2012 Christmas cards

Here are this year's Christmas cards.  Unfortunately, due to moving, pregnancy and other generic excuses I only had time to stitch my parents, in-laws and sister's cards.  I was fairly happy with how they turned out, although I wished I had more time to be a bit more careful about the embellishment placements and design.

I was happy with this one.  It's titched on 32 count linen

with beads and a lot of fiddly back-stitching.  I was a 

bit lazy (I like to think I was being environmentally

friendly) and just cut out the Christmas sentiment

from a bought card I received last year!  The same

applies for the following cards...

I had intended to put the 'Ho Ho Ho's' 

at jaunty angles, but annoying I only

achieved this for the centre one, so it 

looks accidental now. Grr. 

I like the tartan effect from the red 

backstich lines in the design.  Luckily I

had some matching tartan style fabric in my

stash to use for the sentiment's background.

Birthday card

I tried something a little different with this birthday card.  I incorporated a super quick cross stitch tag and attached it to the card with some thread.  I like the overall effect, and I think I'll be making more of these.  Cross stitched cards can take a surprising amount of time, but using this method is a nice way of producing some speedy cards that still have that needlecraft look.

 The photo doesn't show it well, but 

the cross stitch tag has metallic thread

Upright image to try and show the 

tag dangling. Excuse the messy

background - I didn't plan the shots

that well

 I wish I knew how to take better photos of my craft projects.  The blurry, poor detailed shots (even when taken outdoors) I do manage put me off posting them.  If anyone has any tips on photographing crafts I'd be very grateful!  I have a 'point and snap' camera, so I'm a bit limited with regard to manually focusing etc., but there must be something I can do to improve the image quality!

Cards, bookmarks, and wine.

Here are the cards I said I would blog about a month ago (ahem...)

The first is an anniversary card. It was from one of those build-it-yourself card kits I wanted to try out. It came out ok, but I object a little to the limitations imposed by a kit!

The next card was also from a kit, but I lost the chart so had to wing it a bit. I'm not a huge fan of the design, but as this was for my sister who loves both roses and tea, it seemed an ideal birthday card!

Finally, a cross stitch bookmark I made to accompany my sister's birthday present (a book, funnily enough). Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, the border of the bookmark resulted in some last minute chart adjustments as the working area was too narrow for the chart design. I also cut it a little too short hence why the design looks a little bunched at the ends. For the backing, I used the liner of an old jacket I have, which is a velvet-like material. It's called horse skin, but it isn't actually from the hide of an equine!
I like the design on this one, I just wished I'd measured twice and cut once! I blame the wine in the background. Evil vino, leading my crafts astray...

Mother's day cards

A little late, but here are the Mother's day cards I made last month for my mother and mother-in-law:

For the first one I wanted to steer away from the usual aperture opening used for cross stitch cards, so I used torn paper as a border. I also contrasted the bright yellow of the sunflower with a light blue theme, which I think gave the card a much softer feel.

The above polar bear design was initially a bit of a headache as I realised I was missing some thread colour from the kit a bit late. The bear is actually supposed to be beige. Fortunately, my mother-in-law likes polar bears, so it worked out well! I'm a little disappointed with the ribbon border as it is barely staying on (see top left corner), but I made the best with the adhesive I had to hand.

Bit of a medley

My Mum recently kindly gave me her card-making and scrapbooking stash, and I had great fun sorting through it and indulging my slightly scary tendency to categorise and organise stuff. To thank her, I made her a card from some of the items she gave me:

I have also made several cross stitched Christmas cards during the weekly lunchtime craft group at work, but I can't really share these yet as some of the people they are intended for read this blog, So I guess this is a rather pre-emptive heads up about a future post. A bit of a pointless paragraph really.

On an unrelated note, I get the coil removed next Thursday. I'm pretty relieved as I may finally get some energy back once my body's recovered. This last month has been ridiculous; 24 days of bleeding and counting.

Regardless of energy levels, I'm excited about going to Crufts tomorrow (I'm sure that's in part due to having a day off. It feels like ages since I had a day off!)

Wow. This post is a medley of disjointed crap.

The one with all the cross stitch

After completing 'Mermaid of the pearls,' it prompted me to dig out the cross stitch I've done over the years and post them here. I've tried putting them in a chronological order: Fist ever cross stitch. I think I was about 13 when I did this one.

First completed 'big project'

First attempt at designing my own cross stitch. I was

about 14 when I did this one.

One I completed on the many long train journeys to Plymouth
from Aberdeen and vice versa!




I love this design! I'll certainly look for more of their designs in future.

I finished this one about 3 years ago.

One of three birth samplers I made for my sister. There are no

photos of the other two as they are with my nephew and neice now.


A couple of bookmarks.