Word Art Wednesday BIG Giveaways & Blog Hop!

Hello stamping friends! Today is a really big day over at Word Art Wednesday. It's our Annual Christmas Blog Hop! We're so glad you've joined us because there are lots of great prizes up for grabs, and you have extra time this round. We'll be adding an extra week so you have until January 6th to play along!

But before we begin, let me share with you my design for this round. I've taken the Word Art Wednesday Bible Verse and created 6 different bookmarks that you can print out and stick in/on a gift, or mail in a Christmas Card. I've tried to make 2 masculine, 2 Christmas, 1 Generic and 1 Feminine. Here's how mine look after I printed them out at FedEx. I chose 100# Matte paper and it cost right around $3.00 to print two sheets.

The free printables for all of these are below. You can also use a hole punch at the top and attach a
ribbon. I hope to mail mine so I'm leaving them flat. They make great little gifts! 

Now, here's what two people can win just by commenting on my blog:

PRIZE #1: Pink & Main "Fall Postage Stamps" Stamp Set & Coordinating Dies

These are brand new are are oh so cute! The coordinating dies also fit Pink & Main's
Christmas Postage Stamp Set too, AND they may have others coming soon! 

PRIZE #2: Picket Fence Stamp Set & Simon Says Stamp Stamp

How cute are these!? The'll be perfect for the upcoming spring season!

THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN WIN THESE PRIZES IS HERE ON MY BLOG SO BE SURE TO COMMENT BELOW! TWO WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN AND THE BLOG DIRECTOR WILL DECIDE WHO GETS WHICH SET.

Additional note: You don't have to make a card to win the two prizes here. You only need to leave a comment!

Also, we will only be able to send the prizes to the United States due to the cost of shippping. Please let us know 8n the comments if you aren’t in the US. Sorry for any inconvenience!

And then be sure to hop on over to the other Design Team Member's blogs, and you'll be able to win some really cool prizes there too! Yay! AND There are also TWO $25.00 Unity Stamp gift cards up for grabs by entering the Word Art Wednesday Challenge. We look forward to seeing what you'll create and share with us.

Oh my goodness, it's like it's Christmas or something! Here's the Blog Hop Lineup.

First we'll start with our guest designer, Kathy:

Kathy Schweinfurth, Guest Designerr

Karen Letchworth

Natalie Houston

Christine Miller

Barb Finnical (You are here)

Pamela Duncan

Wanda Cullen

And as usual, our Bible Verse Designer has come up with a perfect verse, and if you'd like to use it for your own project, that would be wonderful. Here it is:

And here are the free bookmark printables. I'm so sorry that I have to stack them one on top of another, but I don't know how to make 3 photos side by side. Feel free to use them as printables, or send them out digitally. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment and best wishes for winning the prizes! And most of all, have a very Merry Christmas!

Stitchy Stars Ornaments

Quilt blocks are one of my favorite things to cross stitch because they’re so easy. And when done individually, they’re super easy to have one in my purse so that I can stitch anytime I’m waiting unexpectedly.

I fell in love with these cute quilt blocks from Lori Holt. The pattern book is called Stitchy Stars and it’s available HERE. I’m sure it’s available other places as well, but I really like shopping at 123stitch.com. Their shipping is only $3.49 no matter what size order you have, and their prices are really reasonable, especially for their DMC floss.

After making several of these tiny quilt blocks, and adapting some of them from the original sticky star pattern, I turned them into little Christmas ornaments. With their cream colored background, they will look great on a Christmas tree. And if you don’t stuff them, but rather just mount them on a piece of salt with a piece of ribbon, you can easily mail them without any additional postage.

The way I finished mine was to simply cut the 8 o’clock a little bit bigger and then fry three rows on each side and then sew them onto the felt. 

Once you start making stitch quilt blocks, it’s really easy to leave the original pattern and come up with your own Designs and colors. It’s a whole lot of fun, And I love having something in my purse at all times to be able to stitch. It’s a win-win!

Thanks so much for stopping by my little blog, and have a wonderful day!

