Embroidery Hoop Earring Holder!

I've seen lots of picture frame lace earring holders lately.  They are really cute, but I got it into my head that it would be equally as cute using an embroidery hoop instead of a picture frame!  I like to try things for myself, but I figure if someone else has already ironed out the kinks (or at least experienced the kinks) it makes it easier for me in the long run, so I searched around to see if anyone else had tried this already and lo and behold - someone had! So cute right?  I wanted mine to be a little less punky and a little more... shabby chic? (I actually don't know what defines shabby chic by the way), so I decided to leave out the paint and dye. 

I was lucky enough to find a nice remnant of lace at Hobby Lobby a few days after this idea popped into my head.  Score!  Plenty for lots and lots and lots of earring holders!

Lovely lovely lacey lace!

I also had an old Christmas cross stitch kit that had an embroidery hoop included.  I wasn't really planning on making the stitchery any time soon, so I repurposed the hoop for my new project!  Sorry Christmas fans... This will have to wait for another day.

I wasn't planning on welcoming anyone this Christmas anyway...

I estimated the amount of lace I would need just by eyeballing it.  I cut a sort of square a few inches bigger than the hoop on all sides.

Then I stretched the lace as tightly as I could in the hoop.

Then I realized that it would be much easier to see these pictures if I wasn't working on my white cutting board.  Duh!  I put it on my big scrap of cork board to take photos, which came in handy a few minutes later

I used Tacky Glue all around the edge of the hoop to hold the lace in place, and pinned the lace down to the cork board so that the lace laid flat on the hoop while it was drying.

Suggestion: The pins will hold the lace down better if you put it through the "designy" parts of the lace instead of the "holey" part

Then I just let the thing dry!

All Dry!!!

Then all that's left to do is trim the excess lace from the edges of the hoop.  Try to get as close as you can to the edge.  I found that my embroidery scissors were extremely helpful for this.  And appropriate since it's an embroidery hoop, don't you think?

All that was left was to get a plate stand from the dollar store. Now you can oooh and ahhh at my magnificent earring collection!  I know you're jealous ;)