that comes to mind with ripped edges and a messy edge around the stitching. Assembly was pretty straight forward and old school. I got out my box cutter and ruler to cut out the paper for the card and inside piece.

inside of card

After cutting the paper to the correct sizes I tore the paper. The inside piece took me a bit to figure out that if I ripped it one way the white from the back showed, however if I tried ripping “backwards” it looked so much better! Being a lefty is hard sometimes. I’m not one to rip paper so this was a new experience for me.

close up of card standing

I’m glad this card came together quickly to be sent out. I’m not sure if this will make it to Texas by today for my uncle’s birthday, but it is on its way!

 

Stitching

Started: February 4th
Finished: February 18th

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full card, cropped

Purple Morpho

CraftyK Leave a comment

Today’s my cousin Rhonda’s birthday! Her nonprofit logo is a purple butterfly, so I took the pattern of a Blue Morpho and turned it into a Purple Morpho.blue morpho with opened wings

About the card

cloth, thread, pattern

After working on so many cross stitches that take weeks if not months (and a few a while back pretty sure years…) these last couple of cards have been a wonderful “break”. The base design I used for this butterfly was from Donna Kooler’s Cross Stitch Designs book. I recreated it in WinStitch so I could mark off what I finished, and change the butterfly from blue to purple.

While I was at Joann’s a few weeks ago I found thread that looked to be sparkly thread. Once I cut it and definitely once I started using it, I’m pretty sure it’s filament. Of course that didn’t stop me from using it like thread the way I wanted to and add some sparkle to my butterfly.

close up of stitching

Like the Care Bear I thought I was finished and I got so excited I almost forgot to finish the back stitching on this one! I finished all the wing details and completely spaced the outside. I woke up the next morning and it hit me that I wasn’t actually done.

Once I finished the back stitching for real I began collecting all the pieces to put together the card. While I was working on the cross stitch I decided I wanted to used one of my new birthday embossing folders. I pulled out my paper drawer and thought I was going for one foil embossed paper I have and instead ran across the butterfly paper (still foil embossed).

detail shot of the embossing

Although the colors match nothing in the cross stitch I loved the butterfly theme. I used that as the background and embossed it using the happy birthday folder I have. It’s fairly hard to see and photograph, but you can feel it.

To help the cross stitch stand out more I chose a neutral color to mount using foam tape to the card. The cross stitch is attached with some double sided tape in the middle and E-6000 on the edges. That stuff is powerful and the butterfly won’t be going anywhere.

side view of card

So there you have it! That’s how this card came together in just a few days.

 

Stitching

Started: October 22nd
Finished: October 25th

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Elephant Love

CraftyK Leave a comment

close up of 2 elephants with balloons

If you remember the elephant card I made for an August birthday, this one is quite different. This one I “designed” myself from different patterns I found for elephants and balloons. I did draw the grass myself. The happy birthday is a font from the WinStitch program I drew everything in.

close up of yellow balloon

I started this cross stitch on a Friday, did the majority of it at Side Projects Club on Saturday and finished up the back stitching on Sunday. Compared to the last card this one is much smaller and much easier due to the lack of quarter stitches.

Assembly came with some challenges. I have done enough of these to know that I would really prefer to get them in straight. I think I finally found a good way to accomplish this too!

Taking double sided tape I lined the edges closest to the hole I cut with the Cricut (well I cut the whole thing out of a 12×12 paper and scored it with the Cricut). Then I started to place the fabric down into the opening. I have learned that the fabric does not adhere to the tape right away, so there is opportunity to move it around to try and get it as straight as possible. I try to use the holes as a guide.

front view of the cross stitch in the card

Since it’s not the stickiest thing ever it’s hard to truly “stretch” the fabric across without pulling it off somewhere, I was at least able to get it pretty darn close. Now it’s remembering this technique for the next one I do with a cut out…

To really hold it in place I cut out another piece (with the Cricut) the from the 12×12 page slightly smaller than the 4.25″ x 5.5″ side and used more double sided tape along the outer edges of that piece to adhere it to the inside of the card. From what I can tell this worked well since I had enough clearance on each side and the fabric is completely underneath.

Stitching

Started: October 18th
Finished: October 21st

 

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close up of blue elephant and word happy

Birthday Care Bear

CraftyK Leave a comment

the completed project

Today is my best friend’s BIRTHDAY! When she told me she liked the Care Bears I found a cross stitch book on ebay and found this Birthday Bear! I knew I wanted to make it for her. It took a long time, but it’s done and delivered!

I started this cross stitch immediately after finishing the butterfly card. Since I survived using the dark 18 count Aida I assumed I could manage Hardanger (it’s also called 22 count). Boy was I wrong! And I overestimated my eyesight. I know it is small, but didn’t realize just how hard it would be to stitch. I could barely tell if there was a full x or not.

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I ended up at Joann’s for a LED magnifying glass on day 2 of working on this project. Even with using it I couldn’t see very well or my vision is going bad faster than I thought. I found it challenging to keep my eyes focused for very long. Not sure if this is common since I don’t know anyone who regularly works on Hardanger. If you have and have any tips please share!

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8/25/18: Although this milestone is hard to see, it is a milestone. I got the white on white almost complete. There is still some in the ears, but I don’t trust myself to count that far from my current position. I did however complete the belly area of the bear. The count is 1 off somehow, but I’m hopeful I can work around it without making the entire image seem off.

care bear with white belly complete

8/25/18: progress report

After much more work on this I finally finished. The left side is definitely off, but that makes it unique and handmade right?

10/14/18: The stitching is complete!

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10/14/18: progress report, the main stitching is done

Now time for backstitching and well the french knots ended up not happening. I realized this as I started typing this.

I used the Cricut to cut out the frame to finish this. The total size is 8 in x 8 in. As much as I tried to make a card out of it I wasn’t able to. Five attempts at cutting a card from my A3+ paper and it just left my sticky board a mess. The paper shredded no matter what setting I used when trying to pull it off.

I was so desperate to finish this on time and with my other commitments I completely missed actually finishing everything on this project. Maybe it’s time to slow down a bit (which I know can’t happen with many stokes in the fire).

I used to do really well and not miss stitches or anything else. Now my work has mistakes everywhere, too many things happening that are distractions. I have many more deadlines to reach, so no slowing down now.

Stitching

Started: July 21st
Finished: October 16th

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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L is for Liesel

CraftyK Leave a comment

This is a project I have thought about doing for years. I met my friend about 5 years ago, she already had her two children at the time around 6 and 3 years old. They were past the point of making birth samplers, but I wanted to make them something.

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During an estate sale my mom picked up some Precious Moments cross stitch books, one of them being the alphabet book. While some of the images with the letters would today be seen as offensive (I is Indian…N for girl is Nurse…M for boy is Mexican and for girl Mom…). I digress…The L in this case for boy and girl is Lion. So I was happy to move forward with creating this without worrying about offending someone.

When I started I thought this would be a large image because the pattern is pretty good sized. Once I went to cut the fabric I was in for a surprise. This pattern would fit on a card! So a card it will be.

Once I got through the lion (color changes and quarter stitches everywhere!) this project went pretty fast. This is also one of the few projects that I mostly used the correct DMC colors for. I haven’t done many projects with brown, especially light browns and tans, so I needed to go hunting for the real thing.

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After I finished assembling the card it looked a bit plain. Since this is for a 10 year old I thought maybe it needed a little something extra. I went into the spare room with all the random things and saw my glitter glue collection. That was the answer! I think it turned out pretty good for having the cats help me.

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Stitching

Started: June 16th
Finished: July 13th

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