Succulent keychain

If you remember the travel keychains I made a while back, this project began by (a semi-joking) request from someone else at the office. We don’t know what happened to the original set so I asked some questions so I could find a more personalized pattern. Instead of adding a photo to the back, I found two fitting patterns to use.

The patterns also come from World of Cross Stitch magazine. Both patterns are from issue 335 design library. Aloe is stitched on 18 count and the cat + plant is on 22 count.

Aloe was a very quick stitch, about an hour including the back stitching. The cat + plant one took a but longer because there are a lot more stitches to begin with, plus more colors.

I used colors from my leftovers container for all except one. I wasn’t able to find a suitable replacement for one of the greens. On Aloe I replaced the pot color with a variegated purple I have in my leftovers. It added more dimension to the pot for sure.

Stitching

Started: February 11

Finished: February 12

Stitching time: 1 hour (Aloe), 3 hours cat + plant

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

Also on Instagram @craftyk.3

There’s no planet B

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

Follow along on Instagram @craftyk.3
or Snapchat for current projects!

2023 Cards

If you don’t want to read the nuances about the cards I created in 2023, this is where you can see them all by month of creation. Regardless of life circumstances I was determined to get some cards made.

Hope this provides some inspiration for your own cards!

March

May

June

July

August

September

December

Husker keychain

While visiting my mother-in-laws house, I noticed all the Husker stuff I’ve made over the years for her husband. Something else I noticed was now the coasters I made a few years ago are now out of date.

If you read my keychain project I did for people at work, I have several keychains left. This year I decided to make a Husker themed keychain, it may be little, but I think it will be appreciated and enjoyed.

Since it was so small, when the opportunity to make a glass Husker ‘N’ came up, I decided to make that too.

I also completely forgot to take photos before wrapping these. So the after present opening, I grabbed them to take a couple of photos.

Stitching

Started: November 11

Finished: November 12

Stitching time: 3 hours

Follow along on Instagram @craftyk.3
or Snapchat for current projects!

Parthenon

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

Follow along on Instagram @craftyk.3
or Snapchat for current projects!

Back 2 School

I committed a design taboo. It wasn’t fully intentional, but it’s how things worked out. The back 2 school text ended up being 3 different fonts. By the end I thought I spelled school wrong I was searching through so many fonts.

Three of the four backgrounds are wallpaper and the super busy background is scrapbook paper. Each card was customized for a different kid to fit their personalities and interests. The kids loved them!

These cards are simple, with the text being the most complicated part. Weeding and then mounting them took the most time with assembly.

Noel

This card took a really long time. I started it and then life took a very different turn than expected. It drove my desire to do anything right out the window. After a few months I was finally willing to pick this back up again, to get it finished. It’s time to move onto something else.

This card is part of a set from the late 1980s. I still have about 5 of them left. This was the easiest pattern from the set. Even with the design being simple, if you start counting the rows of colors in the gradient, you’ll find they are not all correct. 🤫

Once I found the mistakes, I decided to run with it as is. Giving this piece a unique look since it no longer matches the pattern.

Assembly was straightforward. Some double sided tape and everything else was already provided with the kit. As with many of these “smaller” patterns, I am amazed how many hours it actually takes to finish.

Stitching

Started: October 16th

Finished: March 5th

Stitching time: 8.25 hours

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

2022 Cards

If you don’t want to read the nuances about the cards I created in 2022, this is where you can see them all by month of creation. Regardless of life circumstances I was determined to get some cards made.

Hope this provides some inspiration for your own cards!

February

May

June

July

September

October

December

For real-time updates
follow along on Snapchat!

Also on Instagram @craftyk.3

Make Your Own Kind of Music

I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to finish this one before my friend turned the big 4-0, in November. Clearly I was on top of it with plenty of time to spare.

I’m writing this in late July and you will be seeing this in November. I don’t want to share it early even though I’ll be sending it in a few days.

My friend is not only an amazing photographer and writer, she also has a passion for music. I found this pattern on dailycrossstitch.com and just had to make it for her.

I did a little modification of the pattern. For the arrows I used variegated thread to add some dimension. I also added backstitching around the word music. It wasn’t standing out enough against the lines.

I used a purple sparkle paper for the frame and cut it out with my Cricut. The back of the cross stitch is stabilized with interfacing fabric.

Stitching

Started: March 30

Finished: April 10th

Stitching time: 11.25 hours

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3

50 You Are

My brother turned 50 this month and is a lifelong Star Wars fan. Since this is a milestone birthday I decided to make a custom Yoda themed Star Wars card.

I sketched out a few ideas for this one. The wording was the hard part. Thankfully lots of people are Star Wars fans and I knew one of them had to have a “Yoda translator” and I was right. To get the translator to work, you need a decent number of words. After a few attempts I came up with something that I liked.

For the fonts, I have a couple of Star Wars options that I downloaded from dafont years ago. One has mostly letters and the other character and ship outlines. I found Yoda and got to work.

After laying it out I decided to fill the white space between the text with the rebel symbol. Behind that and Yoda I put in a couple of pages from my old daily calendar. Yoda is mounted with some mounting tape to give dimension.

Assembly on this one was challenging! I have not mastered transfer tape. In my case press n seal, so maybe it’s not as stable to work with. I ended up laying out all the letters by hand. Once I reached happy birthday I was determined to use the press n seal. It wasn’t perfect, but it is straighter than what I was able to do free hand.

Follow along on Snapchat
for current projects!

Also now on Instagram @craftyk.3