Tag stripes

top front, slight angle

Antique Storefront

CraftyK Leave a comment

I think this is the most detailed and challenging card of the year. The pattern calls for 14 count fabric making the design 5″x5″. To keep to my “standard” card size of 4×5.5 I needed to make the design smaller, so I went with 22 count fabric. Making this already detailed pattern even more daunting. The pattern is from an old issue of The Cross Stitcher, I’m not sure if it can be found anymore, but that’s where to start the search. They had a whole Victorian Village Afghan Series.

thread laid out

I used my more “aged” fabric that is kind of loose in a way. I had a few times while stitching, mostly during backstitching where a whole row would just rip out. Like it wasn’t really in there at all.

This pattern has a lot of backstitching to it. So I decided for the first time in my cross stitching life to do some of the backstitching as I went. I even took a picture before I started in on the bottom half. I thought it would be fun to finally show a work in progress or WIP in the cross stitching world. (I learn so many new things from the Cross Stitch Club Facebook group)

part of backstitching done

Once I got all the detail work done. I attempted at double checking it. There was so much I just hoped for the best. I tried to take some semi-detailed pictures of the stitching top and bottom. Tried using a different camera with a macro lens and was a little frustrated by how far away I still needed to be from the design to focus.

For the frame I picked out a wallpaper that has some pattern to it, but still kind of plain. I really kept trying different plaid patterns, but they all seemed too busy. I really wanted the cross stitch to stand out since it is so detailed and took a lot of hours to get done.

front of card standing

To cut the frame I got out the Cricut and measured pretty darn well. There are times when I leave no breathing room, but this one wasn’t too bad. There was even enough space on the sides for the wallpaper to be taped to the cardstock.

Stitching

Started: June 1st
Finished: June 16th

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full front of card

cat face

Happy Kitty

CraftyK Leave a comment

Hopefully you like cats. I do. I have 2 of them. My cousins have several cats among them as well. The cousin who is getting this card however had to give up his cats after finding out one of his kids is allergic. Yet the whole family still loves cats. They are all getting a cat card to at least have a non-allergy causing cat around. I cannot guarantee the card is free of cat hair either. I usually have one on my lap while attempting at stitching.

happy cat thread

This pattern is part of a set from a quilt book. I tried to highlight the symbols and colors I would need, yet missed the pink. It’s not in the picture when I started, but I had to go find some pink for the ears by time I was done.

stitching top

This was a pretty fast pattern to work on. It was the designing of the card that took a while.

I had no idea where to begin. I went through both paper drawers a couple of times before finding the blue geometric patterned paper from a book I bought last year.

The pattern was small enough to add some stamping with a birthday message. That paper was easy to find, I find myself using it a lot. It’s not white and has some character to it.

bottom view

I used my Cricut to cut out the blue paper and ivory paper for stamping on. I have a corner rounder cutting thing I used to round the corners. I was lazy and didn’t design the box in Illustrator and the Cricut program doesn’t allow for rounded corners.

After stamping I decided since I had my clear embossing powder by me to emboss just the word birthday. A little got on the letters above, but not enough to change the effect I was going for.

front of card standing

For not having a clue how to start designing this card I think it came together really well. Bringing in the additional element of the stamp helps offset the smaller cross stitch design.

Stitching

Started: May 9th
Finished: May 11th

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front of Happy Cat

set of 4 thank you cards

Holiday Thank Yous

CraftyK Leave a comment

Despite knowing all year when Christmas is I managed to put off creating my thank you notes. I also flat out didn’t do cards to send to people. I probably should, but if I make them it’s lots of work and my personal life is pretty boring so nothing to write lengthy prose about. Anyway, I digress.

These cards are to send to the 4 people who give me gifts in my old age (post 30). My mom, my mother-in-law, and my godparents. This year I enlisted help for my godparents gifts from my husband. He’s getting into woodworking and made something for each of them. Since it’s his thing, I don’t have pictures of the projects. So this will continue to be about the cards and my side ramblings.

I have stamped onto wallpaper before and decided to go for it again. Although it’s somewhat hard to see I did actually stamp on the pear card. I also took a Sharpie to it for an outline. For the white card I used black ink and stamped right onto the wallpaper. I had to wait awhile before adhering it to the cardstock because it was starting to bleed a bit. I barely touched it and it started to run up the lines in the wallpaper. After letting it sit for a while I went ahead and finished up making it into a card. The pear I didn’t seem to have those issues, but you can barely see the text. It’s a little more visible in person depending on the angle.

For the other two cards I got out the handy Cricut. I was never good at cutting squares or any shape for that matter. Straight lines are hard and getting them the correct size is even worse. I used the Cricut to cut out my squares from pink and grey paper. I then took a red ink to stamp Thank You onto the pink paper and a dark blue ink I onto the grey. Then I used foam tape to adhere the paper to the wallpaper to give a more 3D appearance.

To attach the wallpaper to the cardstock I used double sided tape on all 4 cards. I didn’t have the time to mess with Yes Paste and get it all to stick properly. I hope to spend some time working on more wallpaper cards next year. Until then I have now created some cards for December and can complete my blog on 2018 Cards. I think I’ll do another blog for next year since I know I’ll have a lot of cards to make for my mom’s side of the family.

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flat lay 4 thank you cards

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.

wallpaper cards embellish_0918_07

 

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Stencils & Paint

CraftyK Leave a comment

So who knew that using a stencil with paint could be so challenging?

Maybe it’s just me, maybe I don’t hold the stencil down enough, but each flower I stenciled onto this card with paint is a little different. I did chose a very light paint color to add to this. I was going for a more blended look than something bright that would stand out more.

I think the light grey is a nice compliment to the overall paper colors. I was toying with an orange color until I went to look at it and found it was more construction orange than pastel.

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The flower second from the bottom is the closest to the stencil I used. Once I pulled up the stencil I wished I had done this card the other way with the large flower on bottom for better balance. That feeling could also be from the excessive amount of paint that ended up bleeding out making the petals blend together more. The downside to using such a light color and not being familiar with paint. I thought nothing was happening, oops.

I am continuing to use a makeup sponge for painting with stencils. I learned this trick from an Introduction to Art Journaling class on CreativeLive (seriously check them out, On-Air classes are free to watch!). To be honest it is that class (which was On-Air one day) that got me started on this new way of working on wallpaper cards.

It’s amazing how sometimes the most random thing can spark an idea for a completely different project.

Happy crafting!

 

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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. 🙂

All commissions from affiliate links go to the maintenance of this blog. Thank you for your support!