Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

August Polymer Cafe!

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polymer_cafe_31_t The August issue of Polymer Cafe has arrived, with lots of treats to inspire and instruct.  The “Random Layers Pendants” by Christi Uliczny featured on the cover show a fantastic way to use an assortment of both translucent and opaque canes.

If you’re interested in expanding your repertoire to include Precious Metal Clay, the “Fish Frenzy” pendant by Shirley Rufener would be an excellent place to start.

This was an excellent issue for learning new skills, as the “Steampunk Business Card Case” by Eugena Topina also includes clever instructions for working with small amounts of resin as a finish on polymer clay.  Also in the steampunk genre was the “Just the Gears” article by Lisa Heller.  The idea of being able to make my own custom polymer clay “gears” for any Steampunk projects is tickling my muse already.

Other projects include an elegant “Altered Jewelry Box” by Michelle Herren, a stately ” Mayan Necklace” by Jacqueline Josten, and cute as can be “Play-on-Words Pots” by Laura J. Schiller.

Congratulations go out to the winners of the “Touchy Feely Challenge” winners, Cheryl Watt for her “Leafy Leah,” Reanna Bower for her “Twysted Roots,” Jennifer Miller for her “Ocean Tides,” and Cathy Clark for her “Here, Fishy Fishy.”  And as always, the Reader’s Gallery is full of eye candy and inspiration!

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Cross Stitch Cards for All Occasions

I have never stitched a greeting card, but I kind of like the idea of it. It’s a card and a gift all in one, and hopefully one the recipient will hang onto for years to come. 

This collection of easy and colorful greeting card cross stitch patterns from Susan Bates (via Gathered) are a great place to start if you want to stitch your own greeting cards. 

These text-based designs cover a lot of card-sending events, such as:

  • get well soon
  • happy birthday
  • thank you
  • thinking of you
  • congratulations
  • anniversary
  • new home
  • good luck

The lettering is done in gradients and there are other details like hearts and stars, a house key and a gift, depending on the text. There are full cross stitches and back stitch on all of the cards, and they use 15 colors for the cross stitching and six for the back stitching (and just two colors are used for both, so it’s 19 colors total). 

The designs vary a bit in size but the biggest one is 52 by 67 stitches, which comes out to 3.75 by 4.75 inches or 9.5 by 12 cm when worked on 14 count fabric or 28 count evenweave. The text suggests beads are also used in the patterns but there’s no note of them in the key, so go wild and add some beads if you like. 

Designs are worked on a price of 6 by 8 inch/15 by 20 cm fabric and then mounted to a card with a colorful baking piece of card stock behind it. This is easy to assemble with whatever cardstock greeting cards you have on hand.

You can get the free charts as a PDF from Gathered. 

Have you ever stitched your own greeting cards? I’d love to hear about it, or let me know if these inspire you to try. 

[Photo: Susan Bates via Gathered]