Winter Ornament

Haven't done a lot of stitching lately.  I guess there hasn't been enough of interest for me on TV and my stitching is always done while watching.  Or maybe I just need one of those periodic breaks from crafting and have preferred reading in my free time.  Anyway, I did stitch this pretty winter tree, "Arbre d'Hiver", from Jardin Privé, one the four seasonal tree freebies you can get here.  It's stitched on 32 count bone evenweave with DMC threads.  I don't think I even changed one color.  Just back-stitched the snowman since he seemed to be lost in the background without it.  

Vonna has been showing so many mounted felt ornaments lately that I thought I'd give that method a try.  I took her tutorial as a starting point.  She does everything so precisely, and I never do that, but  I more or less followed her lead.  I discussed some details with her about gluing and materials.  I thought the craft glue might bleed through the felt, but it didn't, so that part worked well.  I just used synthetic felt, but it was thicker than most of what I see these days.  I think it might have come from a fabric store rather than a big box craft store.  I now wish I had a zig-zag rotary blade for the edges.  The pinking shears work ok, but much more difficult to get a nice edge.  The stitching is stretched over comic book cardboard with a layer of batting to give a little depth.  I'm reasonably happy with this and I think it will make a nice little gift.  And it's suitable for display all winter since there is no particular holiday flavor to it.

 

I also make a couple of self-closing gift enclosure cards.  And they stand up for display as well.  The first is one of Daffy Cat's freebies from 2008, Jingle Bell Reindeer.  No beads, just French knots for the 'necklace'.

The second is from the 2013 JCS ornament issue, "Peace Bird", by Rosewood Manor.

 

Here's a photo of how it works to stand it up.  The bottom folds up and I'll use a sticky seal to close.