Cross Stitch Craftin', starting the year off right!

For the Christmas of 2013 my amazing friend and co-blogger Anita cross stitched this fantastic group of ninjas from one of my favorite animes.  I mean can you believe the amount of fun and silliness she stitched into that piece? It makes me incredibly happy every time I see it; I want to pinch their chubby little ninja cheeks.  Something I can only assume would be very upsetting to a bad to the bone ninja.

These cute little guys are from an anime called Naruto.  Anita found the pattern for these adorable chubbsters on Etsy that had been created by Clouds Factory.  All you have to do is buy the PDF and you are ready to go nuts.  I am touched that she put so much time and effort into that gift; it is quite the cross stitch gift!  My favorite character in the series is a secondary one so he rarely shows up in anything you can buy, let alone something as creatively crafty as cross stitch.  I have an entire wall in my home dedicated to art work of him I have collected over the years at Anime and Comic book Conventions.  I have had to commission every piece since most artists have never even heard of him, but that means I can pick an artist based on their style and approach to subjects and not be stuck with only pre-printed materials to choose from.  After I got the cute collection from Anita I knew wanted to make a small one of my ninja to match.  I dreamed up this idea back in 2013 and after a loverly bout with the flu this past week I finally got the job done.

I made a list right after New Years of crafts I want to get done in 2015 and the little ninja cross stitch and a bigger piece of his name to officially title my art collection wall made it to the top of that list.  Thankfully, the weekend before I got sick I had gone to the fabric store to grab some discounted Christmas fabrics and the supplies for these two cross stiches just in case the weather turned yucky and I was trapped indoors I would have something to keep me busy.  Good thing I made that trip! I had what I needed when my health took a turn for the boogery to keep occupied while ill.  I do interject that I kept my hands clean and did not get face fluids on my work!  I designed my first piece after the pattern by Clouds Factory.  She is the one that created the adorable chubbiness for the ninjas and I give her full credit, I just took the dimensions she had and made my character fit them.  Clouds Factory I am in your debt!

The second piece I put together using some cross stitch alphabet reference books I had.  To be honest I had no idea I even had these books, but after a very unsuccessful run on Pinterest to find a font I wanted to use my brain kicked in and reminded me that I should look through my craft booklets to see what I had.  I found the big “K” and fell in love with its design.  It is decorative but not curvy, the straight lines feel manlier here, and the little crosses in within the letter I thought looked like little ninja throwing stars, makes me smile just thinking about it.  I used the red and yellow for the “K” to add color and tie in the symbol on his outfit.  I used a different blockier design for the rest of the letters in black to finish out the name simply and cleanly.

Now I have lots of art up on my wall of my ninja and framing all of it could have cost a small crafters fortune, but I am a thrifty framer.  I keep my eye out for inexpensive frames at thrift stores and garage sales and keep a few on hand.  They will all be spray painted black so color or texture doesn’t matter.  I don’t get such a massive stock going that I am over run; two or three waiting in the wings is perfect.  I knew that little cross stitch of the chubby ninja was going to need a small frame so when I spied that small ornate one at a thrift store several months ago I grabbed it up and spray painted it black.  It has been patiently waiting ever since.  My wall is almost complete, only a few more small pieces will fit.  I will only buy art that will fit in my empty wall space and therefore I will pick small frames to buy.  I am proud of my wall of ninjas and that someone I love has created an inspiring piece for me really makes it complete.

Stay warm and stay crafty!

Kelly

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