Wow, this is so great! Very professional-looking, and super creative. This rocks! <3

I love the Jackalope cross-stitch with houndstooth. Great idea filling in the silhouette with a pattern!

I agree, I feel that this beautiful necklace looks best with the white background! The white reflects more light through the beads, and the eye is drawn to the necklace rather than the background. I feel your pain about editing shadows though. I think changing your lighting, rather than the paper, would have the best effect on shadows.  Diffusing it or adding a backlight might help to soften them.

Finished! Just have to pack everything up and I will mail it out today or tomorrow

Pics of the super-awesome items I received from danynn are up in the gallery! She'll have to wait a bit for her items though. There's a big one in the making that will take a while, and I'm working on the smaller ones in between

I received from danynn today! I can't believe what she made for me



First up is my favourite piece, a tiny jackalope stuffie. Straight off my wist, this little guy is so cute!



Next is a tiny octopus stuffie. I love the sequins and that blue is the brightest I've ever seen!



Aaaand here's the big one! A super soft plush squid, which attacked the octopus in the box! I didn't even see the octopus until I picked up the squid and the little guy fell out The red mouth and felt beak are a couple of awesome details. This guy is about 12" long from tip to tentacle, and he now watches over my room from atop my stereo.



There was also a cute Cthulhu bookmark, appliqued with some superb stitching on a cool space-like fabric. He looks so happy!



Last but not least, a lovely phoenix hoop appliqued/embroidered in felt. I love the swirly blue fabric in the background, and the fiery fabric on the back is perfect for this piece!

Thanks so much for your items daynynn! I'm going to have a hard time matching the awesomeness of this package

Ooh love the earrings, and what an awesome arm indeed! Great start to the gallery

The crafting has begun! I already want to keep the first item for myself

No worries! Cables may seem super complicated at first, but it's pretty straightforward. Also, you picked a good project to do your first cables with, as this would be a really simple pattern.

Here's a pattern that I think is similar to what you're looking for. Instead of K4 on each side of the cable though, you could just K1 in order to take out the "background".

CF6 is the abbreviation used for the cable stitch. In this case you would slide 3 stitches onto a cable needle (or a smaller double-pointed needle or something), hold the needle in front of your work, K3 as usual, then K3 off the cable needle. Pulling the cable needle stitches across the other ones is what creates the cable twist.

If you see something like CB6, that means you do the same as above, but hold your stitches at the back of your work. This would create a twist in the opposite direction.

Hope that helps!

Too fast for me! Still in the brainstorming phase...Can't wait to get crafting!