Tag yellow

2026: April update

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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

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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

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Joy Bears

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I pulled out my last vintage Christmas card kit. This one features two teddy bears setting up an outdoor Christmas tree. They are stringing on the lights and the plug is out in the snow on the ground.

This cute scene reminded me of the Cherished Teddies my sister and I used to buy my mom for just about every holiday from Hallmark. There was usually some new figurine that my mom wanted and my sister would take me to the store nearby to pick it up. Several years ago I made her a large teddy bear cross stitch kit that also looked like the bears from the figurines.

This little cross stitch had its challenges with the white on white stitching. I managed with minimal mistakes. I’m also not used to paper patterns anymore. With Pattern Keeper for my full coverage projects, I’ve been pretty spoiled.

I managed to take a before backstitching photo of this one. The backstitching was needed to really bring out the character of the scene. This didn’t take too long to stitch and was finished with plenty of time before I delivered it to my mom for Christmas.

Stitching

Started: November 23, 2024

Finished: December 5, 2024

Stitching time: 11.75 hours

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There’s no planet B

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The company I work for has a big push for sustainability. When I received issue 337 of The World of Cross Stitch (WOXS) and saw this pattern, I just had to make it. We have a sustainability liaison between our company and the parent company, based in Australia. I think this stitch will be a great for her desk or at home.

The pattern is supposed to be stitched on 28 count, but I don’t have that on hand, so I used 14 count instead. The satin stitching is when I think 28 count would have been helpful.

The colors are inspired by the pattern. I used leftovers from other projects. From what I can tell I actually had 2 shades of green mixed on one bobbin. I also ran out of blue and transitioned to another blue I had on hand. Can you tell from the picture?

I was able to find a frame that fit the finished piece perfectly at a local thrift store. I painted it black using paints I already had on hand.

I even taped the leftovers to the back so there was no waste. This was a fun pattern and small break from the giant full coverage projects I have going.

Stitching

Started: November 17, 2023

Finished: January 8, 2024

Stitching time: 25 hours 45 minutes

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Travel theme keychains

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A request to write in a store bought card prompted this project. If you follow this page, you know I make a lot of cards. When I have to use a store bought card, it feels like cheating, even though I’m not the one who bought it.

I don’t know how official it is, but the company I work for celebrates customer service week the first week in October. The team I’m on was asked to write in some blank cards that will be distributed to the CSS team. While that’s nice, it’s not very personal. Even though what I’m doing is only personal in the sense that it’s handmade.

I knew I had several small travel themed patterns from World of Cross Stitch magazine. I went through all the copies I have and ended up picking 2 patterns that would fit the small keychain space.

To fit, the passports are stitched on 18 count and the globes on 16 count. I really struggled with placement and getting the patterns centered in the space. The fabric and thread are leftovers from previous projects. So the colors aren’t an exact match to the pattern, but it fits with the company’s drive for sustainability.

The backs are 4 parts of a photo I took while on vacation. There are 2 sets, I only took pictures of one because I finished so late.

I learned the keychains will be awards to CS reps who demonstrate over the top customer service.

Stitching

Started: September 19

Finished: October 1

Stitching time: 2.25 hours Passport (x4), 2 hours Globe (x4)

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Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

Parthenon

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I’ve changed. In more ways than one, but for the purpose of this blog, I’ve changed how I make cards.

When I first started making cards it was with some card stock, a glue stick, and wallpaper samples. Now there are stamps, ribbon, buttons, custom cutouts, and more involved.

This card is a product of that change. The background was cut several years ago. The me back then was looking for something interesting looking and that piece would be glued to the folded cardstock.

Today the page cut will now be a background for a cross stitch card. The look of the paper made me think of Greece or Rome and all the pillars. I remembered World of Cross Stitching recently had travel motifs. I found a Parthenon looking one and decided to make it.

Scroll down to see the finished card.

Stitching

Started: August 1

Finished: August 2

Stitching time: 1 hour

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Bounce

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This was one of the longest cross stitch I’ve had probably ever. After completing 50+ cross stitch cards in a year I was a bit burned out. I started this project right after finishing the card project and really struggled to keep up the motivation.

My niece’s looming graduation put me into high gear to get this one complete. After letting this sit for several months I finally picked it up again and really focused. The challenge of this pattern was all the odd stitching.

It was beyond just straight whole stitching, there were quarter and three-quarter and what were who knows what fraction ones that I converted to be something standard.

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By early 2021 I was finally making some progress. I even managed to take pictures along the way. I’m not sure what skill level this pattern was meant to be, but as someone who has many many hours of cross stitching under my belt, this one was downright hard and frustrating.ย 

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Even with much concentration I still managed to miss-count and make the pattern my own, but not on purpose. At some point I gave up and just kept pushing forward to eventually get to this stage.

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There are a lot of details. Tigger is cute, until you have to backstitch each odd shaped stripe. It really makes everything pop. There is a reason for backstitching! It was nice that everything was one color.ย 

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For anyone who follows this now you know why it has been such a long time since my last post. And a very long story about a house that has made life all the more interesting and annoying.

Stitching

Started: November 29, 2019

Finished Stitching: February 15, 2021

Finished (with backstitching): March 9, 2021

cross stitch0421_001

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angled layflat of princess

A Princess

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One of my cousins who married into the family is a huge Disney princess fan. While I didn’t have any patterns of actual Disney princesses I did find this generic princess on dailycrossstitch.com.

Since it is for a card I ended up stitching it on 22 count to make it small enough to fit a 4.25×5-inch card. As with most of the patterns from Daily Cross Stitch there was no backstitching. This helps speed up some patterns to just stitch and be done.

This also means less pictures to take as I go since there isn’t a difference after adding backstitching. Or what I like to call outlining. Since that’s essentially what you are doing.

close up of princess

Not much to say about this card. It’s very straightforward with the stitching and the frame is made from wallpaper. I was able to line it up on the Cricut well enough to get the loop over the right corner. I liked the swirls on this wallpaper and that it is thick and has texture to it. All of that made it a great finishing touch to this card.

Stitching

Started: November 6th
Finished: November 16th

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full front of princess card

birghter card text

You Are Sunshine

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Some of the cards I have made this year went through a few changes. Originally this cross stitch pattern was going to be made for my uncle, instead I made it for his wife. I was having a hard time coming up with what to make her.

My uncle is my godfather so in our family that meant I would exchange gifts with him every year at Christmas. He is also the godfather to one of my cousins. We would both receive a cross stitch ornament of some religious Bible theme (Christmas based) as the bow of our wrapped gifts. Every year my aunt would pick out a different pattern and stitch it for us, put it into a tiny frame so we could hang it on the tree.

sunset stitching bottom of card

My aunt is involved with several volunteering activities along with watching most of her grandkids on a daily basis. If you need her somewhere, she finds a way to make it happen. I’m not sure if she cross stitches much anymore, but a cross stitch card is very fitting for her.

The saying on this card is Some people make the world brighter just being in it. I feel like that is something very fitting for her. She gives of her time and talents as often as she can.

brighter card laying down

I chose the simple brown paper for the frame to really let the colors of the stitching stand out. I also used a lighter tan paper as the base instead of the standard white.

Besides the Cricut ripping up my first 3 attempts at cutting this frame, assembly went well. Double sided tape and interfacing fabric can be your best friends when making cross stitch cards.

Stitching

Started: October 26th
Finished: October 27th

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full front of brighter cross stitch

top of 40 card

Life Begins at 40!

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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