Merlot (great username!),

Welcome!

It sounds like a wonderful plan!

My first suggestion actually doesn't involve the freePatternWizard. If you can find a cross stitch alphabet you like, either from a book or a site online, you could use plain graph paper to plot the words you want, then can figure out how many stitches you have and simply get the Aida cloth (or linen) in the size you need to make it 5x7 or 8x10. (I've done this many times myself and it's pretty easy to do! I also started cross stitching a LONG time ago, and that was back before anything more automated was available, so it was the only way to go.)

The reason my first suggestion isn't to use the freePatternWizard is this: it will be much more complex. In order to work with an alphabet through the freePatternWizard, you'd have to make your chosen words into an image (being sure to choose a font that doesn't have a bunch of thin lines, as they won't work well), then resize it in a graphics program to be sure 1 pixel = 1 stitch. Then you could run it through the freePatternWizard.

If you don't mind spending a little bit of extra time with an already plotted alphabet and some graph paper, though, that would be my personal choice.