Keys to My Heart

Again, I have a weird urge to surround myself with hearts for Valentine's Day.  Specifically, I wanted to have a crafty thing to have on my desk at the office and make me smile.  This is a free pattern found on Rainbow Gallery's free pattern list.  It is an Erica Michaels design from 2002, but I really liked the design.

It calls for some specific thread, so I decided to check out a local cross stitch store to see if they had the alternative brands of floss.  When I showed the pattern with the materials list to the ladies there, they commented, "Wow! That's such an old pattern!"  Way to criticize your customer's choices. They did tell me that the listed threads are now out of production.  Either way, I think I will be buying thread online now, thankyouverymuch.

It's stitched on 18 count Linen in Light Oatmeal. I picked out similar colors from normal DMC floss.  This was the first time I put any embellishments on a piece.  The charm was actually the most difficult thing to find.  It took me about 9 hours to complete.  Stitched size is 2 1/2" x 4" and it is in a 5" x 7" frame with a gold 4"x6" oval matte.

Fun with Foam

I've been in and out of craft stores over the holidays and in the recent weeks.  I have seen a lot of little foam projects made by Creatology.  They're mostly holiday themed and geared to children ages 6 and older.  There are a lot of ornaments and picture frames as well as larger models. I've been really wanting to do stuff for Valentine's Day in the past couple weeks, so I picked up one of the larger kits to play with.  I got this particular kit at Michael's Craft Store, but I have seen foam kits even at places like Target.

I picked a Valentine's Day Bird's Tree House.  If a six year old was doing this project, I really don't think it would end up like the picture on the box at all.  Some of the pieces were made to be interlocking, but they didn't fit together well.  I did require assistance to keep some pieces in place while the glue dried.  The instructions call for Elmer's glue, but I ended up switching to Krazy Glue with the brush applicator about halfway through.  This kit came with stick-on glitter accents which added most of the character of the house.  Some of the stickers were really tiny and hard to wield, especially the little white dots on the front of the house.

Overall, I still think it's really cute. The model was a bit of a pain in the butt, so I probably won't be doing another one.  The smaller kits could be used to make little holiday gifts for classmates or coworkers.   At seven dollars for the kit, it was definitely cheap entertainment. Seeing my guy put sparkly hearts on the foam was well worth it.  My excuse was that it was training for when he has a daughter, but I think my bribe was what finally got him to help.