Hama bead snowflakes using the midi beads

A couple of years ago I designed some free simple cross stitch snowflake designs and patterns which I used to make a snowflake embroidery hoop piece. I also adapted the pattern so that it could be used for Hama beads, and I used the mini Hama bead snowflake embellishments to decorate a pretty winter snowflake lantern.

This year I thought I'd have a go at making some Hama bead snowflakes using the larger midi beads. As a reminder here's my Hama bead snowflake pattern - it is made using white beads for the snowflake and then transparent beads in the gaps so that the snowflakes can be easily ironed.

The Hama bead snowflakes made with the midi beads measure about 5-6cm in diameter and are very sturdy. 

These snowflakes make great Christmas decorations. I can see them hanging from the ceiling or in a window, or simply stuck across a window with a glue dot.

Because of the hole in the bead they could also be hung with ribbon for a tree ornament, they could be glued to a name card for the Christmas dining table, they could be used as gift tags or to decorate a gift bag, they could be popped inside a Christmas card for a festive surprise. 

They are so simple to make that it would be a great craft to keep children occupied over the Christmas holidays and of course there's no need to stick to white, you could use beads of any colour, maybe glittery beads or in contrasting colours.

Have fun with your Christmas crafting!

Hama bead Autumn leaves - designs and patterns

I've been trying to come up with some good designs for Hama bead Autumn leaves for a while now, and I've always found it really difficult! After sorting out all my Hama beads recently I found that I had lots of Autumnal colours with lots of different shades of brown, orange and red, and so I decided that I would have another go and attempt to make some seasonal Hama bead Autumn leaves to decorate my home now that the weather is turning cooler!

Here is the pattern for the four Autumn leaf designs that I came up with. 

I used a variety of different coloured beads for the leaves, based on what I had in my stash. I tried to think about using darker beads for the base of the leaf and moving to lighter ones as I worked my way up, but the arrangement of the beads was pretty random! It was a great way to use up some of colours where I only had a small amount left. 

I used a square Hama bead pegboard and didn't over iron the beads. If you are new to Hama beads or want some extra guidance you might find this post helpful - Ironing tips for Hama beads. 

I've not decided yet how to display them. I'm thinking about hanging them from some long string and attaching them to suction hooks on the window. I also thought about making a few more and attaching them together for form an Autumn wreath - something like this Hama bead flower wreath. You could also attach them to sticks as a plant pot decoration, string them together to make bunting, add a magnet or keyring...lots of possibilities!

If you are looking for some more Autumn inspired Hama bead crafts then do take a look at these:

Autumn leaf Hama bead coasters

Autumn Hama bead battery tea light holders

You can find all my Hama bead crafts here - Hama bead craft ideas and projects

Mini Christmas cross stitch gift tags craft

Last year I shared some free mini Christmas cross stitch designs which can be used for all sorts of pixel crafts. I've written about lots of different ways that you can use mini Christmas cross stitch motifs in your crafts, and today I thought I'd share the latest one that I've been working on! These mini Christmas cross stitch gift tags with a glittery frame are really quick and simple to make and add a sweet personal touch to Christmas gifts.

You can find the cross stitch designs here - free mini Christmas cross stitch patterns.

I chose four of my favourite designs to turn into Christmas gift tags. They are really quick to stitch up, and are a great way to use up scraps of fabric and thread from your stash. When stitched on 14 count Aida fabric each design measures about 2cm square. Make sure to leave a border around the stitching to allow for a frame, I used a piece of fabric that was 5cm square. 

To make the frames I used some glittery card. I cut out a frame that measured 5cm square with a 1cm border. I trimmed my cross stitch pieces slightly, then used some tape to stick them to the back of the frame, making sure that the design remained central.

To back the gift tags I used white card so that the recipient's name can be easily seen. I used double sided tape to stick the cards to a backing piece of white cardboard.

Then I used a single hole punch to make a hole in the corner of each gift card, and I threaded through some festive string to attach to a present or gift bag.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and I think that they look really sweet!

