Cross Stitch Valentines

i missed last week's Iron Craft challenge, which was "Get Cozy" and was all about cup or mug cozies. i wasn't super inspired, and i didn't have the extra time/energy either. i don't drink coffee, and i really only drink tea when i'm settled in at home or at a friend's, not on the go, so i didn't have a travel mug to make a cozy for. my pottery tea mugs are specifically chosen by how they feel in my hand, so i didn't want to change that by adding a cozy! (what? i'm sure i'm not the only one who cups every mug and then walks around cradling their choice for 10 minutes before deciding for sure! maybe i am.) however, there were some fabulous cozies made, and i'll totally be reviewing them when i finally get around to making cozy for the family members who DO drink coffee (and starbucks hot chocolate) on the go.

so that was the last challenge. but there was NO WAY i was missing out on this week's challenge! the theme was "Be Mine", and y'all know how much i love valentines, as evidenced by the handmade ones i make every year!


at the same time, i also wanted to challenge myself to only use items found at the dollar store. this time of the year, dollar stores are full of valentine stuff, but that sort of felt like cheating... so i gathered up lots of things that weren't specifically seasonal, and could be found year round, but that i could use for valentine projects. i'll be posting more dollar store ideas in the next little bit, so check back soon!

for this project in particular, this is what i grabbed -

a woven paper twine placemat and a red beaded necklace


the same placemat, a beaded headband, and a small pack of no-name brand embroidery floss

and two packs of 6 blank greeting cards, one in red, one in pink.


i searched google for "simple heart cross stitch pattern" and used my favourite of what came up. i took apart the red beaded necklace to use the sparkly floss that it was made of, and used one of the skeins of embroidery floss.




after stitching a few solid hearts, i decided to start trying outlines, and adding beads. fun! i used beads from the red necklace, and from the beaded headband.




after i was done stitching, i cut out my hearts, leaving a bit of space around each one. because i didn't want the colour of the card to show through the holes, i glued each of them to small square of paper that was the same shade as the placemat. (i used one of the envelopes from my packs of cards, since i have other envelopes to use instead)


once that glue was dry, i used scrapbooking pop-up glue dots to adhere the squares to the fronts of the cards. (i didn't buy any, since i had them at home, but you can get them at the dollar store!)

and they're done!

i like finding non-aida cloth materials to cross stitch on, there are so many options out there!



what do you think? would you send them out to your loved ones? do you WANT to send them out to your loved ones? if you do, comment on this post and i'll send the set of them out to you!