Pink Cupcake Cross Stitch Motif

It is about time I put up another free cross stitch pattern. This time its a tiny little pink cupcake motif with a delicious cherry on top and adorned with red sprinkles. The icing is a baby pink and looks so good you could just eat it! Perfect for a birthday card or for a lid to a special container.

 This pattern is for personal use only and cannot be made into kits or sold. To save click on the picture and then right click and hit save. Happy Stitching everyone!

Cinderella HAED Progress

After finishing off the Mirabilia mermaid, I picked up my Heaven and Earth Design Cinderella by Ruth Sanderson once again. This is a retired pattern so you won't be able to find it on the website anymore unfortunately. This is the picture of what my finished design will look like:

Cinderella by Ruth Sanderson

I ended up cropping off a majority of the wall and squaring it off so it is solely focused on the dress. I also decided that in the swirly magical dust that surrounds her I am going to add the rainbow sparkle blending filament to it to add an extra subtle sparkle for when you look at it.

I am almost done page two! I think about another day or two focused on her I will be all done the second page and then I will put her down for a few days while I focus on something else but then I will jump right back into stitching her! I think the next page I will do will be her dress! Here is the progress:

Bottom Right-Hand Corner

I wasn't too impressed with the dark colors of the grass until I finished the whole area and can now see how well they blend in together. I am super excited about finishing this one and I already have plans for starting a Josephine Wall HAED! I will admit it I am addicted...

Emerald Mermaid is Complete!

I took over from my mom on this cross stitching of Emerald Mermaid by Mirabilia on February 19, 2012. I finished it at 4am on March 21, 2012. That was with a week and a half of not working on her because I wasn't feeling in the mood to put the beads on her. It took about three days to put the beads on but to be fair I was distracted by watching hockey games on the weekend (Go Canucks!!) She is done on 32 count linen and has almost a total of 3 packages of Mill Hill beads in her. Here is the finished photo:

She is so pretty! I can't stop looking at her. My nan is going to be super happy with it once we get it framed. My mom pointed out after I finished her that even though her and my Auntie both cross stitch as well that this is the most ornate stitching in the family! Sure is going to be an amazing heirloom to pass down to future generations.

After finishing this one though it has inspired me to pick up my Midsummer's Night Dream Fairy by Mirabilia to work on once again. I have found in the depths of our storage room that we actually do have a q-snap frame!! I currently have my Cinderella by Heaven and Earth Designs on it at this moment to finish a page but once that page is done I am going to do the fairy. Having the frame will make it easier to work with the huge fabric piece and is more handy than a hoop. I used a hoop with the mermaid because it made counting the linen so much easier. I couldn't use it though when attaching the beads so I wish I had found the frame sooner!

Here are some bonus photos to show all the details of it!

Beads on Cross Stitching

I have spent a couple hours attaching beads to my Emerald Mermaid by Mirabilia. I am loving the look of all these beads on this beautiful mermaid! There sure is a lot more beads than I had originally thought! I am just happy I am used to holding a beading needle and stringing one bead on at a time for my bead weaving I do, tips and tricks I have learned by doing that are coming in handy in this project and threading a beading needle is second nature to me.

While looking for some new beading needles I came across this other project I had done a year ago. It involves beads as well:

It is Beaded Rose by Just Nan. Took me a total of two days to stitch it up and it challenged me with some special stitches and attaching beads.

For attaching beads I use two strands of a color that matches my fabric's color. I use the loop method so I reduce the bulk and I can start in strange places that aren't close to other stitches. I also do a full x in the beads so they are snug and secure on the fabric. For picking up the beads it helps if your fingers are a little moist then they will stick right to your finger and easier to put onto the needle.

Emerald Mermaid

Here is my latest almost finish. I plan on working on the beads this weekend and hopefully be able to call it another 2012 finish.

She is Emerald Mermaid by Mirabilia. My mom had done the upper part of the garland in her hand then put her away for a few months. I then decided I felt like starting a new project. I picked this up off of the table and decided I would finish it. The stitching part took me about two weeks to finish it all up. I took over from where my mom started her on February 17, 2012. It then took me about two weeks of stitching to call it done. I put it away for a few weeks while I did other hobbies but I came back to her this weekend and decided that I will finish her all up.

This project was started for my nan. She had bought the pattern over two years ago expecting my mom or I to do it for her. We don't know if she remembers buying it so she will be in complete shock when she gets it for Mother's Day all framed and ready to hang!!

I want to note that the pattern calls for two spools of #4 very fine braid...I only used half a spool of it. I like using long lengths of it to prevent the back from getting bulky with all the startings and finishings. It did take a little longer to stitch but I figured I would have been using the same time with constantly finishing off and starting a new thread. For fun here is a picture of the back of my work!!

I am now considering doing this pattern again but switching up the colors so that way there are two different ones in the family instead of two of the same ones. I also plan on doing Mermaids of the Deep by Mirabilia as well since the colors are all very similar and complement one another so well. I already have everything for that project!