With the 100+ motif and border patterns in this book, it's easy to combine them to make your own personal cross-stitch designs. The 21 unique cross-stitch alphabets, made to coordinate with the motifs in a variety of styles--floral, lacy, Christmas and more--allow you to add words to complement your ideas. From flowers to cottages and houses, birds and animals to holiday and sampler-style motifs, there is so much to choose from! Borders add a professional touch to your designs, and a variety of letter styles help you personalize with names or meaningful words. Each motif is presented in chart form with a color key for ease of reference and a finished, worked example to show how the patterns should look when complete. If you are new to cross stitch or new to designing, an introduction to the craft covers all of the tools and equipment needed and demonstrates basic cross-stitch techniques from start to finish, plus gives instructions on how to graph and use your designs. Based on a simple grid and one basic stitch, cross stitch is easy to learn and master, so get started mixing and matching these beautiful designs into your one-of-a-kind creations!