Hot Cocoa Cross Stitch Freebie

One of my favorite things is finding a really cute cross stitch freebie that can be made in just a few days. This pattern, from the Tiny Modernist, was something that I stumbled upon on Pinterest. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. And then, over at The Colorful Options Challenge blog, I noticed that this would fit perfectly. I made this piece without challenge in mind. 

However, before I say more, I have to confess that this was very difficult to stitch for two reasons. First of all, the pattern is in black-and-white with different symbols rather than colors. In order to make it a little bit easier to stitch, I did do some screenshots and used my markup feature on my iPad to create the snowflake as a starting point. You can see that picture below.

The other thing that made this quite difficult to stitch was that it is on black fabric. For those of you who have not used black fabric, it is difficult to find the holes, especially when you’re going in the back of the piece. I did use my iPad as a light in the back, which did illuminate the holes, but the problem with that is that once your hand goes over the hole in the back, the light no longer shines through. You have to hold your needle in just the right way in order to make that technique effective.

This is the mood board for the 
Colorful Options Challenge. You 
can use this or simply use a rainbow of colors!

But before you get discouraged, I want to say that other than those two things, this is a really easy and fun piece to stitch. It can certainly be stitched on a white or medium colored fabric as well. The only thing you may need to do would be to backstitch the whipped cream at the top so that stands out more if you use a light colored fabric. And if you use the markup technique, it makes it a lot easier.

If you’re looking for some really cute cross stitch patterns, be sure to check out the Tiny Modernist’s Freebie Page HERE. 

And for the link to this specific pattern you can click HERE.

This was very easy to frame as well. One thing that I do for my smaller pieces is to lay my desktop monitor down on the desk, and then place my work on top of it. It makes placing the cross stitched piece very easy if you don’t have a light box. Here’s a picture of that below.

When stitched on 14 count Ada, the finished piece fits perfectly in a 6“ x 6“ frame. I just happen to have a set of four different 8“ x 8“ frames that I bought from Amazon. They came with 6“ x 6“ mats, so this worked out perfectly.

These are the frames I bought HERE.

The map board that I use also came from Amazon and I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s a large pack, but it’s nice to always have it on hand when I finish a project. You can find that HERE. It’s really been a lifesaver having these whenever I need them.

Thanks so much for stopping by and feel free to drop me a comment. I’d love to know what you were ex experience is on stitching on dark color fabrics. Maybe I won’t feel so bad!

Word Art Wednesday Divinity Designs Giveaway!

Wow, here we are in December already! I hope each of you are in the holiday spirit and having a great time planning with friends and family.

Over at Word Art Wednesday, our sponsor is Divinity Designs this time around. If you enter a card and play along with us, you're in the running to possibly win a $25.00 gift certificate to this wonderful company! There are so many great things to choose from, and this is a great opportunity to get yourself a little something for Christmas.

What I'm using for this card is their Sewing Dies Collection. At just $5.95, this is one set you'll definitely want to have, especially if, like me, you know someone who likes to sew.

My card is made for a friend, Phyllis, who recently made me three lovely Christmas Pillowcases. My heart is melting. I used to love sewing, but would never think to make something like these. I plan on using them this Christmas Eve! And as a little thank you, I created this card just for her.

My complete supply list is:

• Divinity Designs Sewing Set Dies
• Stampin' Up! Baked Brown Sugar Card Stock
• White Card Stock
• SU! Bubble Bath Card Stock
• SU! Petal Pink Card Stock
• SU! Blushing Bride Card Stock
• Lawn Fawn Ballet Slippers Card Stock
• Papertrey Lovely Lady Card Stock
• SU! Flirty Flamingo Card Stock
• Papertrey Hibiscus Burst Card Stock
• SU! Berry Burst Card Stock
• SU! Rose Red Card Stock
• SU! Melon Mamba Card Stock
• Metallic Silver Card Stock
• DMC Pink Floss
• Computer Generated Sentiment

We also have a wonderful Bible Verse that you're welcome to use as well. This is so perfect for Christmas!

You never have to use the verse, or any products from our sponsor in order to play along. So hop on over to Word Art Wednesday and join in the fun! Thanks so much for stopping by today!