Baby Name with Embroidery Hoops

It's A Girl!

We're expecting a little daughter next March!

I'm past the half way- 20 week mark and in the feeling good stage. 

This fall has been busy with the pregnancy sick/ fatigue coma, then my husband working 4 hours away for 2 months while my son and I lived between home and the aparment, and in the middle of all that I had to cram all my continuing education in last minute to stay certified in Radiology.  So for these reasons, I've had weeks with no posts or projects these last few months. 

But all the chaos is over, I'm getting my energy back from being in the second trimester now and our baby is healthy and doing well, and we're finally at home for a long period of time.

I'm really excited to have a girl, and have a few different projects planned for her, but this was the first.

Her name for her room. 
Or her corner of the room.

Both kids will be sharing a room, and right now it's a boy's room with animal/ giraffe themed.  She will get a corner, and so I've been thinking of things that are feminine, but still work with the boy stuff already in place. 
It's worked well because I don't like pink.

I think I over-pinked my self as a little girl.  I was obsessed with pink.

But now as an adult, it is one of my least favorite colors.  I won't say I hate pink, but I'm not thinking pink at all now that I know this baby is female.

So my color scheme for the girl corner of the room is red and white, with turquoise accent.  There is red and blue throughout the room, and so I thought it would tie in the whole room somewhat.  But still have a feminine side for the girl.

We're naming her Ellaria, it's Italian and my husband and I have really liked that name for years. We already call her Ellie for a shorter nick name.


On to the project.
INSPIRATION:

My cousin, Stephanie and her art work.  She uses embroidery hoops a lot in her art, with both painting and sewing/ embroidering on them.  Here's her latest.

And my crafty friend, Miranda.  She has this post with lots of awesome embroidery ideas, and I saw a peek of a baby name set she was making.  So much credit for this idea and baby names goes to her.

Baby Name with Embroidery Hoops

Supplies:

-embroidery hoops one for each letter of the name

-spray paint

-canvas fabric

-Elmer's glue

-hot glue

-1x2  wood strip

-picture hangers

-craft paint

1. Embroidery Hoops

I found a sack of 9 embroidery hoops for $1.99 at the thrift store.  Because my daughter's name is longer, I was looking for smaller embroidery hoops, these are 8" hoops.  You can obviously buy hoops at the craft store, but I'd check your thrift stores.  There always seems to be cheap hoops in different sizes usually.

2. Paint Hoops

I took out the center ring of all my hoops and just spray painted the raw wood with red spray paint.  I did 2 coats for even coverage.

3. Cover with Canvas

I had white 100% cotton duck canvas I cut into squares and stretched into the hoops.

Next I took Elmer's glue and glued the fabric to the inner wood ring.  After the glue dried, I trimmed off the extra canvas.

4. Arrange Hoops on 1x2

I had decided to paint her name in cursive, connecting each letter to the next hoop.  So I planned the position of the hoops according to each letter, where they would need to connect.

Next, using hot glue, I attached the back row of hoops to the piece of 1x2.  Then I glued the top row of hoops onto the frames of the bottom row. 

I tried to glue the bottom row so their metal hardware twisty things were hidden behind the top row, looking just like round disks.  The 3 top row hoops are obviously showing their hardware.

5. Sketch on Letters with Disappearing Ink

I actually had to buy a dissapearing ink pen for this project, because I knew I couldn't iron or wash this so tailor's chalk was out.  I thought about pencil, but knew I would need to erase and so got the fabric pen.

6. Paint the Lettering

I just used regular acrylic craft paint. 

I added a few turqoise dots to each hoop with the back of the paint brush.

7. Attach picture hangers to wood strip

I just buy the saw tooth cheap ones and hammered two on, 12" apart.

FINISHED!

We're excited for this little girl and grateful she's healthy!

More projects to come for both her and the house...I'm trying to put off Christmas as long as I can.  Once Halloween is over, it's all I can do to keep myself from putting the tree up.