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.

Press On with Trylon and Perisphere Cross Stitch using a cool font from the book A Rainbow of Stitches

My Dad probably won't read my blog before he opens his Christmas presents so I think I am safe to post this today. He was born in 1939 and loves the 39 Worlds Fair. We have a cool old black and white photo of his mom pregnant with him standing in front of the trylon and perisphere.
One of his favorite sayings is "press on" so I thought I would cross stitch it for him. I wanted to do a bit of a more "design" font so I used this pretty one from the way-cool book:
A Rainbow of Stitches: Embroidery and Cross-Stitch Basics Plus More Than 1,000 Motifs and 80 Project Ideas

From the publisher, Watson-Guptill:
A Rainbow of Stitches is a how-to-stitch guide, a project idea book, and an encyclopedia of motifs, all in one go-to reference. Begin by choosing a motif from this extensive collection, which ranges from elegant alphabets to 1970s-inspired flowers and leaves, from sweet fairies to vintage-chic ladies in classic Dior dresses. The "Get Stitching" section gives you the basics you need to get started, along with an illustrated how-to of the simple stitches that are used to create all of the motifs.

Each of the following sections, which are arranged by color–fresh greens, pretty pinks, timeless blues, rich reds, and elegant white and taupe–presents ideas for embroidering motifs in single colors, showing how much can be achieved with just one color of embroidery floss on a plain background. Includes more than eighty beautifully photographed, inspiring ideas for stitched embellishment, from wearables and personal accessories to a variety of decorative items for every room in your home.

AGNÉS DELAGE-CALVET, ANNE SOHIER-FOURNEL, MURIEL BRUNET, and FRANÇOISE RITZ are lifelong needlearts enthusiasts and experienced teachers of embroidery and other fiber crafts.

FRÉDÉRIC LUCANO is a professional photographer specializing in fashion and home décor.

There are possitively tons of great cross stitch and embroidery designs in this book and I will be making many more of them! One of the girls in my Church of Craft group bought the book after I brought mine to the meeting because she loved it too. She was the one that started me cross stitching with the Subversive Cross stitch book!

The 7 deadly sins cross stitched in latin with scissor accents

OK my cross stitch peeps, here is my latest finished cross stitch, I love Latin and I am on a mission to bring it back!

This is the seven deadly sins with little scissors on each side with a row of stitching. My letters are just a bit different than the printout (I filled in the serifs) I thought that looked a bit less country.

The translation is to the right and the DMC floss color number out to the side. Feel free to download and use if you like!

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.

The First Rule of a Gunfight is Bring a Gun Cross stitch

Just thought I'd share with you my latest finished cross stitch. I did this one different than I have done in the past. I used to use the font in the back of the wonderful book Subversive Cross stitch and grid paper to arrange the letters, but now I use a computer font, Home Sweet Home and type out the words and print it out. I just sketched the guns. (The border is from Subversive Cross stitch)

What I did learn though was that it was important to do the boarder before the guns. I originally thought I would do the guns and then the border, but where I had originally sketched the gun placement would have been too close into the type.

This is the favorite saying of a friend's Grandfather and so I thought I'd make it as a gift.

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!

My favorite thing I saw at TNNA 2008 Cross stitch belt buckles

These are just too cool for words! They are cross stitch belt buckles and the patterns are rockin'
They are from Unique NZ Designs

I will be posting all sorts of fun stuff I saw there and silly pictures we took! It was a great day.