Thursday, January 22

Two More Cross-Stitch Projects

As I was looking for a pattern to make the Nixons' baby sampler, I came across a pattern I'd saved, hoping to make it for one of my own someday. I'm happy to say someday has arrived!


The pattern is from a cross-stitch magazine (I used to subscribe to several, and I tore out the pages I wanted to save). The original was dominant in pink, but since Julia's room is painted mostly green with a purple accent wall (and other purple accents), I switched around the pink and purple, and picked purples and greens to match her room.
After I completed Julia's, I felt I had to make one for Aaron, too. I just love the shape of a diamond, and thought that if I picked different colors and found something more masculine than flowers, I could recreate something for him.

Ta-da! I picked up a package of blue Aida cloth, looked through my books of borders and little motifs, used some designs from the original and again matched colors from his room (yellow and blue). Wait, have I posted pictures of their rooms? I don't think I have. I painted both their rooms back in 2006 to give them their own look (apart from "new home beige") and I'm very proud of them. Guess there's no time like the present, huh? Just a minute while I go find them and watermark them......

This is Julia's room: green walls, one purple wall, and the ceiling and woodwork painted white. The curtains (on a butterfly rod) are purple, as are a few other accents. The quote is from a font I bought online (Pismo Clambake), printed backwards onto cardstock, cut out and attached to the wall with decoupage glue. The butterflies are various foam stamps bought from craft stores, dabbed with acrylic paint, and mashed on the wall. The textured wall creates a neat effect with the paint, like it's stenciled or something.































































And here's Aaron's room. I picked the color with help from paint chips: I matched the gold in the top of his furniture, then picked a lighter color on the paint chip. The ceiling and woodwork are the same white as Julia's and the blue stripe was picked to match the blue in his furniture. The curtains are denim, clearance at Target! The rods are like the ones in my kitchen. I thought they might match, brought one up and they're perfect! So I bought more at Lowe's for his room. The quote is cut from cardstock using letter stencils and the stars are punched from the same cardstock and all is put up with decoupage glue.












Recent cards


First is the Christmas card that went out. Three quarters of them were red; one quarter used green paper.
SUPPLIES: Gold cardstock from Michaels.
Red (and green) holiday paper from Hobby Lobby.
Stamps sets are all Hero Arts: Fantastic Flourishes, Christmas Borders and Winter's Butterfly, stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with gold.

Second is a birthday card for my sister. It's totally a rip-off of Kathi Carlson's card, although I tried to be different and recreate a flower from the paper instead of using any of my butterfly punches.
SUPPLIES: Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6x6 paper pack, CTMH black, Ocean and Breeze cardstock.
Circle punches.
CTMH Happy Birthday stamp set, black inkpad.


These are the front and the inside of my nephew's birthday card. I didn't have an apostrophe the appropriate size so I inked up one of the little flies and used it instead!
SUPPLIES: Scraps from the Alligator page.
Stamp Sets: CTMH Dream Wishes, Fun Times, Solos 2, Happy Birthday. Hero Arts Trajan Monogram.
CTMH Olive, Cocoa inkpads.
Nestabilites circle dies (my Christmas present from my dad!)

The finger didn't come with the card; I merely borrowed it from my four-year-old to help hold the card closed so that the froggie would be visible through the hole.