Designer Spotlight: Creative Enigma Store

I feel like “Creative Enigma” is a pretty apt name for this Etsy shop, because it offers a selection of things that to me don’t completely make sense being in the same shop. Some designers stick to a theme or a particular aesthetic, and others just don’t, which is totally fine. Creative Enigma Store, to me anyway, fits in that second category.

There are a selection of cross stitch minis (some of which might be good for the cross stitch magnets I shared the other day) and a large selection of patterns related to movies, TV shows and video games.

But there are also geometric designs and blackwork, adorable animals and even a couple of holiday patterns. For such a relatively small shop (fewer than 70 designs as of this writing) there’s a pretty big variety.

Since the movie, TV and video game section is the largest by far, I knew I needed to share one of those patterns. There are chibis of characters from The Walking Dead, plenty of horror movie characters and Forrest Gump on his park bench, to name a few.

Being a X Files fan from way back, though, I had to share the “I Want to Believe” pattern. This one is 133 by 200 stitches and uses 18 colors. It has a sort of grainy look to it just like you’d expect from a picture of a UFO. Using 14 count fabric the design comes out to 9.5 by 14.3 inches, or 24.1 by 36.3 cm. Which makes it almost poster sized!

If you’re a fan of Chinese astrology you’ll find a cool set of zodiac animal patterns, which would be lovely to stitch up for a fan of that animal even if its not their zodiac sign.

Check out the fun variety of cross stitch patterns available from Creative Enigma Store on Etsy.

[Photo: Creative Enigma Shop]

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Make Tiny Cross Stitch Magnets

If your cross stitch tastes run to anime, fantasy, Disney, gnomes and the like, you’ll want to check out TesLime Cross Stitch on Etsy. This Dublin-based Etsy shop boasts more than 1,000 cross stitch patterns, with a strong pop culture bent.

The largest category in the shop is Disney, and there’s a separate Disney princess category, so there’s nearly 300 Disney themed cross stitch patterns in all. Some of these are chibis but a lot of them are pretty direct copies of Disney characters. Do with that what you will.

There’s also a large fantasy section that’s heavy on Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, dragons, aliens and trolls. In the hero section you’ll find Star Wars, Harley Quinn and the Joker, the Avatar, and Marvel characters. And in anime, there’s lots of Pokemon, Attack on Titan and Ghibli-inspired designs, to name a few.

The thing that caught my eye in this shop wasn’t any of that, though. It was sardines.

There are actually several different patterns in this shop of cans of sardines. I don’t really know why, but they’re just so weird and silly that’s what I had to share. In particular this one, where the little fish are wearing little shirts. Why? Again, I don’t know, but it’s kind of cute, right?

This design is 100 by 130 stitches and uses 21 colors. It comes out to 7.14 by 9.29 inches, or 18.14 by 23.59 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric (the pattern includes measurements for some other counts, too, if you want to make it smaller).

And all of that barely scratches the surface. There are more than 100 Christmas cross stitch patterns (these are heavy on Disney, too). A steampunk raven. A large collection of gnomes.

I think you’re just going to have to go check it out for yourself and see what strikes you. If you end up buying one of their patterns, I’d love to hear what you chose! Check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/TesLimeArt on Etsy.

[Photo: TesLime Cross Stitch]

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