5 Unique Embroidery Books to Buy for Yourself or as a Gift

Foolproof Flower Embroidery: 80 Stitches & 400 Combinations in a Variety of Fibers; Add Texture, Color & Sparkle to Your Organic Garden

I really want this book to help me come up with ideas in my slow stitching and crazy quilting projects. I mean, it has 80 stitches and 400 combinations! I don't think I could ever do them all but isn't it nice to try.

Stitchcraft: An Embroidery Book of Simple Stitches and Peculiar Patterns

This book has amazing photography and some very unique embroidery projects with close ups of some of the stitched pieces. The book contains projects of human and animal anatomy and creative skeletons. All are done on a black background with bright thread colors and patterns are available to trace from the book.

Doodle Stitching Embroidery Art: Move Beyond the Pattern with Aimee Ray

I actually read this one on Kindle Unlimited which is a great way to peruse lots of books and there are several crafting ones you can do this with. However, I would love to have a physical copy to flip through and admire through touch. The base of this book is to just make embroidery art with simple stitches and do it without a pattern. 

Pet Portrait Embroidery: Lovingly Stitch Your Dog or Cat; A Modern Guide to Thread Painting

Creating an embroidery of my cats or one of those pieced quilt portraits is on my bucket list of embroidery projects. This book is in my Amazon wish list. The directions in this book are amazing and you can watch a video on Amazon of a reviewer who flips through it to show you the amazing instructions and detail that you can learn. Plus, it sounds like a great way to learn how to do Thread Painting. 

DIY Embroidered Shoes: Techniques, Designs, and Downloadable Templates to Turn Any Fabric Shoe into Stylish & Unique Footwear

Okay, so this book is brand new. It was just published in October 2024 and I recommend you go look at it on Amazon and scroll down the page to see the close ups of some the designs. It's a book that I didn't know I needed but I really, really need it. I also think this would be a great gift for a teenager who is interested in putting that creative spin on their canvas shoes and they could complement any of their clothing for a full fashion statement. 

What do you think of these? Do you have suggestions for me? 

Note: Links to the books are affiliate links and I would get a small commission without any cost to you. It just might help me get my own copies because I don't have enough books already (wink, wink).  

Christmas Movie Journal

Making a Christmas Movie Journal for KDP

I have been wanting to create and sell journals and other low content books for awhile. So, when my husband was complaining about remembering which Hallmark movies he has watched I came up with this idea. Yes, you read that right, my husband is an avid Christmas Hallmark movie viewer. In fact, last year for Christmas I got him all Hallmark movie gifts: mug, blanket, and sweatshirt. Until early January he will only watch Christmas movies. They don't ALL have to be on Hallmark but they do have to be Christmas. And, now he can document them in this journal and stop asking me if he has seen it (fun fact: I don't watch all of them, a lot of them, but not all of them). 

For the inside of the journal I created different sections for each page:

Title

Year released

Date watched

On what network or streaming service

Your rating on a 5 star scale

Your recommendation

Main characters

A recap

Your thoughts

Best and worst parts

 The cover was created with Canva including the artwork with Canva's AI Magic Media tool. Note: You do have to reveal if you use any AI items for your KDP works. In this case, it is the holiday fireplace done in watercolor style. I wanted something pretty with a warm and cozy feeling just like you get watching a feel good movie. What do you think? Have you made your own journals? I made this for personal use and just decided to see if anyone else would like it too. 

***Links included above might result in a commission for me but does not have any cost to you. If you purchase a journal, I will definitely get a small commission since it is my design/journal for sale. 

Easy to Use Design App - Repper

If you haven't heard about Repper, you are missing out especially if you want to make fabulous pattern designs for almost anything: digital paper, POD (print-on-demand), fabric, or coloring books. 

