Northwoods Santas

"Northwoods Santa" Embroidered Artwork Home Decor Wall Hanging

Includes:
Woodland Santa - A Fisherman with a fox.
Nordic Santa - Friends with deer and carries a pine tree
Arctic Santa - Friends with penguin and polar bear

This was originally a kit from Astor Place Heirloom Santas Entitled: Northwoods Santas published by Willmaur Crafts Corp. It is embroidery floss stitched on Perforated paper which is a card stock or heavier weight paper with a counted cross stitch grid of wholes. I've never used this type of foundation before. It takes longer than fabric as it uses a stab or stick method of stitching. You can't pull it through two wholes at once.

Each Santa is carefully trimmed out, mounted on Stampin' Up Black cardstock and inserted into a 4" x 6" opening in an 11" x 22" frame. The frame is black and each opening is bordered by a metal copper lace trim that was painted brown to antique it. The frame has two openings on the back to hang it on the wall.

Nordic Santa

 Trimming the Artic Santa: I found it easier to use an exacto knife. (Yes, I know mine is a little rusted, but the blade is still super sharp.)

Woodsland Santa

 Framed:

~Sarah

Four Season Chairs - Summer, Spring, Autumn, Winter

Counted Cross Stitch Sampler Picture “Four Season Chairs” (Not Framed)
Four Season Chairs - Summer, Spring, Autumn, Winter

This large embroidered artwork contains 4 different samplers all stitched into in 1 final embroidered piece.
It took about 9  12-14 hour days to complete this project. I'm not sure I want to part with this project!

• Summer: This season has an Adirondack chair sitting in the sun at the beach facing the water.
• Spring: Spring has gardening tools, flowers and a Ra-tan Love Seat waiting for a couple to have a seat.
• Autumn: Autumn has an old fashioned high back chair with a handmade afghan with a fringe on it. Pumpkins and corn round out the look.
• Winter: A Snow covered rocking chair sitting on a porch in front of the shuttered window and glowing candles are in this winter scene. A wreath adorns the rocking chair.

This is a Janlynn Needlecraft Counted Cross Stitch Pattern entitled “Four Season Chairs.” It was stitched using cotton thread on 14 count Aida fabric. There are 39 different colors embroidered into these 4 samplers. It has been washed and ironed.

It will fit in a 16”x16” frame without a mat or in a 20”x20” frame with a mat.
This item can be found at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/178500725/cross-stitch-embroidered-four-season?ref=shop_home_active_1
~Sarah

My New Guitar

My new guitar is finished and added to Etsy. It is going to be hard to get rid of this guitar. I love the pop of color!  https://www.etsy.com/listing/168424922/upcycled-acoustic-guitar-shelf-one-of-a? This specific guitar has one long shelves. I would recommend hanging it using 2 hooks on the attached black and white cord.

Instead of doing my traditional guitar, I wanted to do a horizontal style shelf. I carefullt cut it with my dremel and found an extra block support on the inside of the guitar that was hard to cut. I cut a hard shelf to go into the guitar with grooves for the slats that were built into the guitar. I adhered it to the support I glued into the guitar. I cut a piece of trim and shaped it to the front of the guitar.

I decided to spray paint the entire guitar, so I took the metal pieces off and sprayed away. (Note to self: Don't Spray Paint when it is cold outside!!!!)  I used silver leaf to add accents on the neck and trim along the shelf. A musical themed upholstery fabric lines the back of the inside of the guitar. What a challenge cutting this to fit in perfectly. The final thing was to add Black Rhinestone Sticker Embellishments  and a black and white cord to hang the guitar. I would use double hooks to hang the cord on for added support!

 ~Sarah

Lost Guitar Post! My Guitar Shelves!

Last fall I started to make guitar shelves. Somehow, my post disappeared, so... I am re-posting it.

Tom found a couple guitars at garage sales and brought them home for me. They were not in good shape, so fixing them to play was not an option. I decided to make shelves out of them. This what came of them:

I used my Dremel to cut open the guitars. The first guitar had 2 cross bars in the back when I cut it open. The second Guitar had 3. now I knew how many shelves each would have. I added wooden support bars along the inside to support the shelves. I sanded everything and carefully sprayed the front of the guitars and the inside of the guitars black.

The first guitar I sprayed the hard wood shelves I added black. (Adding hard wood shelves to a curved area with a small opening is quite a challenge when the shelves do NOT bend. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to manage it.)

To complete the first guitar, I went into my scrap booking stash and carefully cut and glued the pages I chose to the back using the guitars natural dividers as section dividers. 

Note: This guitar was the first to sell and has shipped to Texas.

 The second guitar I made had 3 natural shelf dividers. I prepped it the same way as the first, however, I stained the shelves and edged them with black instead. I wanted to highlight more of the natural wood as this guitar had a very pretty coloring. I rotated the shelves so they would show two toned. The neck of the guitar was missing the bridge, so took it from the bottom piece I had taken off and adapted one for the neck.

I found some metal words and Rhinestone musical stickers I chose to use to decorate this guitar.

Note: This guitar has sold and has shipped to Virginia.

~Sarah

More Memory/Picture Boards made for Christmas

I made 4 other Memory/ Picture Boards for Christmas. I only have pictures of 2 of them as I finished 2 in the middle of the night Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.

I had a little fabric left over from the guitar I made for Etsy, so I made a memory board for Ashlin's room. I made a hunting camo board for Morghan, a Giraffe Board for Emmah, and a Teal Blue and Pink geometric Circle board for Mckayla. Tomorrow I need to make a music fabric themed board for someone else.

I try to find scraps of boards such as Luann, plywood, or siding that are left over. I chose fabrics each person would like and paired them with matching ribbon and buttons. From there, I measured and drilled holes for my needle to go through when attaching the buttons. I found sanding it down quickly is also a necessity.  I added the batting and fabric and stapled the fabric to the back. I cut ribbon to crisscross the front, chose buttons to sew on and used some black cord to stitch the buttons to the board. Then, I stapled the ribbon the the back. Add a hanging hook and ...Voila! Finis!

~Sarah