Bookmarks

I haven't been doing much stitching lately as I've been completely addicted to Mass Effect for the past week or so, but now it's done and I'll have more time, although I have started on Dragon Age...


My mum has her own market stall selling crystals, incense, and many other new age sort of things. She has asked me to see if I could make some bits and pieces for her to sell.

I've been trying to design some bookmarks first, as I thought that would be quite simple. In fact, it's a bit harder than I thought. I have the basic patterns sorted, I'm doing bookmarks with the signs of the zodiac. It's just the materials and colours that I'm having problems with.

I thought at first I could use plastic canvas, but the amount of background I'd have to fill in for my designs was just too much, it would've been too tedious a process for me to make these very often.

First attempt on aida, not yet cut to size or mounted on card.

My first attempt on aida is above, it's too cluttered. I'm also not keen on the threads I used. Thought the photo isn't terribly clear, I used metallic thread for the cross stitch and silk effects for the backstitch. The silk effects thread worked nicely for the backstitch. I originally wanted to use the silk effects for the cross stitch but didn't like the look of it.

Second attempt.

I think my second attempt came out much nicer. It's much lesser cluttered, and I used just normal stranded cotton for the cross stitch, and again used silk effects thread for the backstitch.

I'm still not sure whether the colours are all right, and I'd appreciate any kind of input in that area.