Snowflake cross stitch embroidery hoop design - free pattern

I recently shared my simple snowflake cross stitch designs, and today I'm sharing a larger free snowflake cross stitch design. This circular design fits perfectly into a 6" embroidery hoop for display, and it makes a lovely festive decoration for your home this Christmas.

I stitched this design using white embroidery thread on navy blue 14 count Aida fabric. The design measures 67 x 67 stitches. Because the pattern uses just the one colour it is very quick and easy to stitch. I think that it would also look great on fabric in a different colour - perhaps green or red - or if stitched with metallic threads. 

Click here to download the pattern below as a .pdf - Snowflake Embroidery Hoop Pattern

This was a really satisfying make as it stitched up so quickly, especially because no colour changes are needed and there are no fancy stitches or backstitch! The only thing to watch is if you are using dark thread on white Aida, because if you carry the thread across the back then it might show through.

I used a plain wooden embroidery hoop for my design, but to make it a little more festive I used a few coats of silver acrylic paint to cover it which worked really well. A gold or white frame would also look good - there are so many different colour combinations that you could come up with.

Happy crafting!

Free simple cross stitch snowflake designs and patterns

Today on the blog I have a simple festive cross stitch pattern to share - some mini cross stitch snowflakes. These tiny designs are easy to work on and look great when stitched up. To keep the designs small it was necessary to simplify the snowflake a little so these are eight sided snowflakes rather than six sided, but I think that they still work well!

The snowflakes would be great for all sorts of winter and Christmas crafting projects. For example Christmas cards, mini bunting, tableware, Advent calendars, baubles and all sorts of decorations. I definitely have a lots of ideas in mind which I will be sharing here!

I found that the snowflakes worked really well when stitched with white thread on a darker background. You could also use silver metallic thread on a dark background, or if you want to use a white background I think that they would look great stitched in a contrasting colour like red for a Scandi feel.

I have worked some of these designs up into a full embroidery hoop cross stitch pattern which I will be sharing on the blog very shortly. Hopefully this sneak peek will give a good idea of how the simple cross stitch snowflakes look when they are stitched! I used navy blue Aida fabric and white embroidery thread for my hoop.

These small snowflake designs can also easily be used for other pixel art projects. Last year I used some of the simpler designs to make some mini Hama bead snowflakes. You can see in the blog post how I adapted the designs to add a background so that they were more stable for the tiny beads. You could also use the designs for knitting patterns, digital art projects, diamond painting and much more.

Happy festive crafting!

Free Christmas Scandi style cross stitch pattern designs

Recently on the blog I shared some free mini Christmas cross stitch designs which I've been having fun with for some Christmas crafting. Today I'm sharing an alternative colour scheme for the designs - a red and white Scandi inspired version of the Christmas pixel art patterns. 

These designs could either be used individually or the design could be used in its entirety as a finished piece. Because the background is white the black backstitch is very important to highlight the pictures, and I would recommend using two strands of black thread for the backstitching.

I've been using these mini patterns with Hama beads and they work really well. Because there are 24 designs they would also be perfect for a homemade Advent calendar, perhaps stitched on to individual gift bags or used to decorate the front of a plain wooden Advent calendar with boxes. As a cross stitched design they would also make great Christmas cards using one or several different pictures.

Click to download as .pdf - Scandi style mini Christmas cross stitch designs

If you are interested in other Christmas crafts with a red and white theme then you might also enjoy seeing my other Scandi craft tutorials:

Scandi inspired Hama bead bauble decorations

Red and white themed Hama bead Christmas coaster 

Scandi inspired Hama bead battery tea light lanterns

Free - 24 Christmas mini cross stitch and small pixel art designs

Christmas is my favourite time of the year for crafting, and I love sharing crafty ideas and projects on my blog. Recently I've been working on some mini Christmas pixel art designs which are perfect for any cross stitch or Hama bead crafts and I'm sharing them for free below. There are 24 designs, which also makes them ideal for any Advent themed crafts. You could use them with cross stitch to decorate small bags or boxes filled with Advent surprises. 

