These are a total idea steal from This Hand Painted Home – so if you actually want to buy the pro versions of these, check out their Etsy page. To discover how you can make some slightly less pro versions, read on!
So, I saw these on Instagram, and was inspired to try them out as a Christmas project for my friends at choir (shameless plug to check out Singularity West London Voices on Facebook if you’re chorally inclined). And whilst not quite as polished as the originals, they look really pretty!
Note – whilst this isn’t tricky, there is a lot of drying and waiting to do, so allow a bit of time to make these!
What you need:
- Wooden embroidery hoops – 10cm or 12cm work well (mine came from John Lewis’ haberdashery section)
- Printed sheet music for your favourite carols (normal paper is fine)
- Card – I used Hobbycraft Kraft Card
- Decoupage paper or paint (optional) to decorate the back of the card
- Teabags (as I’m married to a Yorkshireman, I’ll advocate for Yorkshire Gold. It makes no difference to the paper-staining.)
- Paint for the hoops – I already had some gold leaf paint, so I used this. Mine was C Roberson Liquid Metal from Cass Art
- Decoupage glue – I used Mod Podge Matt
- Artificial or real greenery (I took some small leaf stems off some flowers I had)
- String or ribbon
How it’s done:
- Paint your embroidery hoops on both sides – you’ll need to do this in two phases to let the first side dry before you do the second
- Cut out your sheet music and the card in a circle shape that’s marginally smaller than the outside of your hoop, but bigger than the inside ring
- Stick the sheet music circle onto the card circle
- Make a cup of tea, and take out the teabag (the tea is perfectly fit for drinking, hence the Yorkshire Gold recommendation). Squeeze out your teabag, and then dab it on your sheet music circle to create an ‘aged’ effect – you may remember doing this in primary school! Make sure the teabag isn’t too wet, or things could start getting soggy at this point
- Once your tea-stained music circle is dry, cover the front with a layer of Mod Podge, and press the embroidery hoop on top
- You may want to do a second round of Mod Podge on the front once dry. After this, you can turn your attentions to the back. If your card circle is nice and neat, you may want to leave as is – if so, just cover this in Mod Podge and let dry. Mine was not, so I made another (better) circle in decoupage paper, and stuck this on top before sealing with the glue. You could also use paint if you prefer
- While you’re waiting for this all to dry (I told you there was a lot of drying), you can prepare your leaves. If they’re artificial, skip this step – but if they’re real, just give them a coat of Mod Podge to seal them
- After everything’s dry, glue the leaves to the top of the ring, so that they fan out over the sides
- Then, take your string and tie it in a loop (big enough to hang) with c.10cm left hanging down on each side. If your embroidery hoop has something to attach to at the top, thread it through this). Tie the loose ends into a bow, and trim as needed. If you didn’t already loop the string through the hoop, just glue it on, with the ribbon covering the start of the greenery stems
And (after a final stint of drying), you’re done! There’s lots of scope to customise these to your own taste – different paint, quotes instead of sheet music, or other decorations on top – so let your creative side run wild. Or, just copy somebody else like I did.
Good luck, and send me any pictures if you try it yourself (I might just copy those too!)
Craft it like Katie 