enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

cross-stitched Christmas art.

When I pulled out our decorations in November, I felt like my walls could use a few more Christmas pieces. The first idea was easy, fill the hallway frames with printable art. The second was a bit more tedious...cross-stitch...something.

I spent a hour or two looking for patterns before feeling very excited about the folk flowers pattern from Tiny Cross Stitch Co. I loved all the shapes so much and it felt like it had detail without too much detail. I decided to change the colors to fit a more Christmas-y theme. I had some embroidery floss at home already and made a note to pick up some red options and then got started!

I stitched my art on 14 count Aida cloth because I wanted it to be big. (I could have used 11 count and wound up with something even bigger.) The finished size is just under 15x15 inches.

The DMC floss I used is made up of six strands. Usually, for a cross-stitch project, you pull these strands apart to work with a finer piece of floss. I made a mistake and used three strands at a time instead of the recommended two for 14 count cloth. It worked okay, and the flowers look good, but it was a bit more tangle prone when I was filling in a block of stitches and trying to get 12 strands through the same hole.

I had a few requests for the floss colors I used... I used some old thread and don't have each exact number but these will get you close:

REDS: 321, 326, 347, 349, 817, 918

PINKS: 352, 351, 407, 3779

NEUTRALS: 3774, E3821 (metallic gold)

LIGHT GREENS: 469, 3348, 989

DARK GREENS: 319, 904

I started November 18 and finished on Christams Day. This project probably took me 125 hours. I don't know for sure, I never track stuff like this, but cross-stitching is, by nature slow. It's also, by nature, therapeutic and wonderful. It's a perfect pick-up and put-down project. It's great for overseeing distance learning or while in conversation or or while not scrolling your phone while your kids play at the park or while watching TV or while listening to a podcast or audiobook or (especially) when trying not to panic. I loved working on it so much and already miss it, truly.

When I was done, to clean it from 125 hours of hand oils and grime, I soaked it in water with a bit of dish soap (as recommended here) and then laid it flat to dry. I pressed it gently, took some photos, rolled it in a tube and sent it off to Framebridge to be framed.

I cannot wait to get it back and look forward to pulling it out each year with our Christmas decorations. Seeing that tiny "2020" in the corner will bring back so much. I hope it's an heirloom my girls want to hang in their future homes, but if not, no worries, it was a joy to make.

a tale of two christmas quilts.

In 2016 and 2017 I sewed two 45x60 inch Christmas quilts! I love pulling them out each year and wanted to share more photos and details here in case they may inspire your own quilting this season.

My 2016 quilt is a standard equilateral triangle quilt. My triangles were 5 inches high. There are 11 rows and each row contains 14 triangles (plus two half triangles). I used ten types of cotton fabric. Picking fabric for patterned quilts remains my absolute dream job. I generally try to stick with 2-3 colors (here it's green, red, pink...with white and tan as a bonus) and look for small, simple patterns. (More detail on how I pick fabrics here!)

I backed this quilt with a dark green and bound it my favorite way –– with a contrasting tiny stripe.

For the 2017 quilt, I followed a pattern! You can find the full tutorial here. This time, I wanted the fabrics used to be solid colors so the trees really stood out as the pattern.

I again used three colors (green, red, pink with white and tan as neutrals) but 12 different fabrics. I have a few different shades of green, pink and red which (to me) give the quilt more interest. My finished quilt has eight rows of trees with ten trees per row.

This one was such a fun one to work on because it was so different from my normal quilts. I especially loved quilting it all together. Instead of using long lines of stitches, I went around every other tree with thread. I had metallic gold thread on top and white thread in my bobbin which made a pretty design on the front and back.

Again, of course, I stuck with my striped binding.

I don't have plans for a 2020 Christmas quilt (I am elbow deep in a cross-stitch project –– here's a link to the pattern; I am changing the colors as I go) but hopefully 2021? Something else pink, white, red, green and tan probably? Maybe something with small squares...

PS...this cutting tool set is what I use for all of my quilting projects.

DIY FELT LEAF GARLAND.

'Tis the season for Christmas projects! I am so excited to share a simple felted leaf garland tutorial with you today.

Supplies:

• wool felt in one or two (or more!) colors. I used this dark green and then a lighter green I found in store, not on the website. I made two 8 foot garlands from 2.5 yards of 36" wide felt. I had some leaves left over.
• sharp scissors
• hand quilting thread –– I would argue this type of thread is essential. It's very strong (no breaks while you're pulling!) and it's designed to go through quilted layers which makes it slick enough for running through felt. I used white because it's what I had already but this comes in a ton of colors if you want it to blend in more with your felt.
• a needle
• wooden beads (optional! as these can be hard to find in small quantities. I added six to the both ends of my garland but they wouldn't be necessary!)

