The PINK Flamingo is back!

July 30, 2019July 25, 2019CraftyK 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.

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.

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.

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

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

Wake up and MAKEUP

May 27, 2019May 20, 2019CraftyK Leave a comment

Birthday two of the day. This card is for someone I have known since middle school and reconnected with a couple years back at the gym. What was even more amusing is we were in the same gym class in middle school and ended up joining the same gym as adults, and happened to be there at the same time. We’re not in a huge city, but not small either and it’s a 24 hour gym, so the chances of our meeting again was probably fairly slim.

Since that re-connection we have had some ups and downs in our adult relationship. Sometimes it’s hard being friends with someone who is trying to rise through the ranks of the Mary Kay sales force. I ended up joining as a way to save a few dollars buying skincare and also to help unit out.

When this pattern came in my email from Daily Cross Stitch earlier this year I knew I would be adding yet another card to the ever growing collection this year. This is the 19th card made this year.

As I was stitching this card I fell in love with the ampersand. I don’t know that I’ve ever really stitched one before, but I really liked it. It’s a really strange thing to enjoy looking at after stitching. The words are also done in modern fonts which also added to my wanting to make this card.

When I was working on the cross stitch portion of the card I really thought I would put it on black paper. Then I started going through some choices, one was black, and found I like how the pink popped so much more on the paper I ended up choosing.

In the spirit of MK and all things sparkly I cracked out some pink glitter glue. Waiting for that to dry so I could put the card in the envelope was so hard! Although I had thought about glitter glue earlier on, I almost forgot until everything was assembled. I didn’t put it everywhere, but found some pink squares that could use some dressing up.

I used double sided tape for the colored paper and foam tape on the cross stitch. The cross stitch is backed by interfacing fabric (really light stuff) to help hold it together after being cut.

Stitching

Started: May 12th
Finished: May 15th

Follow along on Snapchat!

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

Follow along on Snapchat!

Flutterby the Butterfly

October 6, 2018July 28, 2018CraftyK 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Follow along on Snapchat!

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!

Happy Birthday from the Party Elephant

August 29, 2018July 26, 2018CraftyK 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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. 🙂

Happy Birthday Clown

June 22, 2018June 17, 2018CraftyK Leave a comment

This cross stitch was started 6/3 and finished 6/16. I needed a fast turn around so it could be mailed to my cousin in Texas.

the beginning

Everything starts as a blank canvas. This is the first time I have cut enough fabric that I didn’t have to worry if I would stitch right off the side. I’m learning and making progress making non kit cross stitches.

I chose this pattern from a library book I checked out. My cousin was really into clowns as a kid, he had them all over his room. So when I saw this I immediately thought of him and looked up his birthday to make sure I could get it done for this year.

The finished card

It took a little time to pick a color for this card. I wanted to keep it bright and not clash too much. I think it turned out just right. I even got the square cut just the right size. It may not have cut in the exact right spot I wanted, but it was the right size. Like I said, I’m learning and getting better at this!

If anyone is interested in a cross stitch card, I plan to start selling them once I finish my personal card list.

Keep creating and don’t forget to follow along on my crafting adventures on Snapchat! You can see updates and works in progress before they make it to the blog.

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!

10/21/17

05/11/17

07/29/17

9/23/17

07/01/17

06/03/17

08/26/17

Puzzles – a way to relax

February 19, 2017April 29, 2020CraftyK Leave a comment

puzzle_01

Back in 2015 I was given a not so great health news. Part of the cause could be from extra stress. With my health problems, and those of my parents it’s been a rough couple of years.

I decided that I needed to expand my puzzle collection from 1 to a few more. I reached out to the good people of Freecycle and got a couple of responses. Two women had some puzzles they wanted to get off their hands. After collecting these I realized I needed to get a bit more organized. We happened to have 2 bookshelves that weren’t really getting used, so I re-purposed them for games and puzzles.

I have completed a few of the puzzles so far, which is why I have a the before/after style photo above. I have even added a few. My brother’s kids were over in summer 2016 and while looking for games found my puzzles and had their parents get me a couple more for my birthday. I have also picked up a couple at the store. Of course being a glass half empty person I feel like I’m almost out and keep contemplating if asking on Freecycle again is a good idea.

After I did some of the puzzles on a card table in our new cat’s room. (Yes she has a room, the cats don’t like each other, so Pumpkin has a safe place to go.) I decided to work on a really large puzzle that needed to be done on the kitchen table. After that it’s where I’ve been working on all my puzzles, and taking a photo of them upon completion. I use a super cheap clear table topper to keep everything protected when I’m not working on the puzzle, and since it’s clear I still see it and be reminded to work on it.

Here is my collection of completed puzzles that I have documented so far. Once I finish the puzzles are now going to my oldest niece who started college fall 2018.

She is hoping to become an RA, loves puzzles, and wants them for other students (and herself) to work on. I obtained another large donation from a young woman on Freecycle who was also an RA, although the puzzles she had were from her grandmother.