I am so excited to share my first ever Halloween cross stitch finish! This design is Snail Slime from the Scary Apothecary series by Hands on Design. As soon as I saw this design I had to purchase it and stitch it up for the Halloween season this year! I love snails and think they are just adorable. The kids and I love looking for snails in our front flower bed where they have lived for a few years. We have had some as big as a nickle, which we have nicknamed Daddy Snail when we see him 😂 Needless to say the kids thought this design was pretty cute too.
I chose to hand dye a piece of 28ct DMC Monaco fabric to stitch on, but I knew I didn't want to do white as shown on the design piece. I am really drawn to dark gray and other typical Halloween colors. I dyed my fabric using the Charcoal Rit Dye and baked it dry. Then I used a bit of left over coffee to soak it once again. I baked it a second time even longer than before to make the coffee marks really darken up. It resulted in a beautiful spooky color combo perfect for my Halloween stitching!
After dying the fabric I had to pick out my colors. I opted to go with all DMC. First I laid out all the called for DMC colors on the fabric, but I didn't think some of the colors looked very well with my fabric tone. I played through the colors and finally decided on what to use. However, as I started stitching the project, some of the colors just didn't seem right and I ended up frogging (cross stitcher's terminology for ripping out) it out and using a different color. I used regular DMC: 3819, 3799, 704, 553, 3853 and 169. The pattern also called for Kreinik Braid, but once again I opted for a similar material with the DMC Light Effects threads. The DMC Light Effects I used E310, E301, E3837 and E703.
When my stitching was completed I downloaded the free template on the Hands on Design website to cut out my Pres-On self mounting sticky board. I added one layer of quilt batting between the cross stitch piece and sticky board to give it a bit of dimension. The black pompom trim really made the design pop so I hot glued it around the edges of the finished design. I found a 3 pack of these adorable snails in the miniatures section at Hobby Lobby. Two of the snails were the exact color of green and orange DMC I used in the design! The third snail was a light blue, but I mixed up a bit of paint to match the purple and repainted his shell to match. The snails were attached to wire which I bent and then hot glued to the back of the cross stitch piece. Lastly, I hot glued a piece of felt and then two magnets to stick to my metal finishing piece. The finishing piece, Snail Slime, is attached to is a darling black metal two piece I purchased a few years ago and have been using in my Halloween decor. I added some beautiful glittery pumpkins to the inside for filler .
I am really impressed with the creativity of this design. The added sparkle from the DMC Light Effects really brightens up the piece. Using the same thread to make smyrnas above each beaker to resemble bubbles was genius! The only change I made in the design was to fill in the "Take A Slug" with the DMC Light Effects where it would have been empty. Since the color of my fabric and the DMC didn't have a strong contrast the wording did not show up very well. After I filled it in I decided to backstitch around the wording as well which made it pop even more.
Overall I am loving this piece with the rest of my Halloween decor! Stick around for more finishes really soon. Below is my FlossTube video showing my completed Snail Slime.
When my stitching was completed I downloaded the free template on the Hands on Design website to cut out my Pres-On self mounting sticky board. I added one layer of quilt batting between the cross stitch piece and sticky board to give it a bit of dimension. The black pompom trim really made the design pop so I hot glued it around the edges of the finished design. I found a 3 pack of these adorable snails in the miniatures section at Hobby Lobby. Two of the snails were the exact color of green and orange DMC I used in the design! The third snail was a light blue, but I mixed up a bit of paint to match the purple and repainted his shell to match. The snails were attached to wire which I bent and then hot glued to the back of the cross stitch piece. Lastly, I hot glued a piece of felt and then two magnets to stick to my metal finishing piece. The finishing piece, Snail Slime, is attached to is a darling black metal two piece I purchased a few years ago and have been using in my Halloween decor. I added some beautiful glittery pumpkins to the inside for filler .
I am really impressed with the creativity of this design. The added sparkle from the DMC Light Effects really brightens up the piece. Using the same thread to make smyrnas above each beaker to resemble bubbles was genius! The only change I made in the design was to fill in the "Take A Slug" with the DMC Light Effects where it would have been empty. Since the color of my fabric and the DMC didn't have a strong contrast the wording did not show up very well. After I filled it in I decided to backstitch around the wording as well which made it pop even more.
Overall I am loving this piece with the rest of my Halloween decor! Stick around for more finishes really soon. Below is my FlossTube video showing my completed Snail Slime.
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