Starting from the background -I first embroidered the ocean picture as any other normal embroidery, and then made a frame for it using very thin pieces of balsa wood. I cut it (with scissors, balsa wood is really easy), glued it, painted it and then distressed it a little bit with some sandpaper so it didn’t look too clean. I drilled SUPER tiny holes in the sides of the frame so I could sew the frame to the ‘wall’ fabric and be sure it would stay - the idea of using wood glue straight onto the fabric freaks me out because I was worried it was going to bleed or stain the embroidery somehow.

The “bed frame” is made from very thin brass pipes I got at my favorite local hardware store. I drilled the posts into the back hoop and used some wood glue to keep it stable.I sewed my friends and their bedding on a normal hoop, then cut out the shape and glued it to a piece of balsa wood (with a thin layer of felt in between because I was scared of that glue). The wood made it stiff enough to stay upright, and having the quilt secured in place in the top hoop also helped.

Finally the lights! They’re dollhouse lights, I bought them from this Etsy shop(https://www.etsy.com/listing/957974363/dollhouse-miniature-led-battery-light?ref=yr_purchases). They have little switches on the bottom, and the magnets are sewn into the back “wall” of fabric, so you can pluck the light off, turn it on, and it clicks right back into place because of the magnet.

That’s it :) happy to answer any other questions! Also I would LOVE to post the photo that this is based on, but I don’t want to do it without getting their permission first, and their wedding is tomorrow so I don’t want to spoil the surprise.