The month's coming along and already crimbo time is poking through the rain. We've had the first partially complete Christmas cross stitch patterns shared on our Google + cross stitch community, winter sections in stores mysteriously growing (seemingly on their own!) and the odd not-so-subtle 'oh doesn't this look lovely? Don't YOU think so?' present hints.


For this week on the blog, we're presenting a gift idea that's practical, yet soars at the highest height of crafting beauty. Cross stitch makes for wonderful wall decorations and personalized greeting cards, so it would have been a most severe crime had it not become popular as a form of hand-made christmas tree decoration!

You can find all sorts of ornaments to fit your Yuletide tastes and preferences on the Past Impressions site, but this is one of our personal picks. From Dimensions, this pack of six cross stitch decorations, all designed under the theme of a 'Christmas Village', behold that wonderful rustic aesthetic that suits the traditionalism and nostalgia of the holiday. They come sold together for your tree (or those of six special friends), and are included with the backing material and fabric needed to make them pine-ready.

If you're looking for something the children will want to hang year after year these three snowglobe-inspired decorations, also from Dimensions, bring a cartoony feel to the designs, and are each emblazoned with words that embody the unifying ideas and thoughts of this most wonderful time.

There's many different ways to turn finished cross stitch patterns into tree decorations. The most popular is to attach it to a cardboard/mattboard sized to fit, using an even amount of glue, and then providing some kind of border, more often than not lace. Don't forget you can always add a nice ribbon of your preferred size to make it that ever more essential accessory for your tree.

For the third and last showcase, we want to move away from cross stitch, and have a brief look into this quartet of beading kits from Design Works. Each of these dangling arrangement of beads have a star-studded Christmas feel too them, yet lie nicely outside of the expected iconography. Whether it be a shimmering langern or encrusted bell, let each be a product of your own Christmas cheer.

In our final blog post on this impending holiday season, we'll be looking at all those miscellaneous and otherly ways that cross stitching finds its way into the festivities, from religious and spiritual patterns, to tree skirts and 3-D felt kits. In the meantime, keep us informed as to how your current Chritmas projects are going over at Facebook, Twitter and Google+

 


Post By Graham Ashton

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