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]

Mason jars are fun to craft with, use for storage or even use to hold gifts like baking mixes or sugar scrubs. But you can make your jars even cuter — no matter what you’re using them for — by adding a bit of cross stitch to the lid.

This idea comes from Gathered, and while they are showing examples of Mason jars used for storage in the craft room, you can use these throughout the house. I’m also thinking you could do this as a way to fancy up a traditional Mason jar sewing kit, since there’s already a little batting under the piece of cross stitch you could still use it as a pincushion.

The post walks you through how to make a cross stitched Mason jar lids and a link to a PDF pattern that includes six design options.

They’re not totally for beginners because they include cross stitch, backstitch, eyelets and Rhodes stitch, but if you aren’t familiar with those techniques you can either leave them off or there’s a stitch diagram in the PDF to help you.

Either way these designs are cute and relatively quick to stitch in whatever colors you like. It’s easy to turn them into jar toppers, or you could even just use the Mason jar ring as a frame rather than using it on top of a jar (I did this with a little Christmas tree cross stitch pattern I turned into an ornament).

They’re super cute in the pastel colors shown, or work in red and green for more of a holiday look if you’re using them for gift giving.

Check out the instructions and grab the free patterns for these jar toppers at Gathered. Once you start stitching I’m sure you’ll come up with all sorts of things you want to store or gift in jars so that you can make more of them!

[Photo: Gathered]

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