It’s our wedding anniversary whilst we are away, last year I made a cross-stitch card, this year I decided to do the same but to make it in such a way that I could make it into a ‘small’ afterwards, a bit like I did with his Christmas card.

I saw a design on facebook by Subrosa which I thought would be perfect, she is a Hungarian designer who sells patterns on Etsy. I made a couple of alterations to the design, first one was because I made a mistake on the very first row, the key staff, it was too short by about four stitches! I think it was a case of too much chatting as I started it when I was visiting my mum! I was already half way through the leaves when I realised my mistake, too late to start undoing, so I made the key head round instead of oval. 

I think this design is based on a traditional design as there isn’t an alternative alphabet included if you want to change the letters. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to change an R into a K and an M is just an upside down W!!

It was a nice simple design to stitch, I used four DMC colours from my stash, there’s no half cross-stitches or back-stitches so it was finished fairly quickly. It turned out a little bigger than I anticipated so I had to change my tack regarding the design of the card.

I had a look on Twisted Stitcher for some ideas on making it up and eventually decided on a flat padded card. I wanted however to be able to write a little message on it so I came up with the idea of putting a pocket on the back. I found a lightweight taffeta in my stash and made a pocket. Before I stitched it on I decided to decorate it with a little heart, so I embroidered one with backstitch and then stitched it onto the pocket with a simple running stitch. The actual pocket could then just be machined to the backing fabric.

I wanted the card to be double mounted, so I laced the embroidery over a piece of card, with a layer of wadding in between. With the red taffeta I just glued it over the edge of a second, larger piece of card, checking that the pocket was nice and central first.

I had some cream mini pompom trim in my stash which finished it off nicely, I hand stitched them round the embroidery, added a fold of ribbon and just glued the top and back together, leaving it overnight with a heavy box of fabric on it.

I’m pleased with my ‘card’, I can take it with me to Bali and write a special little message to pop inside.