Get Your Christmas Stitching Started with Christmas Greetings

I have been cleaning out my office recently and I found this little booklet from Leisure Arts, which seemed appropriate since it’s basically Christmas in July time.

Christmas Greetings has patterns for three different designs that could be used in a lot of different ways. There is a text greeting and a picture with each one, and they are designed to be finished in such a way that they look like open books.

It sounds a little daunting, but the book does provide a materials list and instructions for how such a thing is done (they’re made with adhesive mounting board, batting and cording, as well as ribbon for the “bookmark” and charms to decorate the “pages”).

The charts, designed by Carol Emmer, are lovely and this would be an interesting way to decorate for the holidays, or choose part of any chart to make a wall hanging, pillow or other decor.

Have you ever stitched a book like this? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Leisure Arts.]

Looking for more Christmas Cross Stitch patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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Fourth of July Cross Stitch Patterns

I recently wrote a post on my blog about using a stitchable journal cover and I mentioned that you can make your own stitched cover for a journal by using perforated paper instead of buying a stitchable notebook.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve never used perforated paper for cross stitch myself. I definitely want to because I think it would be great to use for bookmarks that don’t fray and have a little more stability, for example.

Sirious Stitches has us covered, though, because they did a deep dive into all things perforated cross stitch pattern that is worth the time to read through.

The post mentions that a lot of people use perforated paper for cross stitch because they buy an ornament kit that uses it. I’ve never seen these (or at least never noticed that that is what they were) but it’s a great idea to make small projects like ornaments in this way. It also talks about the pros and cons of using cross stitch paper, where to buy it and how to make your own.

Making it yourself is an awesome idea because if you already have a pattern in mind you can just make holes in your paper where you need stitches to be and leave the rest solid. This would be ideal for making greeting cards, for example.

In addition to kits and sheets you can often find the paper pre-cut into different shapes you can use to make your own designs, no real pattern required.

The post also includes tips and advice for how to stitch on perforated paper that you’ll want to check out before you try your first project.

I’m super intrigued by the idea of using perforated paper for cross stitch and will probably be trying it out soon. Have you used it before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out the post over at Sirious Stitches for more information.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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