For today’s prompt, I wanted to create something, rather than just take a picture of it, so I made some pixel art! This is something I do when I make cross-stitch patterns for myself, and Microsoft Excel seems to be what works for me. When I first open the program, I have to set up the spreadsheet so each cell is a perfect square. There are lots of ways to do this, but I select all the cells and then adjust the column width so it matches the row height. When all of the cells are selected, I also use the Format Cells option that appears when you right-click the spreadsheet and adjust the borders so they can be seen easier. From here, all you have to do is select cells you want to color, right-click on them, and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill them. After just a few hours of this, you’ll get pixel art!

I created the donut by using a pixel art guide that showed me the outlines I’d need for the outer and inner circles. Circular shapes aren’t always the easiest to make, so having a guide is really helpful. For the frosting on the donut, I just free-handed some squiggles until I got a configuration I liked. The lettering I used actually comes from a cross-stitch font pattern that I saved from DMC’s website, which is a company that makes some of the best embroidery thread. They have an entire section of free patterns on their website that are meant for cross-stitching but also work perfectly for pixel art.

I highly recommend trying out pixel art, as it’s something that relaxes me, and if I use it for a cross-stitching project, it’s always fun to see your creation come to life. It’s really not that hard to do unless your completely free-handing something. Regardless, I had a blast creating today!

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