The patterns could also be used for cross stitch Christmas cards, to make tiny Hama bead embellishments, to decorate bunting, or even for online designs that use pixel art - there are all sorts of possibilities!

I have shared the free designs as images below, and you can also click the links to download them as printable .pdf files.

Click to download as .pdf - Classic Christmas colours

I have also produced the designs as a blank outline version so that you can come up with your own colour schemes. I'm working on some different colours for the designs that I'll be sharing shortly. 

Click to download as .pdf - Blank outline designs

I have also made a Scandi style Christmas cross stitch designs version of the pattern which you can find here - Free Christmas Scandi style mini cross stitch patterns.

Here you can see some of the designs stitched on 14 count Aida. They measure about 2cm square and are very quick to stitch, a great way to use up any scraps of embroidery thread from your stash.

I used these mini cross stitch designs to make some Christmas cross stitch gift tags. 

I have also used these Christmas pixel art designs to make a couple of festive crafts using mini Hama beads. My first craft was these Mini Hama bead Christmas embellishments using the tiny mini Hama beads which each measure about the same size as a single cross stitch. They are perfect for Christmas cards or other small Christmas crafting projects.

Then I used some of these embellishments to make some Christmas mini Hama bead pin badges which are a great way to make your Christmas outfit even more festive.

Click below to download these graphics as a printable .pdf file:

Classic Christmas colours

Blank outline designs

Scandi style red and white colours

More Christmas cross stitch patterns:

I have also designed some other Christmas themed cross stitch patterns which you can find here:

Free simple cross stitch snowflake designs and patterns

Snowflake cross stitch embroidery hoop design - free pattern

Free cross stitch patterns - Simple small Halloween designs

Today I'm sharing some very simple Halloween pixal art designs that would be perfect for Halloween themed cross stitch samplers or Hama bead projects. Because I designed these patterns originally for Hama beads I've added some pictures so that you can see what they look like made up with both midi and mini Hama beads. I'm planning to use some of them for my cross stitch map, as we have often found ourselves celebrating Halloween while on our travels around the world!

This first set of designs are very small and simple, using just a few colours. I have a cross stitch witch's hat, a skull, witch's face and tiny pumpkin.

These simple designs were used to make these Hama bead Halloween napkin rings, a lovely seasonal decoration for a Halloween themed dinner table. 

This next set of Halloween pixel designs are slightly larger. There's a pumpkin, a ghost, skull and witch's hat. 

I used these designs to make some Mini Hama bead Halloween pin badges for some spooky Halloween party accessories. 

Finally I designed these simple Halloween sugar skull patterns. The basic pattern can be changed to fit the colours that you have available or that fit your theme. You can use both pastel and bolder colours, and choose contrasting or complementary colours. There are all sorts of ways that it can be adapted!

I used this design to make some larger Hama bead Sugar Skull bunting and I used the midi Hama beads to make tiny Mini Hama bead Sugar Skull earrings.

I hope that you like these Halloween themed designs! If you make something using them I'd love to see it! 

If you like Halloween style pixel art, you might also like to see some of my other Hama bead crafts for Halloween. 

Free Kangaroo Crossing cross stitch design and pattern

Today I have another cross stitch design to share! I'm busy working away on my travel themed cross stitch map, and as I go along I'm coming up with different cross stitch images to represent some of the things that I've seen and done on my travels. Australia is one of my favourite places in the world, and so I decided to come up with a way to represent the iconic kangaroo crossing road sign in cross stitch.

The kangaroo crossing road sign design is really simple. The only colours that you need are a bright blue for the background (to represent the lovely sunny and clear sky!), yellow and black for the sign and a tiny amount of grey for the signpost. Both the outline of the sign and the kangaroo use two strands of black thread for backstitch.

Here is the finished design stitched and ready on my sampler. I added a small border as I will have lots of different images that I want to separate from each other. This design would also be great on a greetings card for an Australian loving friend or as part of a larger Australian themed cross stitch design.

