Designer Spotlight: Happy Little Mouse

I was scrolling through cross stitch patterns on Etsy the other day, as I do pretty regularly, and a design from Happy Little Mouse caught my eye, so I decided it was time to share them with you.

Happy Little Mouse is the store of Alina Pilipchuk, a Ukrainian designer with more than 350 designs in her shop.

These big, bold, colorful designs are fanciful and often include fantastic creatures, gorgeous butterflies, realistic animals and skeletons of creatures. There’s a gothic feel to a lot of the designs, which are often shown stitched on dark fabric.

There are gorgeous mushroom cross stitch patterns (which I mention because my daughter is going through a mushroom phase right now), cryptids and pop culture designs, snarky cross stitch, a few holiday patterns (and Christmas specifically), and a ton of beautiful detailed insect patterns, to name a few categories (so many great moths!).

Again because of my daughter’s interests I can’t resist sharing the Baby Yaga house cross stitch pattern, which I may very well be making her for the next gift-giving holiday I can get it done in time for. (If you don’t know Baba Yaga, she’s a character from Slavic folklore who lives in a house that stands on chicken legs.)

This design uses 14 count fabric and 23 colors. It is 71 by 113 stitches, and the final design measures 5.07 by 8.07 inches, or 12.88 by 20.5 centimeters.

Many of Happy Little Mouse’s patterns are available in bundles, such as mushrooms, forest animals and dinosaur skeletons (yes, really!). You can also buy a bundle that is the entire shop as well as all future designs, which is a great deal if you like and want to support their work. I love this set of designs for book lovers, which would be great for a kids room, or to hang in your reading nook or by your bookshelf.

[Photo: Happy Little Mouse]

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Butterfly Cross Stitch Patterns

I’ve long had a soft spot for puffins, so of course when I found an Etsy shop called Murder Puffin I had to share it.

And I’m so glad I found it because they’ve got some weird stuff that I hope you’re going to like as much as I do.

There are cryptids and true crime, nautical themed designs, holiday wanted posters and an entire section called memento mori. So if that sounds like something you’d be into, read on.

The biggest section on the site, though, is Altoid tin cross stitch patterns. If you can’t quite imagine what an Altoid tin cross stitch pattern would be like, this mummy cross stitch tin is a pretty representative example.

Most of them have a character (in this case, the mummy, but it could be anything from an alien to a racoon to a gnome) or more than one, who is made into a tiny stuffed doll. There’s a design for the top and bottom inside of the tin; here it’s a pyramid and an anhk design. There’s also a small design for the top of the box. And finally, a kind of blanket and a pillow so you can tuck your little character into the box.

Each one is a cute little set that would be so fun to display (and play with!) on your desk or bookshelf. And there’s a great range of options to choose from.

In addition to those, you’ll find a lot of other fun stuff for the strange and unusual on your gift list. There are some delightfully creepy (and mostly cryptid-inspired) tarot cards. A whole set of dark samplers called Gothic murder family. And a section called potted cross stitch, with little designs like mushrooms, plants and pumpkins you can stitch up and “plant” in tiny pots.

There’s so much fun stuff you really just need to stop reading this and go visit Murder Puffin on Etsy. I hope you find it as delightful as I do!

[Photo: Murder Puffin]

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