Chicken Joy cross stitch

Well, I didn't stitch as much as I wanted to so I only have one finished Christmas cross stitch project to share.  It is a pattern designed by Priscilla and Chelsea, aka the Real Housewives of Cross Stitch on Flosstube. The pattern is named Chicken Joy and can be found here on Priscilla's blog.  It is such a cute and fun pattern with the chicken!  My maternal grandparents had chickens and also a rooster and it brings back memories of my childhood!  I remember watching my grandfather get eggs out of the coop and hearing the rooster crowing in the early mornings!  Anywho, for the project, I used the called for DMC colors and my choice of fabric was 14 count black Aida.  

As I was getting closer to finishing the stitching, I had a few finishing ideas but when I was perusing the local craft store, A.C. Moore (sadly it's closing - boo hoo!), I saw some red buffalo check fat quarters and knew I had to incorporate it into the finishing!  I mean it's a Priscilla and Chelsea design, LOL!  I also bought two other fat quarters in a striped design (green/white and black/white) to incorporate into the finish.  To make the final finish, I found a 6 1/2 inch wooden circle in my craft stash and laced up the Aida to it.  I then cut the green/white striped fabric into strips to make a ruffle and then adhered it to the back of the Aida circle.  I then cut a larger circle out of cardboard (something a little heavier such as chip board, mat board, self-stick mounting board etc., probably would be better) because it was the first thing I pulled out of my stash bag so I went with it because I was too lazy to look through all my stash, but hey it still works, LOL!  I adhered the buffalo check to the cardboard and then glued the two circles together.  Next was the final finishing touches.  I decided to make it a hanging project so I pulled some coordinating colored ribbon from my ribbon stash.  I made a loop with black and white grosgrain ribbon, adhered it to the back of the buffalo check circle and covered the back with a piece of black felt.  I then tied a green ribbon bow around the black and white ribbon to pull in more of that color.  Finally, I didn't like how much space was between the bottom of the Aida and the edge of the circle so I added a little embellishment.  I cut a piece of white shrinky dink plastic with a Cuttlebug tag die and before heating, I wrote the year using a black permanent marker.  After it shrunk, I took two strands of the red DMC floss, used in the stitching, to tie a bow onto the tag before adhering to the Aida to finish off the project!