Cute Animal Valentine’s Day Cross Stitch

This post needs to start with me asking you to help settle an argument going on in my mind: are gnomes animals? They’re not people, I guess mythical creatures? Maybe? I don’t know who to classify them.

It matters because I’m writing this post that I called “cute animal Valentine’s Day cross stitch” but I want to include this collection of Valentine’s gnomes.

Maybe it would more accurately be animals + gnomes. But either way, they are here (or actually here, on Etsy, in a design from 4StitchPattern) and we’re just going to go with it. This set of 12 Valentine’s Day gnomes definitely fulfills the cute part of the headline, anyway. These little guys all vary in size and details, but would be really cute in little frames around the house.

With that out of the way we’ll move on to things I’m definitely sure are animals. Like elephants. This cute little elephant would be darling in a kid’s room even when it’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s from Etsy designer Little Apple Stitchery and is 87 by 87 stitches, or 6.25 inches on 14 count fabric.

Or what about some sweet cats? You could change up the colors on these to better match real cats in your life if you want, or just leave them as they are. Laser Art Designs sells this one, which is 200 by 200 stitches. That comes out to 36.3 centimeters or 14.3 inches square on 14-count fabric. I’m not sure how many colors total it is, but their description says their patterns have no more than 20-25 colors and I’d say this one has no fewer than that.

On the other end of the skill spectrum are these simple and sweet hedgehogs from U-Create Crafts. This one uses five colors and should be pretty quick and easy even for a newer stitcher (it does involve some back stitching but that’s not too hard).

Speaking of sweet, these little blushing penguins in love are so cute and you can change the colors on the bow and balloons if you like. This pattern by Kits by SAstitch is 55 by 61 stitches and uses 19 colors and three blends, and uses whole, half and back stitches. This one’s probably not for a beginner but it would be a fun way to build your skills!

I left myself a note when I added Colorfully Sarah Shop to my list of shops to write about that says “small but adorable.” I was talking about the shop in general — which as of this writing has just 40 patterns — but it’s also true of the designs themselves.

These cute, candy colored designs are sure to make you smile and are probably as fun to stitch as they are to look at. Let’s take a closer look.

You know a shop (or its owner) defies categorization when the largest category (albeit only by one) is “other.” Other is all hoops of little icons, whether frogs with conversation hearts, different shapes of pasta or a set of colorful cupcakes.

I chose this set of Jellycat style kawaii creatures to highlight because it’s super cute and would be fun for a kids room or a kid at heart. The design include 13 little characters, including a bunny, penguin, croissant and marshmallows, the sun and moon and a octopus. My teenager would love this one!

It measures 88 by 87 stitches and uses 25 colors. The designer suggests using 14 count fabric and putting the design in a seven-inch hoop.

This design gives you a pretty good idea of the style and the colors that are used in a lot of her designs. Animals is the next biggest category and they’re the same kind of projects, with multiple little animals. The frogs are back, this time with mushrooms. There are axolotls, bunnies and “spring insects” including butterflies, moths and beetles.

Other categories include fall, Christmas and video games (which has a collection of retro controllers, some Starwdew Valley icons and a set of pastel potions).

All of the patterns are adorable and sure to bring a smile while you stitch and when you display them or give them as gifts.

Check out all the designs at Colorfully Sarah Shop on Etsy.

[Photo: Colorfuly Sarah Shop]

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