Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Etsy Glass Bead Artist: Stephaniebeads

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il_430xN.85611023My friend Jennifer found this great bead maker on etsy and thought I should write about her. When I saw her work I agreed. Stephanie Ann has a love for the beach and it shows in her work. Starfish figure prominently in her beads…or should I say on her beads. Check out these guys… and check out her etsy store. il_430xN.85610644

I love the use of wire inclusions in her beads that really give a feeling of looking into the ocean or perhaps a tidepool. And then a lovely starfish will adorn the outside of the bead. Excellent use of color and composition. She works out of her home studio in British Columbia and has been making glass beads since 2006. Her work has recently appeared in Bead Trends and Belle Armoire. Go Stephanie!! Nice work, great beads.

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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]