DIY fabric embroidery hoops!

here's another fun and easy project that I made for our nursery that I thought I'd share, I kept seeing these pop up on pinterest in nursery pins and I loved the look and though they seemed easy enough. well, I was right - it was easy as could be and I made four fabric embroidery hoop wall hangings for the nursery wall [now I just need to hang them up, ha].

items needed:

embroidery hoop(s)

fabric scraps [I got a set of five different fabric square that coordinated from our local fabric store]

scissors

hot glue gun & glue

[also thread/string needle if you want to add stitching or sew fabric shapes on]

step 1: iron your fabric, clearly I didn't do a great job but it's a lot better than the starting product!

step 2: loosen the embroidery hoop and put fabric around smaller hoop and tighten back up - make sure to pull the fabric nice and tight so it's taut and there is no slack. then cut out the fabric so you have a enough of a border to be able to glue down.

step 3: using a hot glue gun, glue down the fabric edges to the embroidery hoop!

that's pretty much it for the basics - now there are plenty of ways you can personalize these even more - you can paint the wooden hoops (clearly before you put the fabric in - and let it dry first), or sew pieces of fabric in different shapes, etc. I decided to stitch a few little patterns/shapes into the fabric in other bright colors that I wanted to incorporate so I got some tapestry needles, embroidery thread and a spool of sparkly thread. I then just free-handed some patterns into the hoops - next time I think I'll try sewing on other shapes  and/or putting rosettes on!

so there you have it a quick, easy and fun weekend project! 

now onto the biggest task of all... 

deciding where to hang them! 

DIY Nursery Bookcase!

so we were going to go out and buy a bright colored bookcase for baby j's nursery but then DJ's parents had an old one they were going to give to goodwill/recycle - so we decided to fix their old one up instead as a fun weekend project!  I love the way it turned out and as promised, here are the DIY instructions for "up-cycling" an old bookcase for a nursery - or any type of room with different color paint and patterned paper.

Supplies Needed:

• Sandpaper 
• Primer 
• Paint
• Paint brush(es)
• Mod Podge
• Scrapbook paper 
• Paper cutter [not necessary but makes cutting squares out easier if you want to tile paper]

Step 1: Sand down the bookcase and shelves

Step 2: Spray down with primer - the Kilz kind the Home Depot man recommended was awesome, though it's definitely some strong stuff so if you're preggo and asthmatic like I am - you should probably have a special helper do it for you [thanks DJ]. Let the Kilz dry for an hour before moving on to Step 3.

Step 3: Paint the bookcase and shelves. Pretty self explanatory. :)

Step 4: While the paint dries, prep your scrapbook paper. We measured the bookcase interior and realized that four inch squares would fit best across the width of the bookcase. I got the papercutter out and cut our 12x12 scrapbook paper out into 4x4 squares. Clearly, you could do this by hand - or use the larger squares, a large sheet of fabric, or just paint a different color. Personally, I loved the tiled look that the smaller squares created.

Step 5: Mod Podge the back of the bookcase and the back of the paper, then cover the paper with mod podge [due to sticky fingers and lack of special helpers I did not get any pictures of this part of the process, oops].

Step 6: Put one more coat of mod podge over the paper and make sure that all pieces of paper are smoothed out. Let dry completely before putting shelves back in.

Step 7: Put the shelves back in and enjoy! We had to sand-down the shelves and touch-up a few spots after putting the shelves back in due to them being an "exact fit" before. Just be prepared to do this too!

isn't it cute?

such an easy and inexpensive way to personalize a bookcase to your needs!

can't wait to fill it with books and goodies for our sweet baby girl!