Coke Joker Cross Stitch

I'm still here. I'm just working on making presents that I can't post here yet.
So, to keep you-all busy I thought I'd post something I made almost 4 years ago but never showed anyone. (Except maybe my sister).

So, first, let me say that I love old playing card jokers.
(I know. It does sound weird. But that's just how I am). LOL!

So, when I was surfing ebay one time, looking for interesting old joker cards, I saw this one that looked so awesome.



This is a photo of it I just lifted from the auction so many years ago.
I think it was from a Coca Cola deck of cards.
See how the joker is balancing a coke bottle on his tray there?

Alright. So. I thought this would be a great picture to cross stitch.
So I enlarged the photo on my screen, held a sheet of paper up to the screen, and literally traced the whole thing onto the paper.
Then, I traced that image onto a sheet of graph paper.

Then I went about stitching the thing.

Here's the finished design...



He kind of looks like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. LOL!

Anyway, I used variegated floss and simply filled in the diamond shapes of the jokers bodysuit and hat.
The trick to remember with variegated floss is to always complete each X as you stitch. (Instead of going ///////and then returning back going \\\\\\\ because, if you do that, you will mess up your colors really badly.)

Here's a sideways version of the design.



I embellished it with real jimgle bells. (You can get these at any craft store. They are so tiny, yet, they still "jingle".
I also used a metallic gold floss for his lute strings.

I still don't have this framed or anything. It's folded and placed inside a Ziplock bag, (like most of my projects).
It's nice to see it again.