There aren’t too many people I’d make this for.
To begin with, I don’t know that many people who like Super Mario Brothers enough to be excited about a Mario-themed gift. And beyond that, I’m not a big fan of cross stitch. (I think people do some amazing work with cross stitch; I just don’t enjoy doing it myself.)
But I have a friend who got married over the weekend, and when I saw this project on Craftster, I knew I had to do something like it for her. I could’ve embroidered something similar, but I felt the cross stitch lent itself better to the pixelated style of the video game image.
I used the “Bitter Luigi” pattern from Sprite Stitch and simply omitted the Luigi portion of the pattern (not quite appropriate, eh?).
The original pattern is quite small, so I enlarged it 400% by x’ing 4 squares for every 1 in the pattern. I wasn’t sure how it would translate to such a larger size, but I’m pleased with the result.
To finish off the piece I used an arcade font tool to create my friend’s wedding date in the Mario type. I really think this was the final perfect touch to the whole video game look and was well worth all the searching I did to find it.
I’m glad all that cross stitch is behind me, won’t be doing that again any time soon, but I’m very satisfied with it. And I’m certain she’s going to love it, which makes it well worth it. And they lived happily ever after!
this is very cool, i have vague memories of that weird super mario brothers 3 game with the princess in the pink dress and flying carpets and such…. i know xstitch can be time consuming but this stitchery totally lends itself to xstitch from the pixelation and such as you mentioned above. i’m sure your friends will cherish this piece!
written on June 14th, 2010, at 10:36 amfunnily enough, i’m thinking about doing something very similar for my brother for his wedding…
written on June 14th, 2010, at 11:44 amHee hee! This looks great, what a fab personalised gift :)
written on June 14th, 2010, at 12:17 pmWhat a special gift. You are right, cross stitch was perfect for the 80s look.
written on June 14th, 2010, at 5:01 pmI intend to stitch up “Bitter Luigi” at some point (love visiting Sprite Stitch from time to time!). You’ve done a great job – what a fun gift!
written on June 14th, 2010, at 9:06 pmThis is fantastic. My little boys are huge Mario fans! They would love this too!
written on June 14th, 2010, at 9:36 pmBy George woman! Hate to tell you this, but you are quite obviously one of those talented cross stitchy types…
written on June 14th, 2010, at 9:56 pmCute!! What a fun wedding gift. Your stitching turned out great.
written on June 14th, 2010, at 11:45 pmI think it’s FABULOUS! Oh to be so good at something I don’t enjoy ;) Seriously gorgeous stitchery there and I’m sure your friend will be so pleased :) Kx
written on June 15th, 2010, at 6:32 amI couldn’t resist – I’ve popped this sampler up on Cuteable today :)
http://cuteable.com/
written on June 16th, 2010, at 2:26 amthis is amazing, so brilliant!! a lovely gift. Both my daughters would adore this….our Nintendo 64 and Mario games are much loved in this house!!! I know Mario is available on every format these days but there is something special about the N64 I reckon
written on June 16th, 2010, at 9:50 amBeautifull!! It´s amazing the pixel effect!!!
written on June 17th, 2010, at 7:06 pm