First thing you need to make your own cross-stitch pattern is get some graphing paper. Then just draw whatever you want to cross-stitch on the graph paper. Don't worry about making it match up with lines or anything. (This drawing is scaled down to half the sized of what the pattern is going to be.)
Once your picture is finished, you want to put in some guide lines.... since this is half scale, the guide lines are every five squares. It makes it much easier when you then re-draw you picture on to the next piece of graphing paper. Before you transfer the pattern on the next piece of graph paper, you'll want to draw guide lines on it. This time I drew the guidelines ever ten squares so each square coordinates with a square on the fabric. When drawing you want to make sure that your lines are either straight or diagonal on the graph lines so that when you use the pattern to cross-stitch
Color your picture and then start making your design. I also use thin thread to represent the guidelines on the fabric. I utilized a lot of dark colors for borders and lighter colors for the rest of the area.
As you can see the lines are all straight or diagonal. It is almost like making a picture very pixelated. Then each square you stitch is a pixel.
Once you have finished, you can remove the thread guidelines. I then used my pattern to stitch the backing fabric.
Then I sewed on a elastic and biased tape, to cover the edges.
ALL DONE :D
