After having so much fun making my hand embroidery Christmas cards, I knew I needed to include even more hand embroidery to blogmas.

Even though I have been sewing since I was a child, I have never made embroidery hoop art. After finishing these festive three, I am obsessed! I know 100% I'm going to be experimenting with different stitches, fabrics, hoop shapes, and everything else possible in the new year. I'll, of course, keep you updated on social media.

Now, these designs have all been inspired by my advent calendar, and also my Christmas wallpapers, which was actually an accident.

To make your hoop art, just download and print the template. I have included two sizes, but you can print them as big or small as you like depending on the size of your hoop of course. Iron your fabric and pin the template to the back and trace. Ideally, use a vanishing fabric pen, if you don't have one of those, use a thin-nibbed pen in the colour of your fabric. You could even draw it freehand, but my talents don't stretch that far. Place your fabric between the hoop, tighten and begin to sew. With such simple shapes, you can really experiment with the hand embroidery technique you use. You can find loads of tutorials online. In case you want to use the same technique, or you're just interested to know what I've used, I'm going to talk a little about my designs.

Despite only using very simple hand embroidery techniques, the Christmas Lights hoop is my favourite. I love the tangled wire; definitely inspired by a real-life situation. I started off sewing the wire using a split stitch. This creates a very heavy line, perfect for wiring. For the light bulbs, I used a satin stitch, which is a basic stitch for filling. I filled in the bulb and outline using a straight stitch beforehand, allowing the satin stitch to have a bit of texture, compared to the rest of the embroidery. I love the colour combination, I love how simple it is, I just love it.

How adorable are these mittens? They look like they've been knitted, right? Wrong! While I was researching different stitches, I found one that looked exactly like knitting so I knew I had to use it. The stitch is called a trellis stitch, and it has a variety of styles. I have never been a great knitter, (another thing I want to start in the new year), but this stitch is so easy to get the hang of, even for beginners. I actually found it very therapeutic. You can create all sorts of "knitted" embroidery hoops; a Christmas jumper, scarf, hat. I used a smaller hoop for my embroidery, so I knew not to go over the top, but you could sew beads into the knit, or mix colours, or add a glitter thread. It's honestly like creating a little prototype of your ideal knits.

For my final hoop, I went a little crazy. I basically used all the techniques I found and loved in one design. I didn't want them to go to waste. Each bauble has a range of completely different stitches. The left bauble has a scroll stitch outline and is filled in with french knots, the middle bauble has a bead stitch/moti tanka outline and is filled in with sheaf stitches, and the bauble on the right has a stem stitch outline, and is filled in with woven stitch, which has a cross stitch at every point. I added a glitter thread to finish the baubles, and used a straight and split stitch. For the lettering, I used a Hungarian braided chain stitch, which has now become my favourite stitch, (yes, I've got to that stage). It looks so decorative and beautiful, and I have even used it in another diy coming up later this week.

I'm a complete newbie with hand embroidery techniques like these, but with a little practice, I've become really confident. Depending on the feedback I get, I might create more embroidery designs to share with you all. I always like to keep my hands busy, and these are the perfect hobby. Let me know in the comments below if you embroider, I want to know all about it! If you decide to make one of these, please let me know, I'd love to see what you create.