The basics of Repper: 

• Use an image (upload or find one in Repper's link to Unsplash)
• Choose from a variety of tilings
• Move around a geometric selector
• Watch the magic happen
• Save designs you love
• Export any design you want to use

Watch these videos to learn more about the app. The first one walks you through how to use it and the second one shows fabrics I had printed through Spoonflower with my designs I made with Repper. 

Using Repper

Fabric Designed using Repper

Note: Repper is a membership tool that you can purchase monthly or yearly with a short free trial period. If you sign up with the link I do earn a commission that helps me buy fabric, keep my own membership,  and write tutorials. 

Starting up crafting again

My child is all grown up and about to graduate college. I now have a Masters degree and I've moved a few times finally landing in a house after many offers and heartbreaks for not getting my dream one. Sometimes you just have to settle so you can start living.

Several of the blogs that I used to write for are now defunct and I will have to sadly remove them from this blog. I have started another blog, too, but it is not ready and is not totally free to run like this one. 

The country and the world seems in disarray but the one thing I can count on is using creativity to weather all the storms (at least that is what I keep telling myself). Plus, I really want to create my own way to more income so that once I get to retirement in about 10-15 years I have something that is all mine. 

I started a YouTube channel: Delyn Creates where I will be using my technology skills and my passion of crafty things to make tutorials. 

One thing I have been doing for a long time is designing fabric and selling at Spoonflower as well as selling smaller pieces through my Etsy shop: Creating with Thread. Some of my designs use a great online web design tool called Repper which is a totally addictive site and one of my main subjects on my YouTube Channel. I also decided to become an Amazon Affiliate because I am always telling people about products I use so I might as well get a little income along the way. Plus, if you want me to try something out and do a critique on here, let me know. I'm game!

So, thanks for stopping by and I hope to be posting more thoughts and sharing links with you about things you might like.  My plan is to keep this blog more of a personal journey while the new one will be more tutorial based.

If you want to check out my first video on YouTube here it is: 

Just Crazy

Thinking about just changing the name of my blog to Just Crazy as I start getting back into crafting more and hoping to actually get some holiday gifts done this year. However, I still want to keep taking classes and learn more computer stuff. I already have several Microsoft Office Certificates and the elusive Comptia Network+ certification.

I recently changed jobs (still same place - different department) and I'm working evening hours. I was hoping to squeeze more time out of the day since I have mornings to myself but I find I want to stay at home more than I ever have. Darn those benefits like health insurance and money to buy my supplies.

Be Proud to be DIY

As many of you probably do, I subscribe to a number of blogs and they span a great deal of different interests but many times they do relate to each other even if it is not about crafting. That happened today with Get Rich Slowly, a personal finance blog that I read from time to time. The article today is Made by Hand: In Praise of Amateurs. It is a personal tribute not only to handmade, DIY and being self-sustainable but to the author's dad who did many projects and inventions over the years before his rather young passing. It is amazing how much he did in his short lifetime.

J.D. Roth, the author, also gives us a sneak peak at the upcoming book Made by Hand by Mark Fraunfelder the editor of Make magazine. Evidently it is not a do-it-yourself instruction book but a look at someone who loves to do what DIYers love to do. I came from a family of DIY types. We always had a huge garden, we canned and froze all kinds of produce, my mom taught me to sew and crochet, my brother was a wood carver and cabinet maker but not professionally and we never ate out which at the time I thought was tragic.

I really liked this article because it brought back my own memories but also the change I've felt in the last few years about being able to be more self-sustainable. I'm even taking a computer course so I can do my own maintenance and it has inspired me to one day to try to build my own computer. I recently learned how to knit and have had great praise for the scarves I've given away.

Do you do crafts as part of being able to DIY? Do you find yourself wanting to DIY other areas like constructing your own lamp or building a patio?

I'm in the Top 25 at Craft Critique

My wire-edge ribbon article I wrote for Craft Critique is one of their 25 most read articles. I'm so excited. You can read it too; click here. It contains a tutorial on making a ribbon rose. Or, you can go to Craft Critique to see it and all the top 25 in this special article.