In between cleaning and working and bathroom wallpapering, I have been engaging in a little embroidery recently. I have forgotten how fun thread can be. I am really enjoying needle in-ing and needle outing! Besides some w-i-p pin cushions, I have actually finished (insert shocked gasp here) two presents for two of my sisters. Or really, one present each for two of my sisters...
First, I made this for my sister M Jr, the Mistress of artistic awesomeness! (One day, I hope to meet up with her on the scale of fabulous artistry...)
I swiped the saying off a rubber stamp I saw, but didn't write down the name of the person who said it...I am sorry for ripping off without proper attributing! I think it is a lovely thing to have someone say about you though. It is extra fitting for M Jr, because she has the greenest thumb of anyone I have ever met! She is a multi-talented, super smarty pants!
Here are some close ups of the tree piece:
I liked doing all the different stitches, but my favorite thing of the whole project is the little grasses. They are just three straight stitches that meet at a center point. But so cute! I love all the little flowers too. I am pretty proud that this came out of my tiny brain, without a pattern, and without any direction at first. I just started out knowing I wanted to do a tree, and kept going until I had added all the tree decoration. Then it reminded me of that pretty quote, so I stitched that on the bottom. Then the quote looked a little lonely all by itself like that, so I added the grasses and the viney flowers. And when it was all good and done, I thought "This looks like a present for M Jr"!
When I decided that, I had to make a little card to go with it, and here it is:
I am not so much a paper crafter...but I think it is cutesy. And possibly a new craft road to try to walk in between the rest of the intersecting highways of crafty goodness I cruise.
I started out with a white card stock and glued on some scraps of paper for the sky and the grass. Then I made the little pond out of another scrap. Next, I painstakingly cut out the sun, alligator, turtle, snail,and some of the flowers around the pond and in the tree and added those. Then I added some cute little bubble stickers (the butterflies, birds, flowers and the topiary tree). I like how the turtle and little pink bird look like they are either having a conversation or are about to smooch! We'll know which one if we see turtles with wings or birds with shells... Its not much, but I think its kind of neat!
Next, I made one for my sister Teddy, who when she saw the thing I made for M Jr said: "I WANT ONE...WHERE'S MY PRESENT!!!" (In a scary devil voice). And as she frightens me, and I didn't want to die, I made her this:
I did use a pattern for this one, out of Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray. (I hope I am spelling that right...). If you are in the market for a starter embroidery book, I highly recommend this one, as it has some good basic stitch instructions, and a large amount of motifs to stitch (hence the title, I guess...duh me). The motifs are all very cute, with several different theme groupings (aka circus, where I got the elephant pattern, candy shop/baked goodness, baby, asian inspired, woodland and farm animals, etc). I also have another book by the same author (her first one, also called Doodle Stitching... something, something), but I much prefer the motif collection book. The motif collection books comes with a cd for your computer with all the motifs from the book so that you can add them together and make custom motifs to print off. I don't use it, because technology is my enemy, but if you are more advanced than me (aka a 5 year old) I think this is a neat feature.
I wrapped the heffalump (elephant for those not in the know) like this when I gave it to Teddy:
If I were keeping an embroidery, I would frame it up and hang it, but I am not a great picture frame picker outer. I can know someone really well and still not be able to pick the right style for them...this is frustrating to me, as I imagine myself to be a great present picker in general... The only exception to the rule of non-picture frame picking ability is my Mom...but Mommy's are special, aren't they? Since that was the case, I just rolled Teddy's heffalump up and wound a scrap of fabric around it (awesome owl fabric, just so you know, even though you can't see any owls in the picture, know they are both there and awesome). Then pretty ribbon tie. Hooray for presents!!!
Both M Jr and Teddy really liked their surprises, and I had fun stitching them up! More embroidery in the near future for me for sure! But first, I am going to decoupage some shoe boxes with scrapbook paper for cute storage containers. And clean, sadly clean. Curse you banality of daily life! But I don't want to catch scurvy or something, so I better get ta warshin'!
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