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!

 

Let It Snow

In the last few weeks, I've added to my distress ink collection and bought several of the mini distress ink pad sets to practice ink blending (yes now, but it's better late than never, right, LOL).  I say collection because I've had the several of the larger ink pads for quite a while but barely used.  But with all the new colors, I really want to get crafty and try out the different techniques I've seen in various videos.  Well, I was inspired recently especially because I purchased a new stamp set several months ago and this video by Ashley Tucker gave me the mojo to create a blended background for this card.

I used the same distress ink colors, spun sugar, abandoned coral and seedless preserves, and sponged/blended onto Strathmore mixed media paper to be used as the backdrop for the stamped images.  I then used Spellbinders circle dies to cut out the circle panels.  The penguin and snowflake images are from the Art Impressions Snow Much Fun stamp set.  I colored the penguin with Bic Mark-It markers colors tuxedo black, cloud nine grey and moonstone yellow and added shimmery chalk for the cheeks.  For the hat and bow tie, I added some spun sugar to an acrylic block and picked up the ink with a water brush for coloring.  For embellishment, I added rhinestones to the snowflake centers and added sparkle to the penguin's hat and bow tie with a Wink of Stella glitter brush and shimmer to it's body with a black glitter brush by Art-C. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions' Home Sweet Home stamp set.

Cozy Christmas

Merry Christmas!  I got my mojo up and made this cute card a few days ago for some holiday spirit!  The penguin and cold noses warm hearts sentiment is from Art Impressions' Snow Much Fun stamp set.  I bought this stamp set a few months ago because it came with a few dies to cut out the stamped images, a trend that seems to be hot.  Although, of the two images, I discovered there's only one penguin die and the other will need to be cut freehand but that shouldn't be difficult because it's a quite simple image! Also, I don't usually use animal images but the penguins were so cute and fun and something different to add to my stamp stash!

I stamped the penguin on Strathmore marker paper and colored it with a few markers from the Tombow dual brush pens muted palette and the Pre by Nicole watercolor markers brilliant palette.

Other details about the card; I used patterned paper from Crate Paper's Snowy Day 6x6 paper pad as the background layer, I cut snow banks from white card stock and stamped the wishing you a cozy Christmas sentiment from Taylored Expressions' Home Sweet Home stamp set.  The finishing touches were a few foam snowflakes and I added some sparkle to he penguin's hat and bow tie with a Wink of Stella glitter brush pen!