Two ATCs

“Koi” and “Illuminated C”

These are the two ATCs I stitched for the May exchange at the Cross Stitch ATC Facebook group.

The first theme is “The Letter C” – the plan is that all 26 letters will be covered, but not in alphabetical order (just to keep us on our toes!). I chose my design from Illuminated Letters by Lesley Teare – the alphabet featured in an issue of The World of Cross Stitching (I don’t know which issue – I swapped a chart with a member on a forum to get these), and I plan to use these designs for my whole alphabet series. It’s stitched on white 14-count aida in various DMC threads and only just fits on the card, so next time I’ll be using a higher count of fabric!

The second theme is “Oriental”. I found this gorgeous little koi design which is free to download from Cross Stitch Happy and just knew it was the one for me! I didn’t use the suggested colours, but instead picked colours out of my existing stash. I also replaced the eyes and most of the little buds on the plants with beads, just for a little extra dimension. Finally, I added the Japanese character for “koi” in the upper right-hand corner. The koi represents love and friendship, so this beautiful fish was the perfect choice for an exchange. I like him so much I almost wished I could have kept him for myself, so I think there’s a distinct possibility I’ll stitch him again for a card or some such thing. This version is stitched on pale blue 14-count aida in various DMC threads and beads I had to hand.

ATCs

I’ve recently become part of a Facebook group that exchanges ATCs (Artist Trading Cards)* and have also been taking part in an exchange on The Cross Stitch Forum, so I thought I’d display them here.

The Easter Bunny and Smile designs were both for the Facebook group for the April exchange (I’ll post the pictures of the May exchange ATCs when they’ve arrived at their destinations – the posting date is the 20th of the month).

For the Easter-themed ATC, I thought there could be nothing more associated with that holiday (well, for me, anyway) than the Easter Bunny, so I adapted a sweet little design I found online for free (click HERE).

The “Stitch a Smile” theme had me thinking – what would I choose? Wile searching for something suitable, I came across a beautiful freebie daffodils design. FOr me, the first sign of daffodils is the first sign that Spring is here and it always makes me smile. Again, I adapted the design slightly. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me, remember where I got the chart, so if you spot it anywhere, please let me know, so I can give credit to the designer!

The final ATC is on a Summer theme and is for the Cross Stitch Forum exchange. I designed this one myself and it was fun, yet simple, to stitch. You can download the chart for free at my Kincavel Krosses design blog.

* ATCs always measure 2.5″ x 3.5″. They are exclusively swapped, rather than being sold, and can be done in any medium on any theme.

Butterfly ATC

Design: Assissi Butterfly freebie from alitadesigns.com
Materials: brown 14-count perforated paper; miscellaneous floss in dark red, dark gold and muted green; floral decorative paper; card

Having recently stitched a winter-themed artist trading card for an exchange at crossstitchforum.com I’ve well and truly got the ATC bug! As I was already sending a small package of cross stitch charts from various magazines to a friend, I thought I’d stitch her a little butterfly ATC as she’s crazy about butterflies.

The original design is Assissi-style, meaning that the butterfly is left unstitched with only the details added in, but as I was using perforated paper, I stitched it entirely. I also stitched the border design, but left out the extra stitches around the edges as I had decided to try a little experiment. I cut around the butterfly and the frame seperately very close to the stitching so that my stitched piece was now in two pieces. I then covered a thin piece of card in a decorative floral paper and arranged the frame and butterfly on it, gluing them into place. Finally, I backed the whole ATC with another thin piece of card and wrote my details on it.

I’m rather proud of this little ATC and I hope my friend will like it too.

Winter Themed ATC

Design: From World of Cross Stitching Magazine by Ursula Michael
Materials: White 14-count perforated paper; DMC Blanc, 107, 597 and 4220; silver beads (from a broken necklace); white snowflake button; silver snowflake charm; white and turquoise cardboard snowflake button

I’ve never stitched an ATC before, so I was rather excited when The Cross Stitch Forum decided on a winter-themed ATC swap. I quickly settled on using perforated paper for this project and chose a small design from World of Cross Stitching Magazine (from just before Christmas). After stitching the design, I chose to add various buttons, charms and beads to personalise it a little more. Then I stitched the details onto another piece of perforated paper to affix to the reverse and slid a piece of ice-blue coloured card in between them to “plug” the holes. I opted to blanket stitch the two pieces together et voila!