I went through a phase some time ago of cross-stitching personalized gifts for people, often with my own designs. Some were in-jokes, some I no longer have the patterns to, and some were not really good enough to share, but I have a couple to show you. The first is an old-fashioned desktop computer:
I have the pattern available as a jpg should you want to make one yourself. There are no markings for the solid-color regions; the backstitching and keyboard keys are shown, and the rest is filling in appropriate regions. I wrote a personal message on the screen in backstitch; you can make your message more or less subtle by varying the color contrast. All color numbers are DMC, and of course the selections should be adjusted to your taste.
The one I have to share that I am more proud of, however, is the following.
The camera and ticket may be stitched together or separately; the pattern specifies DMC color numbers, but you merely need black and dark yellow of some flavor.
