Years ago I used to love making cross-stitched ornaments, and have made many over time. This past winter I stitched up a couple of simple designs, but hadn't finished them off. I decided to do so in time to share for Christmas in July. I'm planning to share three simple ways to finish off a cross-stitch ornament, and will start with the simplest -- just popping it into a frame.
Here is the ornament before anything was done to it.
I may have mentioned that I'm in the process of clearing out some unneeded items at my dad's house. I'm finding many craft items from both my mother's and my sister's stashes. I came upon some brand new frames just perfect for ornaments. There was a red one and a green one, among others.
Obviously, in framing your ornament, you want to use a color that echoes or complements the colors in your design. I chose the green because I wanted to point up the green lettering, and felt that the red would be just too much red. With this type of frame, all you do is snap off the back, trim your stitchery to fit the frame, and snap it in place. So easy!
I wish I had taken a picture of it at that point, unembellished. I decided that it needed something more, and thought I would add a snip of red ribbon and a jingle bell. But in looking through my box of embellishments, I found a package of these pre-made red bows. You can't really see in the photo, but the print on this ribbon is musical. Perfect! And there are some green touches to the print as well. I tried threading a jingle bell onto the bow, but it wasn't working out. I had been thinking all along it might be fun to attach real jingle bells to the stitched bell strap, but was afraid it might be too much. Now I decided it would be just the touch that was needed. So I took the stitchery out again and sewed the real bells in place before re-framing it.
Stay tuned for methods #2 and #3 later in July ...
Cute ornament. I like it!
ReplyDeleteVery cute! I think I still have some of those old frames buried in my stash - I'll have to look for them now that you've inspired me.
ReplyDeleteVery cute ornament!
ReplyDeleteThe frame is perfect and I love how you added the bells and the ribbon!
ReplyDeleteLes
Thanks, ladies, for the kind words about my little ornament. I need to look over those frames again, but I think that between what's in that box from the attic, and my own stash which I know has a few gold frames in it, I might be able to make an ornament for each grandchild for Christmas. That would be sort of fun!
ReplyDelete