First, cut your leaves! I found I could cut through 2 layers easily and 4 layers without too much trouble. You'll notice my leaves have one pointy end and one more squared off end. Shoot for that sort of shape and it will make the next step easier. But no need to make a template! Just freehand these –– I promise it will work out.

To string: fold the blunt end of your felt leaf and run the needle through the pinched fabric.

Pull the needle and the thread through and then go around and push the needle through the folded layers one more time in a similar but not exact spot.

Pull your leaf down the thread toward the end (give yourself about 12 inches of extra thread if you plan to add beads). This wrapped thread technique (going through your folded leaf twice) is key. You can see above how the extra wrap on the end gives the leaves texture and dimension. You should find that once you have wrapped the thread, it's still easy to move your leaves up and down the string if you move them one at a time. You can push them as loosely or as tightly together as you prefer.

And that's it! Just keep stringing. If you have more than one color of felt, vary it as you go. If you want to add beads, just add them to both ends when you are sure of the final size. If you end up needing more thread, just tie the new piece on and triple knot it. This thread is hardy and will handle it well. I ended up making two 8 foot garlands and both needed much longer string than 8 feet because of the wrapping.

I draped the garlands over our task lights and then attached them to the tile in two places with clear Command hooks.

They turned out so great! Perfectly festive without being too much which is exactly my decorating vibe.

If you're interested –– here is a felt wreath holiday project, here is another felt garland and here is the frame we display our Santa photos in! Nearly all the other Christmas decorations you see are from past years at Target, West Elm or Joann. If you're looking for other kitchen sources, you can find them all linked here.

PRINTABLE CHRISTMAS ART (a round-up!)

This is our second year in our house but the first year I have spent nine months mostly at home, staring at the same few walls. It's not even Thanksgiving but I was so excited to get out our decorations and change things up this month.

After everything was out of storage, I realized I still wanted more decor. So I began my hunt for printable Christmas art.

I ended up ordering three pieces and having prints made at Costco to swap out in our hallway frames. But found so many more than just those three great pieces. Below is a round up of 18 beautiful, affordable (most under $6!) printable art here for you! If you're not in the mood for Christmas, these shops are also filled with other great year round pieces.

L-R, top-bottom: 1. Articraft Creatives Block Christmas Tree 2. Kiki & Nim Pantone Christmas 3. Pale Pink Scriptures Pine Tree 4. Kiki & Nim Merry 5. Lindsay Letter's Sketchy Mistletoe 6. Visual Pixie Night Before Christmas  7. 88 Prints Christmas Trees 8. 88 Prints Fa La La 9. Instant Download Studio Pine Tree

L-R, top to bottom: 10. North Prints Vintage Red Berries 11. Jilly Prints Jolly at Heart 12. Salutye Christmas One Line Drawing 13. BT Design Co Peace Love & Joy 14. The Printable Concept Christmas Dove 15. Cult Form Graphic Santa in a Triangle 16. The Presses Gingerbread House 17. Studio Paradissi Modern Noel 18. Modea Prints Red Abstract

The best part about printable art is it's often offered in various sizes so you can customize to fit the frames you already have. After the season is over, store it right in the frame behind your everyday art. It's such an easy way to decorate without needing a ton of extra storage space.

The frames in our hallway are 18x24 –– these are very similar to what I have. "The Best Is Yet To Come" art is not a printable but is available right here.

simple graphic valentines!

I had the best time last week making simple Valentine's cards using my digital stamps. I'm not sure if you've noticed but LOVE is a big theme of these digital stamps. Which meant coming up with some sweet card concepts was way too easy.

using ELISEJOY digital stamps to create valentines from elise blaha on Vimeo.

I recorded a ten-minute video (you can watch above or click to see it larger!) that shares exactly how to make the six cards designs shown using PSE and my digital stamp set.

These techniques are versatile (meaning they can be applied to so much more than Valentines) and will hopefully help you get more mileage out of the stamps.

I printed the folded cards two to a page on white lightly textured cardstock (using my everyday printer) then cropped them down to 5x7 to fold in half. I'll be mailing them out to friends in red and kraft envelopes.

Still need a digital stamp set? Grab one here! And here's the install video and here are some other ideas for how to use them.

This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY, I am chatting with Kelly Purkey about switching gears creatively. How you know it's time, steps to take in advance and (obviously) fear. Please consider subscribing to ELISE GETS CRAFTY in iTunes or stream here.

 

Other posts you might enjoy:

• creative books I always return to.
• big script art 
• hand carved stamp
• three things I know to be true / DIY projects.
• thoughts on rubber stamping