Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 5 (More Artwork)

Have you ever heard of hoop art?  I hadn't until this year and became a little obsessed with the idea of using it SOMEWHERE in my new house.  When we first moved here to FL in April I purchased three different embroidery hoops at Michael's (or JoAnn's or AC Moore.... doesn't matter where, just that I got them) for probably $1.99-$3.99.  They are super inexpensive!  I remember seeing them at our local thrift store back in Washington too!  (Be on the lookout next time you're thrifting..... speaking of - does anyone in the Jacksonville area thrift?  Where should I go?)

Here's some examples I've come across on the internet - they can be elaborate:

source:  boogaboohomemade.blogspot.com

source:  http://epherielldesigns.com

Or they can be as simple as just the fabric in the frame:

source:  www.ohdeedoh.com

image via spotlight

Back to the point:  after a couple of months of having those embroidery hoops stare me down everytime I opened my crafting closet, I finally got around to making some hoop art of my own!  I used some of the leftover fabrics that my Mom & I used for the crib bumper (Part 3) and then some extra fabric I had purchased through Etsy to coordinate with the Riley Blake line.  From there I scrounged through my trims and buttons and 'scraps'.  It was REALLY easy to put these together thanks to a little time and a hot glue gun!

I used this main tutorial to get an idea of the best way to go about it: CJaneCreate Embroidery Hoop Tutorial.  It helped give me an idea of what to do first - stretch the fabric on the frame or start embellishing. Definitely stretch the fabric on first, then you can place your other items on where you'd like them.  I did the largest of my three hoops first - even did a little free-hand stitching to write out 'hello'!  Then I used a bunch of different antique doilies that I snagged from my Mom.  I didn't want to glue these down so that I could re-use them in the future so instead I used small stitches to place them on the fabric.