Something Small, Something New and a Little Progress Too

After all the large projects I've been doing, I felt the need to do something small, so that I'd feel I actually accomplished something.
So here they are, a book mark and a Christmas decoration.
The hanger on the Christmas decoration is actually green, but for some reason my scanner picked it up as blue.

So with those finished I was ready to move onto something else. I decided to work on this cute, stamped cross stitch panda.

As a general rule I hate stamped cross stitch. You can't get the stitches even and cover the markings for stitching at the same time. But I didn't realise it was stamped cross stitch when I bought it, and I intend giving it as a gift.

I have done a little more on African Sunset, but not much. I find it very frustrating having to change colours all the time, and the colours are much different that what I usually work with. I really hope the person I plan to give it to still likes it by the time I finish.

Now the question is, can I get African Sunset and Hang in There Panda done by the time I plan to give them to the intended recipients. I'm beginning to have my doubts.

A few more things from 2010

There were a couple of projects I did at the end of last year.
I ended up doing our family Christmas tree decorations again.

This time I went with the felt theme of craft that I've been doing lately.
I used a cookie cutter to make a pattern and then cut out 2 felt pieces for each one. The gold star in the middle is a brad. I had to put a small hole through the felt to get the brad in, but other than that it was easy. I sewed the 2 sides together with a contrasting embroidery thread, stuffing the star before I finished stitching. The hanging loop is red rickrack. I need a contrast for the red stars, but didn't have anything available. I made 8 in all. One was actually blue with a silver star brad - my friend has a blue and silver theme going with her Christmas tree.

The other project was a birthday card. I used Stampin' Up stamps from a couple of different sets. One of the sets was 'Window Dressing'. I love this set. It has so many possibilities!
I did make another card, but I don't have a picture of it. I also used Stampin' Up sets for that one.