Monday, December 07, 2009

My Victorian Houses - I Had To Keep Them!



During the last few months I have been happily creating some of the items from punch-needle, cross-stitch, and needle felting kits I had purchased during the spring. All of the kits were purchased with the thought of giving the finished projects as Christmas gifts this year or next.

Of course, like everything I create I tend to fall in love with the finished products. Some more so than others. Some so much so that I selfishly decide to keep them for myself and my home decor.

Well, I have to tell you that I absolutely fell in love with my Victorian cross-stitch village. Now I know that wasn't the intent, but I couldn't help myself with my Victorian houses. If it's Victorian it's right up my alley. Ya think!!!! LOL LOL

My Victorian house village was created based upon a Dimensions cross-stitch Gold Collection kit called "Christmas Village Ornaments. It was supposed to be a series of Victorian house ornaments with a cross-stitch front and felt cloth back outlined with a braided gold band.

However, I didn't make my Victorian village as cloth ornaments. Instead, I enlisted the help of my younger brother to create wood shadowboxes that I painted with a blue/white/green sponge affect.

My Victorian village includes the following:

A fabulous blue house....


A traditional Victorian pink lady......


A bakery.....


A church.....


Rudolph's tree farm....


and, Kringle's toy store.

I love how they turned out and love that I can arrange them any way I want. I can arrange them all in a row, group them, even stack them if I want to. Right now I have them in two groups of three houses each in my sun room.

My husband gave me a suggestion of adding hinges to the groups of three so they can be easily arranged and then stored away. I like that idea and will probably add tiny hinges to them before we put them away for the holiday season.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my Victorian village and hope you can see why I loved them so much.


Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Last Year's Punchneedle Kits and Shadowboxes



Like everything I do I never do anything in moderation. Instead of just creating a couple of punchneedle and cross-stitch kits to give as Christmas presents I created 30 or more. As a result I had more than I needed to give as presents. Was this intentional? Maybe!

Then again, maybe not! Maybe I'm so highly organized that I knew I would need some in the future. Anticipating the future? Maybe! Then again, maybe not!

In any event I ended up with more shadowboxes than I needed. The punch needle pine tree shown above was created based upon a "Pine Tree" pattern kit by Rachael T. Pellam of Rachael's of Greenfield that I added a dark green, burgundy and white sponge painted wood shadowbox frame to. This pattern included detailed instructions and tips for punchneedle as well as an iron-on transfer sheet that you had to iron on to the foundation cloth which was included in the kit.  It also included a piece of paper with the DMC floss numbers printed on it and each of the floss strands grouped by color tied to a punched out square next to it's respective DMC floss number.  It did not include a diagram with the detailed numbers on it but included a listing on the back of the pattern indicating which DMC floss numbers were to be used and where.


I also found a wonderful punch needle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Folksy Sheep" that I liked.  As with my other punchneedle projects I decided to add a sponged painted wood shadowbox frame.  I wanted the frame to appear like the sky so I sponge painted it royal blue, light blue, and white.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.    The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.


I also found several patterns from Dimensions that I liked.  The 1st pattern and kit was  Dimensions Live, Laugh, Love Kit #73224 which was easy to follow and had diagrams and numbered key codes for the DMC floss.  The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions as well as punch needle tips.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

The pattern and kit was for creating a  framed picture with the fabric serving as the picture mat.    I decided to make mine as a purple, pink, cream, and white sponge painted shadow box that could be placed just about anywhere.

The white fabric was to serve as the white backdrop, but I changed this and added white floss as separators and changed all the colors from what the pattern called for to something I wanted instead.  I surrounded my mounted press board punchneedle image with blue and pink lace trim and then enclosed it within my shadowbox.


The 2nd pattern and kit was  Dimensions Vase Of Flowers Kit #73400 which was easy to follow and had diagrams and numbered key codes for the DMC floss.  The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions as well as punch needle tips.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

The pattern and kit was for creating a  framed picture with the fabric serving as the picture mat.   The white fabric was to serve as the white backdrop and the punchneedle image had leaves and flowers extending out from the main body of the punchneedle.   I decided to box my picture and box around the flowers and leaves so it would fit in my baby blue, cream, and white sponge painted shadow box.


The 3rd pattern and kit was  Dimensions There's No Place Like Home Kit #73401 which was easy to follow and had diagrams and numbered key codes for the DMC floss.  The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions as well as punch needle tips.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

The pattern and kit was for creating a  framed picture with the fabric serving as the picture mat and the words "There's No Place Like Home" embroidered on the bottom of the picture.    The white fabric was to serve as the white backdrop and the punchneedle image had tree tops extending out from the top of the main body of the punchneedle.   I decided to box my picture and box around the tree tops so it would fit in my lilac, green, yellow, and blue sponge painted shadow box.     I also changed some of the colors of the trees and ran out of the blue they included for the sky and had to substitute some of my own floss.


I also found a wonderful punchneedle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Crow and Sunflower" that I liked.  As with my other punchneedle projects I decided to add a sponged painted wood shadowbox frame.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth. 

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.    The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.


I also found a wonderful punchneedle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Stoneware Crock" that I liked. The pattern called for a scrolled top to the punchneedle piece, but I squared my top so that it would fit in the royal blue, beige, dark blue and white sponged painted wood shadowbox frame.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth. 

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.    The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side.

This is one of the shadowboxes that I am keeping as it's primitive nature and blue colors fit right in with my home decor.  In fact, it resides right next to several of my blue crock pottery pieces on my dining room mantle.