Gaming Cross Stitch Trading Cards by Lord Libidan

Title: LLTC – The Lord Libidan Cross Stitch Trading Cards
Date Completed: August 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Inspired By: StitchBit
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Video Games: Dig Dug, Time Pilot, Spy Hunter, Q*bert & Fire N Ice

Sometimes, a cross stitch idea comes along through great inspiration, but sometimes it’s plain copying!
I’ve long been a fan of the work of StitchBit, and when I started seeing my feed filled with awesome cross stitch trading cards, I just knew I had to do something similar.

The idea is incredibly simple: a cross stitch in the style of a trading card from the US. StitchBit made a whole series of these, and frankly, they’re great, but most feature cross stitched sports games (which makes sense considering it’s a cross stitch trading card!).
However, he did sneak in a few non-sport gaming ones, too.

It’s these gaming ones that sparked my imagination. I loved the idea that he took a moment in time when playing the game and made a collection out of it.
However, I had a few ideas of my own, too.

The first idea was to make each a styled screenshot. By that, I mean a screenshot that has been placed to make it look action-oriented, rather than just a plain screenshot.
And to make mine different from theirs, I wanted to add the name of the game in there too, similar to how a Pokémon card would look.

Title: LLTC-001 Dig Dug Cross Stitch Trading Card
Date Completed: June 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Colors: 9
Video Game: Dig Dug

Fans of mine probably know by now that I’m a MASSIVE fan of Dig Dug. From my recent Dig Dug arcade cabinet cross stitch to a miniature Dig Dug screenshot, the soils of dig dug, a Dig Dug charity quilt square, and even my very first custom made cross stitch pattern, so of course I wanted my first trading card to be of Dig Dug! But the design was a little harder to work out.

If you weren’t aware, there were actually Dig Dug trading cards at one point, and they featured mostly yellow (to match the cabinet), and Dig Dug was always in an action shot. I played around with this idea a few times before settling on Dig Dug mid ‘pump’, which is a sprite rarely seen, bursting open one of the dragons (Fygars). And to add a bit of visual interest, added a Pooka in there too!

Title: LLTC-002 Time Pilot Cross Stitch Trading Card
Date Completed: July 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Colors: 14
Video Game: Time Pilot

Time Pilot only recently came to my attention when I went to a local arcade and found a cabinet, but I’ve been obsessed ever since. As a result, I decided to stitch this game up as my second trading card.
I have cross stitched Time Pilot before, but I focused on the ships themselves, so this time I wanted to show an in-game shot.
This had its own series of challenges considering the space constraints of the trading card, but by picking a slightly unusual angle for the player’s ship, and the oldest biplane from the game, I think I did a reasonable job, even if there is a lot of background in this one!

Title: LLTC-003 Q*bert Cross Stitch Trading Card
Date Completed: July 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Colours: 10
Video Game: Q*bert

Despite being the third card in the series, the theme for this one took me a long time to nail down. I initially played around with a lot of designs that relied on black thread cross stitch on black aida, which I’m always keen to avoid!
And so I tried to come up with the most colorful game I could think of. And it came to me, Q*bert.

A very colorful game, with a fuzzy character that reminds me of The Simpsons’ Springfield Atoms mascot; Capital City Goofball. I think this worked well with the gaming and sport mix, so I came up with a pattern, and of course, I had to include his swear!
It actually really reminds me of StitchBits’s Solstice cross stitch trading card.

Title: LLTC-004 Spy Hunter Cross Stitch Trading Card
Date Completed: July 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Colours: 13
Video Game: Spy Hunter

For my fourth cross stitch trading card, I wanted to do something that would fit into StitchBit’s Byte series, and there was one in particular that screamed out at me: Spy Hunter.
For those who don’t know, in this game, you play as a car that shoots at other cars that want to drive you off the road for points. I always found it a great game, but the “spy car” you play as always reminded me of a rally car.
So, to bridge the gap between sports and games, I always thought StitchBit would find Sky Hunter a great fit! But now it’s mine! 😀

Title: LLTC-005 Fire N Ice Cross Stitch Trading Card
Date Completed: August 2025
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Black
Colours: 9
Video Game: Fire N Ice / Solomon’s Key II

The only trading card not to be an arcade game is Fire N Ice, which is one of my all-time favorite games, even if the last time I cross stitched Fire N Ice was 2010, some 15 years ago!
I really wanted to represent a game that would fit into the arcade vibe, but still featuring the next generation of games I really loved. So, considering I hadn’t stitched it in such a long time, I decided to make a quick Fire N Ice design, showing Dana (the wizard) falling in what I always thought was a funny thing for an 8-bit game to do!

For those interested in StitchBit’s cross stitch trading cards, you can pick a few of them up on his Etsy store.

Happy stitching,
Lord Libidan