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Friday, 28 July 2023
Crochet flower fairy
Thursday, 27 April 2023
Realising how much time keeps passing
Everytime I turn around I find that so much time has passed I'm not actually sure what I have and haven't shared here anymore! Life has been very busy. I started a new job in December which is what I was doing but a little bit more but it's about learning all the new systems, which they do everything differently!!! Then my Grandpa passed away in mid December so that was On top of that my partner ended up cutting half the index finger off his left hand. That made for an interesting January and then time just kept passing really quickly.
I have been stitching, though it seems I only have time to stitch my own designs. My grandma gave me some money for christmas so I spent it on some fancy metallic watercolours and OMG I am having sooooo much fun painting!!! I've then been turning some of those paintings into cross stitch patterns. I can't share a lot of them but I will share what I can. More about them at the end of the post!
I made this cute little Easter dragon for the autumn edition of down the rabbit hole. I called it Easter Surprise because you don't expect to find a dragon in your carefully decorated Easter egg :D
All this from a quick little sketch I did. I didn't even add colour to the sketch I just fell in love with it.
I also created some cute little dancing girls for the latest smalls magazine. These little cuties just make me happy. I finished them with a felt backing glued onto a magnet and they are currently on my fridge. They just make me happy looking at them each day.
I'm also working on the winter design but of course I can't show that one yet because the magazine isn't out yet. So I also can't show the painting I did to inspire it. But there is a lot of white which you would expect in a winter design.
Hannah is growing up fast she has just turned 2 and it's like a tiny cyclone has hit our house every day! She is into everything but she also just loves to help. We have what's called a learning tower which is essentially a stool with a wooden cage area for her to stand up in so she can't fall backwards. But every night when I'm cooking dinner she will climb up there and help me to cook. She can't do much but she likes to feel like she is helping.
Here are some of the pictures I've done while playing with my watercolours. The colours are from Chelsea Venz Art a lady on the gold coast who makes handmade watercolours. I am so in love with the effects these give a piece of art.
I think I will turn this father's day owl into a cross stitch eventually but not sure when. Let me know if you want it sooner rather than later. It won't be going to a magazine. So would go straight onto my etsy.
This sea monster while cute as ... is too much like the character from the drawing book to be able to be used in my cross stitch but I will see if I can do a variation like I did with the dragon that I can turn into cross stitch.
Here is a photo of the lovely watercolours. I want to get more of her stuff but that will have to wait.
So Happy Stitching Everyone,
Caitlin
p.s. I hope it's not too long before my next update but this is me and life is busy!
Wednesday, 9 November 2022
Print and Play Board games


I managed to win a game against my cousin :D Though it was his first time playing so not quite as fair. This has been a fun craft to explore as they are really fun to do and I'm sure I will make a LOT more games since I've found so many good ones.
Saturday, 24 September 2022
New Obsession: Artist Trading Cards
I have found myself a new craft obsession. I am deeming this an extension of the drawing and art I have been doing so it doesn't count as a new craft. And honestly outside buying some card from kmart I haven't bought a whole lot of stuff for it. It started as being invited by one of my friends into a craft group and I accepted not really understanding what I would be walking into. I thought it was about making small craft projects which I do a lot of as that is the kind of cross stitch pattern that I do. It turned out to be a lot more specific than that. It was specifically for artist trading cards which are pretty awesome and I'm going to tell you why.
They are cards that are 3.5inches x 2.5inches which are the size of a trading card like pokemon. The idea is that you make these cards and then you can trade them around the world with other people. Now this group is just a local facebook group and we are separated into groups of 9 and we make cards to suit a theme. The first group that I ended up in was the white plus one theme. So I had to make 9 cards that all looked pretty much the same and then send them off to the organiser. The theme had been a vote between a few options and I picked Disney but the white plus one theme had won. So I ended up combining the two into these Cinderella cards. This was my first foray into this and I had sooo much fun making these! I became addicted.
The card backs are numbered out of 9 to show that it's part of a set of nine.
Then the package came in the mail with the 9 cards back.
I love how each person interpreted the theme and all the different colours and ideas. These definitely show the different backgrounds of all the people. with some being very artistic like the candle and the tree in the bottom row. To the very scrapbook based coffee one. It was so cool to see them altogether like this.
The next month the theme did end up being disney :D So I took inspiration from my newest obsession Encanto. (Though this obsession is helped by a 17mth old who is obsessed with the music!) I had lots of fun with these. I drew the little mirabel in my notebook one day and then digitised it. I then printed it out and coloured it in. Then I created the pretty banners and the butterflies. I'm really proud of how this one turned out even if all the parts took me AGES since bubs was being extra clingy anytime I was home as she wasn't well.
While I chose to make each of the cards very similar I did deliberately choose to do two different banner designs and also the butterflies are all slightly different in their placement. The slight changes make the cards unique.
What was also awesome was that without talking to each other we all managed to pick different disney characters. We all picked entirely different movies!
I'm so excited to show you more as I get them. These are such fun little art projects that while I can take up to a month to finish them because there are little hands getting in the way...
... the projects are still fun despite the size.
Happy Stitching,
Caitlin
Thursday, 5 May 2022
Winter Owl and a Round Flat Finish
My latest pattern is now available in Issue #7 of Down the Rabbit Hole. It's called Winter Owl and adds to all the cute owl patterns that I seem to be loving to make at the moment. I just love cute owls and I hope you love them as much as me.
I really like these round designs at the moment and I really wanted to try a new way to finish this pattern. I did some research and figured I would do a round flat finish. I did watch this tutorial and use it as a guide. But I changed it for what I actually had at home. I used cardboard that I had from a box at home. Not the best stuff to use but it was what I had.
I cut out circles of the cardboard and also the wadding that I had. I glued two layers of wadding on one piece of cardboard and one on the other. I just used PVA glue which didn't hold very well but I didn't need it to hold for long.
I cut out the fabric in circles and did a running stitch around the edge and used that to pull the circles on. You can see what they look like here. It was so quick and easy to get the circles looking great. Much quicker than lacing a square flat finish. (though I still love little pillows!)
I then used a ladder stitch to sew the two parts together. It looked really awesome but the connection wasn't always the neatest. Good thing I planned to put a rope around.
Using my normal glue I glued the rope on and created a loop. I glued the two ends together and hid them behind the top. Though silly me didn't take a photo.
I hope you enjoy this pattern and this gives you ideas of how you can finish it.
Happy Stitching,
Caitlin