Cherry blossom cross stitch

I have finally finished my cherry blossom cross stitch!!! 

The finished size of this piece is 72cm x 24cm. I still need to make a frame for it, but that won't be until I finish my similarly sized bamboo cross stitch. And no, I have no plans to start that one anytime soon - I'll be sticking to small cross stitch pieces for now! 

I decided to share a photo of the back as I always wonder what the back of a finished cross stitch looks like. On this piece I tried to remember to keep it neat, but I still didn't pay enough attention in some places. 

I am very happy to have finally finished this piece, now if I only I could get myself to finish my other projects that have been started and promptly abandoned!

Cotton Anniversary

It is our second wedding anniversary today (eight years together)! Cotton is the traditional gift for a second anniversary so we had a little brainstorming to do regarding something that would remind us of this day. 

We decided that together we will make a quilt for the couch. So today we did a little fabric shopping and have decided on a grand total of two fabrics to go into our quilt... 

Once we had decided what we were doing, I was worried about whether my hubby will sew everything to my standards - after this morning I am now worried that we may never buy enough fabric to actually make the quilt. Everything was too flowery and girly at the first store, then at the next store he commented that we should have bought the red flowery one we originally saw! And men complain about shopping with women... 

The two fabrics we came home with - I am hoping to add red, black and a bright blue in to this quilt so it matches everything else in our house. It looks like there will be a lot of solid colour in this quilt rather than patterned fabric. 

Hopefully I get to share the finished quilt with you sooner rather than later!

Our first room renovation!

Lately we have been very busy working on renovating the first room of our house! 

We have decided to use the medium sized bedroom as our master so we can use the big master bedroom as our 'office'. Some people think we are a bit weird for doing that, but we would both prefer more desk space for our hobbies rather than extra floor space in our bedroom - after all you are asleep most of the time you are in your bedroom! 

Getting our new bedroom to this point was a lot of work and we learnt a lot along the way! 

Our house was a rental before we bought it - it hasn't been looked after, it is getting old, and whoever did any work on this house was lazy! So you can imagine all the prep work we had to put in before we could start putting this room back together. 

And of course I completely forgot about taking a before photo!!! I must remember for the next room, which luckily is in much better condition and won't need as much work. 

I wanted to have grey walls with white trim, and while I am happy with the colour it is a lot darker than I wanted. This colour will probably be used as our feature wall colour for the rest of the house. Painting the trims took many, many coats of paint - going from mission brown to white is not fun! The next room will have a lot of sanding work on the trims before a paint brush gets anywhere near it! 

The floor was in ok condition, it just hadn't been laid properly so we pulled it all up (and stole some out of the smallest bedroom) so we could lay it all over again! 

For now, I just need to decide what colour furniture I want, figure out a new wardrobe, pick a new quilt cover, paint a picture for above our bed and think about which lamps I want to use! Oh and make a new bed for Trixie... and figure out where it would fit! 

Oh and when I go to bed I need to stop thinking about all of that and just go to sleep...

Mounting Cross Stitch to MDF Coaster Tutorial

As promised, today I am showing you how I mounted my finished love birds cross stitch to the MDF coaster. 

I apologise in advance for my photos, I really need to get someone to take the photos for me rather than trying it myself - that or try out a video tutorial! 

What I use...

Nail file (or sandpaper) 

White paint 

Sponge brush (or paintbrush) 

Paintbrush for glue 

PVA glue 

Watered down PVA glue 

Scissors 

And most importantly your finished cross stitch piece 

1. Remove the sticker. They annoy me so I do it, but it isn't necessary. 

2. Sand down all the edges with your nail file or sandpaper. I know, it seems weird, but I always have a nail file in my pen holder as it is far more convenient for crafting. 

3. Using your sponge brush or paintbrush paint all the edges with white paint. I like to smooth the front and back where the paint pools so there are no bumps. For better coverage I do two coats. 

4. Paint the front of your coaster white. Since I used white AIDA I don't want the brown MDF background showing through the holes. 

5. I have done two coasters so you can see what the front and back look like. Allow this to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step. 

6. Give the front a nice even coat of PVA. Remember it will soak into the AIDA and the floss a little. 

7. Carefully position your cross stitch on your coaster. Try to line up the rows with the sides of the coaster. Avoid pulling at the AIDA as it will stretch out of shape. In the case of the love birds I lined up the branch first to make sure the stitching goes right to the edge of the coaster. 

