A Cute Idea for a Cross-Stitched Scene

I was poking around on Etsy recently, as I do, and I came across this cute little cross stitched scene made to go in a mint tin.

The one I saw was this seasonally appropriate ghost tin, but the designer, Murder Puffin, as of this writing has nearly 20 of these cute little projects, ranging from crytpids and aliens to gnomes and mermaids.

This is such a cute idea and would be a great way to present a tiny cross stitch world to a little kid or an older person who loves whimsy.

To go back to the ghost project in particular, this one uses 14 count fabric in black and white depending on the part of the project. It uses 23 colors and is sized to fit a regular Altoids tin. (Raise your hand if, like me, you’ve got a stack of these you’re sure you’ll find a project for some day? This just might be the project!)

On this project there is a nighttime graveyard scene that sits in the inside of the top of the tin, and a little skeleton in its coffin for the bottom. The ghost, its blanket and RIP pillow are all removable, and there’s a little piece for the top of the tin that says Beware. The skeleton and the ghost can be worked with glow in the dark embroidery floss to make them even creepier.

I love these little projects and all the details that are included, and it would be a super cute way to give a gift of cross stitch to someone. You could even still make it a little sewing kit or art kit (which is a classic Altoids tin reuse) but line the tin with cross stitch minis or other little designs. These would be fun to do for different holidays, too, and you could change out the display every month or with different holidays.

Don’t you just love it when random scrolling turns inspirational? What kind of cross stitch would you do in a mint tin?

[Photo: Murder Puffin]

Siren Stitchworks has cross stitch patterns that feel like old samplers (and some of them are in fact historical reproductions) even when they are modern designs. They have patriotic patterns, biscornus, pop culture patterns and more so let’s take a look.

One of the projects that caught my eye was the Mexican menagerie, a set of five Mexican folk art inspired creatures. There’s a bird, horses, dragons, alligators and cats on these designs, which you can make into tiny pillow or ornaments.

The pattern notes don’t say how many colors are used but it doesn’t look like any of them have more than five colors. It does note the smallest pattern is 59 by 59 stitches, and the largest is 82 by 68 stitches. They also only use full cross stitches.

The category with the largest number of entries (which is still only 12 as of this writing; this is a small shop) is called ornaments and smalls. It includes this menagerie and another Mexican animal collection, as well as traditional looking patterns with a twist, such as a little pattern with Yule goats, a needlebook cover that looks like a tombstone and alphabet samplers that include Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

There are also a bunch of samplers, divided into monochrome, traditional and reproduction samplers. There are some fun ones in the monochrome department, including a Titanic sampler and an aloha design with a pineapple motif. Traditional samplers include some patriotic designs (and a gorgeous folk art resist fist), as well as a really fat cat.

And the reproduction samplers include fun fonts, florals and birds like you’d expect from old sampler designs.

In addition you’ll find a few pop culture designs (mostly Game of Thrones inspired samplers for different houses), biscornus include a couple Chinese zodiac designs, and a few needle minders for sale.

Check out all the fun designs at Siren Stitchworks on Etsy.

[Photo: Siren Stitchworks]

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