Tag simple

finished card laying down side view

Birds on the House

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card has gone through several patterns. The first one was from dailycrossstitch.com. Every time I went to order it, there wasn’t a pattern. The one pattern that is missing from their site. I tried reaching out, but no one responded.

in progress birdhouse

I had found a different pattern that was more complex, but not as bright and fun. Then I got a new cross stitch book and ended up finding this pattern that seemed to fit what I wanted. I don’t know my aunt all that well, so my mom came up with birds and flowers.

pre-backstitching of birdhouse

My aunt used to make beautiful cards for people by stamping and coloring them in. She stopped making them years ago and I am a little sad I wasn’t able to fit any stamping onto the finished card. I do like the paper I found though. I think it really fits with the style of the cross stitch.

I used the Cricut to cut out the frame, used up all the paper since the Cricut messed up as usual and cut off the paper and on the mat instead. Sometimes it likes to do that, other times it works just fine. I never know and can waste a lot of paper and need to pick something else before it cuts right. I’ve been told what it’s doing isn’t normal, so if you end up with a Cricut it will probably work just fine.

Stitching

Started: September 26th
Finished: September 29th

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full front of birdhouse card

top corner

Musical Owl

CraftyK Leave a comment

This card was a mostly last minute add-on to my Card Project 2019, yup I have named it and even hashtag the madness.

This card came about because my mom wanted help with a card she was going to make for my former piano teacher (not currently taking lessons) and good friend of my mom’s. She’s turning 70 this year, which happened to my mom last year. She received a mug from my aunt (her daughter in law made it) and wanted me to make one that said the same thing.

She also made a Scrabble® themed card with “seventy” on it. So I helped by using the Cricut to cut out the letters and my husband cut the pieces for her. She’s going to glue them to her card. I don’t have a picture of the Scrabble® card or anything for that part of the project. But her making a card spurred me to find a pattern that would be good for a card as well.

I went to dailycrossstitch.com first and found a pattern I liked. It’s a cute little owl with headphones and some musical notes around.

musical owl top

While my mom found some music note paper for her card, I went out and bought a music embossing folder. In the store I thought it was so cool! Well once I used it, I realized it must not have been made by someone familiar with music beyond the shapes. There’s no direction to it, the notes are going both ways, I’ll have to explain in the card that I know it’s not a legit song.

side view

I wanted the embossing to stand out, so I used a solid cardstock paper. Then I mounted the pattern using foam tape because I really like the stitching to pop off the card. Foam tape attachments are used on many commercial cards, and I enjoy it too.

 Stitching

Started: June 26th
Finished: July 2nd

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full front of card

top front of card standing

Simple Cross

CraftyK Leave a comment

I’m not sure where to begin with this card. I made it for a second-cousin of mine. He’s been through a lot in his life and part of this cross stitch has a little extra meaning because of where the thread came from.

About 15 years ago my cousin and his family were in a terrible car accident. His wife died and one of his children was left with a brain injury. He’s recovered well beyond what was every expected for which we are all grateful.

It’s not easy to lose a parent. If I remember correctly he was about 6 years old. I know his mom loved cooking (which is why we have the family cookbook) and she cross stitched. At some point my mom ended up with her thread. It’s in a brown case, everything sorted out and each color braided onto the cards. To this day I cannot rebraid them if one becomes undone.

thread on cloth on pattern

For this cross stitch I picked two colors from her collection. I went with blue, hoping it’s a color he likes. Blue is a pretty universal color. These two stood out, so going with “there’s a higher power” they must be what it should be.

The pattern is something I found online. I didn’t want anything too crazy and trying to search “cross cross stitch” doesn’t go so well, the internet doesn’t understand that I did mean to write cross twice.

The pattern had a circle element to it that I decided to leave off. I wanted to keep it simple, I liked the clean lines.

angled view front

I used the Cricut to cut my frame.  It took a few different papers to come to the plain grey. Again for the simplicity of it. I didn’t want to add any text, embossing or stamping. Just simple, especially because the thread in this case has more meaning than anything else.

Stitching

Started: May 30th
Finished: May 31st

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front view full card

 

 

bottom of card Huskers

Go Big Red!

CraftyK Leave a comment

I could make this exact card for just about anyone in my family. Almost everyone loves their football and the Huskers. It’s a Nebraska thing if you aren’t familiar.

starting out GBR

In my attempt to keep each card unique, only one family member is getting the beloved Huskers stitched onto a card. This card is for my cousin (and my mom’s godson). He’s been living in Texas almost 2 decades now, but that doesn’t take his love of the Huskers away.

To bring a little Huskers to him, this is the ONE Husker card that I am making this year. I found the pattern years ago with a random image search. I’m pretty sure it’s not licensed so hopefully I won’t get in trouble for it.

final card front standingThis card was pretty simple overall. I used the Cricut to cut out the card, background, and red pieces. This card is a little larger at 5×7. The pieces were too crowded looking on the smaller card. I wanted to do frayed edges and mount with foam tape.

top of card close up

While Huskers are known for red, they are also known for the Blackshirts, which is why I chose the marbled black wallpaper as the background on this card. I didn’t have red paper like I would normally use, but did have some red construction paper. I went old school and used that instead of buying scrapbooking paper.

I used double sided tape to mount the wallpaper to the cardstock and the construction paper to the wallpaper. for the cross stitch I used foam tape to make it stand off the card a bit.

Stitching

Started: April 6th
Finished: April 7th

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full front of Husker card

Customized Thermos

CraftyK Leave a comment

I’ve been seeing more and more customized products, mugs, tumblers, wine glasses, etc. Before the end of last year I thought people were just magical being able to create such items.

The backstory: I wanted to create my own stencils so I wouldn’t have to rely on other people’s designs and size constraints. I started looking into flexible plastic (still haven’t gotten any) and how to cut it with more precision than an exacto knife and hand drawn lines. That’s when I stumbled on a product called the Cricut.

Upon this discovery my husband set out on a journey to find which machine and starter kit would work best for my beginner needs. I ended up with the Explore Air 2 which had just come out and a huge variety of items to try out.

thermos_0718_01My favorite item so far has been the adhesive foil. I have a variety pack of metallic adhesive foil that I have used on a variety of cards and paper projects. This is the first project where I am using the foil on a much used item.

I’ve had this thermos for many years, as you might be able to see it’s a little beat up, the paint is chipped…it’s seen better days.

I wanted to get a purple one, but can’t find it in stock. So I am still using this one and wanted to make the leap to making something that’s popular. Luckily I have a graphic design background and understand Illustrator, making the Cricut less of a learning curve than it seems to be for many new users. I drew the camera in Illustrator and exported my SVG file to cut out my pattern.

I know the foil isn’t considered “permanent” but we don’t use the dishwasher so I think with hand washing it should stick for a while. So far it’s made it 3 days.

thermos_0718_02

 

 

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