Thursday 22 May 2014

Home sweet home cross stitch...

I love getting free gifts... I just don't like them if it means I can't complete the project myself!

This happened about six months ago when I came across an envelope which was quite obviously a free gift from one of my many crafty magazines. It was a cross stitch of some bird houses... And the pattern was nowhere to be found!

So, it was quickly shelved in a cupboard - out of sight, out of mind!

A couple of days ago it saw that my husband was stitching ... And it was something small that I didn't recognise and asked him what he was doing... It was the free cross stitch and he was using the picture on the front of packaging to do the pattern...

Thankfully, him being a seasoned cross stitch whizz meant that he could at least guess where the middle of the aida was and could just about match up the colour blocks.

The finished item is a little bigger than the coasters that he did yet too small to put in a frame... Any ideas?

Tuesday 20 May 2014

My first completed cross stitch!

As I have mentioned before I usually leave the cross stitching to my husband as he is quite content with tackling big projects. But I thought maybe it was time to see what all the fuss was about and try a small cross stitch of my own.

I picked up a cheap one from Hobbycraft with the thinking that if I didn't finish it/ couldn't work it out then it didn't matter!

I have a MASSIVE thing about chickens (though I have none of my own... Yet!) so it seemed appropriate to pick a chicken cross stitch...

The thing that always confused me about counted cross stitch was the fact that I never knew where to start...

Thankfully the kit I got showed me where the middle of the aida was and then I got stitching....

The pattern I did is not the same as the one on the design as I added an extra line by accident (obviously trying to do some too late at night!) so it is a slightly fatter chicken than planned.

The sense of achievement was amazing when I finished as I chipped away at it a bit every evening...

I don't know what will happen to him... Perhaps another coaster? Any ideas?

Monday 19 May 2014

Black hats and feathers...

It is now high wedding season so it is fascinator time... But I always find that it is better to make your own!

I love hats and head pieces - regular readers of my blog will already know this! And I also thought that my etsy shop needed a few new things on it...

So I created this... The base piece is a small black hat with a ribbon rose on it attached to a hair clip... I loved this but thought it needed some feathers to make it look a little more snazzy!

I did experiment with adding some diamonte to it to see if that made it even better but decided that it perhaps didn't need it!

So... Here it is... It is now available in my etsy shop (see side menu for the link) - I am a little gutted that I am selling it but my house already has many, many head pieces and hats so this one has to go!

Sunday 18 May 2014

Soaring high with paper wings...

A couple of weeks ago I bought my husband a paper craft challenge. It was to build a Merlin.

The paper craft kit starts off as three flat sheets of card... And you cut out the pieces and make them 3D...

My husband sat down every evening to chip away at the project... And look at the result...

Amazing!