My latest finished cross stitch and Crafty Blogger links

My latest finished cross stitch that just makes me giggle!
Can you figure out why?

The letters are from the book Subversive Cross Stitch and the plaid heart is from A Rainbow of Stitches: Embroidery and Cross-Stitch Basics Plus More Than 1,000 Motifs and 80 Project Ideas

And if you look close by clicking on the image you can see the reflection across the room of the "bite me" cross stitch from the book Subversive Cross stitch.

Now onto what my fellow crafty bloggers are up to:

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter
Wanna be a 'trashionista?' Join Madge as she turns old magazines into a fabulous decoupage purse in this week's project for ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Craftside's got a how-to on making a zipper necklace, a free pattern template for a cute card jewelry display, a whole bunch of great cat quotes, an interview with Paula Guhin author of Image Art Workshop and announcing-Craftside authors will be doing Make and Takes at the Unique Los Angeles shopping extravaganza!

Mixed Media Artist
Learn a more subtle approach to using the pointillism filter in Photoshop.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
How to make a dress from a recycled tank and skirt inspired by one in the book Built By Wendy Dresses

The Artful Crafter
Read some glass etching tips from master etcher Eric Robert.

About Family Crafts
Find out how to get creative while making prints with kids by using a variety of supplies you already have on hand. You can share your ideas too!

About Family Crafts
Find out how to get creative while making prints with kids by using a variety of supplies you already have on hand. You can share your ideas too!

Cathie Filian
The Easter Bunny has been busy over at Cathie's workshop! Check out all the fun Easter Craft Ideas.

Cross stitched reindeer sweater cuff

THE SEW-IT BOOK

Reproduction of the 1929 book - The Sew-It Book - Things to make with needle & thread and odds & ends.
17 projects including a child's apron, smock, sun bonnet, rag doll and Kimono-type jacket .

Techniques include sewing, embroidery, doll dress pattern making and tie-dying. 47-page hardback book with an embossed cover.

A keepsake treasure with darling graphics that will charm sewers and quilters, young and old!

So true. The patterns are great in this book, especially the cross stitch, of which I love to do (just check out my other cross stitch work by clicking on the link)

Reindeer are my favorite image right now, I am using it all over the place in my art, craft projects and decorating.

There is a very cool reindeer in the book so I whipped one out using a scrap of cross stitch fabric and a veeeerrrry old all metal hoop that was in a box of old supplies a friend had given me. It worked great!
And this is what I made with my cross stitched deer- a cuff!

The cuff is a recycled wool felted sweater. I attached the cross stitch with 4 heart shaped studs. The cuff closure is Velcro. A note here, you only have to use the hook side of the Velcro because the sweater is just like the loop side and sticks great. This reduces a bit of bulk. In the back ground you can see one of the designs from Subversive cross stitch.

Name plate Cross Stitch

This is a little cross stitch I whipped up with a bit of help from the book Subversive Cross Stitch, I used the font in the back of the book, snagged the swirlies from one project and the border from another. So easy and quick!

Mother's Day Cross Stitch Done and Displayed!

Better late than never! The border is from the wonderful book Subversive Cross Stitch and I plotted the type.

And here it is all framed up!

And on the wall with an award my mom got in Law School and a collage of memorabilia from a trip to Catalina. Kind of a neat mix of stuff, hu?

But this cross stitch wasn't all, The Mom also wanted note cards with the cross stitch saying on them. So I used the photo I took and brought it into illustrator and laid it out two up on a page horizontally and printed out a bunch!

And for plotting out the letters I went to Incompetech.com for the graph paper, it is so cool you can make any size you need there and print it out!

I think it was a great idea to use a custom piece of art/craft to make a useful item that more can share in.
Now I have a tip for you, you already might do this but for some reason I hadn't up until this point. I had always cut the paper in half to separate the two cards, then folded them. This always then required some trimming of the cards. This time I folded the large piece of paper in half, then cut the two apart. No trimming up!!! Learn something new every day.

There was a second cross stitch that was requested for another person as part of this gift, but the recipient hasn't gotten it yet, but after they do I will post it!

And here is the cross stitch I did for the parents for Christmas all framed up:
And this is the post about the technique I use to plot my designs.

F.U.B.A.R Cross stitch

Well here you have it, my latest finish object.
Again inspired by the wonderful book Subversive Cross Stitch.

Click here to read all about the origin of this acronym. Hugs!

Cross Stitch Gifts-finally!

It was so hard to keep these to myself. I emailed my parents asking them what their favorite sayings were and I drafted up these cross stitch designs. I pulled some of the borders and squirrels from the book Subversive Cross Stitch and altered the duckie's colors to be more of a mallard. The acorn was a total "wing-it" My dad will frame them and they will be hung in their respective offices.

Handmade for the Holidays!

Doin' it Old School Cross Stitch Design

After making 3 Subversive Cross Stitch patterns right from the book, I decided to make one up of a saying I read in someone's signature line in their email.
I started my design career before there was computers were widely available-just before-so learned how to do it old school with paper, pencil, and scissors. So I thought I would show you how I did it.


1. I used the graph paper and letters in the back of the book to plot out my first thought of how I wanted the letters to be.




2. Then I cut it up and redid the layout getting the centering better by folding each new section in half (how high-tech of me!)






3. I used a wash-a-way marking pen to sketch the border and get it's spacing right. I used a border and details from the book.




And this is what I did:

What Craft Designers Do when they Take a Break

One of my fellow Church of Craft congregates was working on a piece from subversive cross stitch at the last meeting and it inspired me to get the book and give it a try. Here is my first piece. I simply love it! Irony at it's finest.