If you liked this travel themed cross stitch design then you might also like these ones:

Free Disney castle cross stitch pattern

Free cruise ship cross stitch pattern

Free London Underground logo cross stitch pattern

Free small London Underground logo cross stitch design pattern

I've been busy working on my cross stitch map over the last few weeks. Now that I've filled in all the countries that I've visited, I've been coming up with lots of individual designs to represent places that I've travelled to. Some of them are pictures of places around the world, and others are symbols which represent different countries or cities.

I've shared a couple of my designs already, and so today I'm sharing the design that I came up with for a mini cross stitch London Underground logo. This small version of the logo would be ideal to use on greetings cards, bookmarks or as part of a larger London or United Kingdom themed sampler.

This cross stitch design is very simple. The only colours of thread that you need are red, blue, white and black. I stitched the design with the strand numbers as follows:

Cross stitch - 2 strands
White lettering - 3 strands
Black outline - 1 strand

The cross stitch is done first, then the lettering and back stitch around the edges are added. I chose to complete the background in white but if you are working on white fabric then you might decide that it's not necessary.

Here is the design as it looks stitched on my sampler. I'm really pleased with how my cross stitch map is building up, I'd love to have it finished by the end of the year but I still have a long way to go!

If you liked this pattern you might also like my other travel themed cross stitch designs:

Free mini Disney castle cross stitch pattern
Free cruise ship cross stitch pattern

Free small cross stitch cruise ship design pattern

As I write this post, I should have been on a cruise ship somewhere in the Bahamas. Of course that wasn't to be, so I've been consoling myself by adding a cross stitch cruise ship to my cross stitch map. I received my cross stitch map a few years ago and I love it! It's a large piece of cross stitch fabric with a map printed over it, and the idea is that you stitch over the countries as you visit them. It's a really good idea, but if you don't visit any of the really large countries like Russia or China, along with all the blank spaces around the edges it can be left looking a little bit bare.

So I've been busy coming up with different designs to fill in around the edges, with the aim of making a sort of patchwork of different pictures which are themed to fit in with places that we've visited around the world. I already have a lucky cat from Hong Kong, a cross stitch Disney castle, and I'm currently working on the Statue of Liberty. 

This cross stitch cruise ship is supposed to be a sort of amalgamation of the different cruise ships that we've travelled on, and it's designed to be quite small so it would also fit neatly onto a gift card or as a small framed picture.

Here it is stitched in position on my cross stitch map! I'm busy working hard on this map at the moment, I find that cross stitch is a very relaxing and distracting hobby at the moment. I'm really pleased with how the map is taking shape, and I'll be sharing it in a full blog post in the not too distant future!

Free - Small Disney Castle cross stitch design pattern

I created this free mini Disney Castle cross stitch pattern when I was designing the extra images that I needed for my cross stitch map which tracks my travels across the world. The pink and purple castle doesn't represent any particular Disney Castle, but I hope that it's a good enough representation of the iconic centrepiece that features in all the Disney theme parks!

The cross stitch castle pattern is created using just a few simple colours - three shades of pink for the castle itself, a light purple for the turrets and a dark purple for the windows and flags. It's finished with brown for the door and yellow or gold for the window frame. I used embroidery silks from my stash, and you could easily vary the colours to make your own individual castle design. For example you could use black for the windows or blue for the flags. The design is completed with back stitch in black, which makes the colours and different areas really stand out.

The basic Disney Castle cross stitch pattern is below:

I also amended the pattern to create a day and a night version. This day version has a light blue background to represent the sky. You could add some trees or other greenery if you wanted to expand the design a little.

The night version of the Disney Castle has a darker blue background and then uses back stitch to make fireworks. These could be stitched in any colour, or perhaps in a gold or other metallic thread.

I used the cross stitch design to represent all the Disney theme parks that we've visited on our travels around the world. I used a darker blue background, then gold metallic thread for the detail around the window and the fireworks in the sky. I'm really pleased with how it looks on my cross stitch map!

You could use this Disney castle cross stitch design for a greetings card or small framed picture. It could also be used as part of a larger sampler, and because the design is so simple it would be a lovely cross stitch project for a beginner or child. If you use this pattern I'd love to see a photograph of your finished piece!