#he was ecstatic and said it was the best gift he'd ever gotten 😊

[stardust-rust]

Here's the cross stitch I made for my husband's super secret surprise birthday gift this year. He always loved Pokemon growing up (he has vast and obscure knowledge of it) but his interest waned as he got older. Until we started dating and as a birthday gift I got him Platinum, and it reignited his love for Pokemon (we have now amassed a lot of merch and an eye-watering number of trading cards haha!).

So he always credited me as bringing him back to Pokemon; we have played the new games together, have started a soul-link nuzlocke in Crystal Legacy, and are both working towards completing a living dex. He recently started playing Yellow and I wanted to gift him something he couldn't buy for himself, so I decided to do a little cross stitch of our favourite Pikachu expressions from that game. I had it professionally framed and it sits in pride of place next to his desk 😊

I used this pattern from Etsy and used Pilot Frixion markers to draw out the pattern because it disappears with ironing and it saves me the headache of counting as I go (with any fibre craft, if you think you know how to count no you don't). Needle was a ball-tip type which is a GODSEND and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to cross stitch, and a small Q-Snap frame. Threads were all DMC brand. The whole project took me about two weeks on and off, working in total secrecy.

Stitches were all railroaded (to the best of my ability) and the bubbles + hearts + Pikachu's cheek pouches were trammed as well for a fuller look and slightly 3D effect, which is sadly unnoticeable once framed. I have also since learned some neat ways to start/end stitches so I really hope the back of my next piece is neater (yes I am one of those people)!