Parable of the Talents - the start

Our church is doing the Parable of the Talents project.  The church gives us each $5 to use to do crafts or food to sell or provide a service.  Whatever money we make goes back to the church.  So I spent my $5 on embroidery floss, already had the paper.  I will have to pay for the laminating, but not much outlay on my part.  I'm making cross bookmarks.  They are not my design exactly, but they are my execution.  I drew out the designs very large and then reduced them and printed them out.  There are two cross designs, four colors of paper and matching thread.  I think we have until Christmas, not sure.  Here is the picture of my baby project:

A Princess Among Dragons

For the July/August Challenge in the Art Challenges~ group at http://creativesouls.ning.com/. DMC floss backstitched on cardstock with Far East Matstack papers. Stencil designs by www.spraypaintstencils.com.
What really helped me finish this was Dan Goodwin's suggestion on Coach Creative Space http://coachcreativespace.ning.com/ to work on one project at a time through to the finish.  Of course you can't always do that.  Actually I think it was in one of his blog posts.  This is just embroidery on paper or Dutch Embroidery.  I just printed out the stencil designs and poked holes along the lines in pink, green and purple cardstock.  I used black DMC floss on the dragon and variegated floss on the rose and stem.  After sewing I stuck it all together with double-sticky tape.  I used DCWV papers around the edges.  Here are pictures of the process.

The back.