Threesome

Get your dirty little minds out of the gutter!  I didn't mean it that way!  ;-D

Here is the last of the beaded embroidery designs.  I started the first one at the end of April so it took just over a month to stitch all 7 designs.  Now I am working on the altered book into which they are going.

I noticed that my dear friend Marsha's birthday was coming up in June so I whipped up this beaded cross stitch and made a fridge magnet for her.  

Finally, my mom gave me an old wooden tray that saw a lot of cheese & crackers in its day, along with 4 pretty, patterned tiles.  She was going to send them to the thrift shop but asked if I wanted dibs on them first.  I painted the tray blue and envisioned stenciled designs on it.  I have always sucked at stenciling but I decided to give it another try.  

Stencil fail.

I was frustrated and posted the picture on Facebook, in the hope that someone could tell me what I was doing wrong.  Fortunately, few people commented that the trick to stenciling was to use an almost-dry brush, and dab at it, up and down, with the brush, applying more than one coat if need be.  It was a time consuming process, which took a couple of days to do.  I ended up taking over the kitchen table to get it done.

Stencil win!

As of the preparation of this blog post, I have not yet sealed the paint with Mod Podge.  After that's done, I will adhere the tiles to the center of the tray.