8. Once you are happy with the positioning you will need to press down on all sections of your cross stitch. Don't rub it, just keep pressing the AIDA down into the glue as it dries. Pay particular attention around your stitching as this is where the cloth lifts the most. 

9. Once your PVA has dried and your cross stitch piece is glued in place, flip it over and give the back two coats of watered down PVA. This step is optional - I use Blu-Tack to hang these on the wall and have found if it isn't sealed the Blu-Tack will pull away a little layer of the MDF each time I try to move it. 

10. Use your scissors to carefully trim the excess AIDA. I trim as close as I can, but you have to be careful not to cut into your coaster as you will ruin the painted edges. 

11. As you can see it is now nicely trimmed with no frayed edges and the glue is holding it well. 

12. This is a rather useless photo but it is an important step! You need to seal the edges so the AIDA and any cut stitches will not fray. Simply use your paintbrush to put a thick layer of PVA all around the edge - make sure you are getting both the AIDA and the coaster edge. Do two coats. 

13. Again this is another useless photo where I was trying to show that I have used the PVA on all the edges and to prevent those stitches I cut from coming loose. 

14. My piece is now ready to be added to my coaster wall! 

I hope this tutorial helps you get creative with your cross stitch displays. Let me know if you need any more help, or if anything doesn't make sense.

Love Birds Cross Stitch Pattern

I made a new cross stitch pattern to suit an mdf coaster so I can show you how I mount the completed cross stitch. 

This cross stitch features two love birds which are based off the wedding gift I made for my SIL and her husband. 

It looks quite cute on my wall and I have to say I quite enjoy these small, simple cross stitch patterns - mostly because they are quick to complete! 

As usual, you can simply right click the above image and save as or you can download the jpg through google docs. 

I hope you enjoy stitching up these two sweet little love birds! In the meantime, I have taken photos and will get that tutorial ready for you soon!

Create for 365 days - September 2012

I have to say I probably won't do a 365 day challenge again. Some days it is really hard to fit in any crafting, let alone finishing a project. Add to that how forgetful I am when it comes to taking photos, writing down what I made each day and then editing and uploading photos.

I finally uploaded all the photos from September to Flickr, while I am on a roll I figured I should keep going and share my September crafts on my blog.

185: I made this cute panda button into a pendant by glueing a bail to the back. Quick and easy project!
186: German shepherd puzzle magnet - tutorial:http://krydasu.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/puzzle-magnet.html
187: More luggage tags for father's day - these were for my FIL.
188: Gerbera flower from IKEA turned into a hair clip.
189: This year everyone on my list is getting a cushion Christmas. 1 down, far too many to go!
190: Another photo wall plaque.
191: Wire wrapped pendant.
192: Another wire wrapped pendant.
193: And another wire wrapped pendant.
194: Christmas present #2!
195: This is the second tree of life I have made.
196: I wanted to see how a copper and silver wire tree of life would look, but it didn't really turn out as I hoped.
197: Luggage tags for Opa for father's day.
198: Tissue boxes turned into storage boxes with lids. The bottoms are kleenex tissue boxes and the lids are from the ALDI tissue boxes which are slightly bigger.
199: More tissue boxes with lids.
200: I covered a few boxes in contact just to make them look nicer on my shelves.
201: Photo magnet of Stellar the snake.
202: More tissue boxes with lids.
203: And even more tissue boxes with lids.
204: These are origami newspaper pots that I was trying to figure out which size paper I wanted to use.
205: The rest of the origami newspaper pots I made.
206: Another wall plaque of Lexi the peachface I handraised.
207: Red felt flower hair clip. Tutorial: http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/2011/11/rolled-felt-flowers.html
208: Cross stitch pattern I drew up for my MDF coaster wall plaque wall. Check out my post here: http://krydasu.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/bamboo-cross-stitch-pattern.html
209: A gift tag that didn't turn out as I hoped.
210: Christmas present #3
211: My patchwork sewing machine cover. My machine has a hard case so I made the cover to go over that as dust still settles on my machine at the handle hole.
212: Photo wall plaque of one of my succulents.
213: My finished bamboo cross stitch wall coaster. Free pattern uploaded here: http://krydasu.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/bamboo-cross-stitch-pattern.html
214: Another wall coaster photo of the sunset over the pine forest.