for baby jack

UPDATE: as of 3:35 sunday 03.21 baby jack is here! Can't wait for them to come home so we can meet our new little neighbor!!

our sweet neighbors are expecting their second child. baby jack was actually due almost a week ago and his poor mama is anxiously awaiting his arrival into the world! i've had a baby blanket in the works for him for a while now, but i saw this idea online a few weeks ago and really wanted to try it. we found out that they're using orange for the little man so i set to work last night!

here's everything you'll need:

various papers in the colors of choice, 3 different sized embroidery hoops (inner hoop only), 2 size circle punches, fishing line, ribbon, and not pictured but essential to this process was my sticker maker(glue stick would also work just fine- i love any excuse to turn things into stickers!)

i started by punching out circles from many different orange papers. i used the 1" circle punch for most of the project and probably punched out 150 circles.

for each pattern i made sure i had an even number so that each circle had a matching partner. i ran half the circles from each pattern through the sticker maker and then set to work on the hoops.

i used a 5", 6" and 7" hoop and just over 2 feet of fishing line for each strand. the 5" hoop had 4 strands of line, the 6" had 5 and the 7" had 6 strands. 

funny thing about this fishing line: i stole it out of my dad's tool chest about 15 years ago when i first started making jewelry. at that time my jewelry conisted of seed beads turned into daisies and made into bracelets and chokers. i've come a long way! but i've never returned the fishing line and it has been used for many many projects over the years.

i started with the smallest embroidery hoop and tied on the 4 pieces of fishing line. then i started attaching circles all the way down . i used two matching circles (one sticker-ed & one not) and glued the fishing line down the middle of the pair.  i did this all the way down each line, placing the circles about 4 inches apart (i actually used a small pair of scissors to measure the space). at the top- closest to the hoop i made sure to get both ends of fishing line stuck inside the circles:

the two bigger hoops had larger circles at the bottom of each line, but otherwise the process stayed the same all the way around each of the three hoops. it didn't take too long- the length of a movie. we watched defiance and this gave me something to look at during the violence. good movie though. things went along smoothly until it was time to attach the hoops to one another. i wasn't wild about tying them all with short pieces of ribbon like in the tutorials i've seen so i tried something new. unfortunately it didn't go as planned the first 3 or 4 times and my poor (very patient) husband was left holding the hoops and shaking his head. eventually i figured out a way to get the hoops to hang (mostly) level and only use 2 pieces of ribbon. 

bear with me as i try to describe this (and keep looking at the photo!) it wasn't easy to do and definitely requires a second pair of hands to hold the hoops! i cut two lengths of ribbon, probably about 4 1/2 feet long and started with the smallest hoop. i wrapped the ribbon once around the hoop then tied a knot. same thing on the opposite side of the small hoop. then i took one ribbon from each knot and repeated the process on the second hoop. so it creates this diamond shape and a little more stability. i fear this isn't making any sense, but it didn't really make sense while i was doing it! same thing for the large hoop- split the ribbons from the medium hoop and use them to tie around the largest hoop. then you're left with four pieces of ribbon to tie into a pretty bow at the top.

finished product: a very cute, personalized and inexpensive baby gift that only took a few hours. now if only baby jack would make his arrival!