Well well, would you just look at me! Here I am being all SORTS of crafty and actually completing a Nail and String art project from my Do It Myself Pinterest board! I am SO proud of myself....
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This is my ideal location for this particular craft, if only the house came along with completing the project
(Sadly, this is not my home, but if you want to look at more of it click here.) |
As many of you may already know, Colorado is the lovely shape of a rectangle..... QUITE unrecognizable if I do say so myself. Therefore; the idea of making a "Nail and String" art in the shape of Colorado is just not an option... God forbid people confuse my perfect state of CO for Wyoming or somewhere lame like that.
Unfortunately for me (and my home decor), but fortunately for my darling man and his sweet family who are all from Minnesota, I made this beautiful piece of art out of their recognizable state shape and "hearted" in the (general) area of Eden Prairie, where they reside. Another great fortune for them, they received this masterpiece as a host/hostess gift for having me to their cabin in Nisswa at Gull Lake this summer for the 4th (we go hard).
What's that? You say Wow, Frances is so talented and I'd really like to make one of these with her help. Well it is your lucky day after-all, I will walk you through it.
Materials Needed:
2-3 packs of 1 inch long, thin nails (about 20 in a pack, I chose brass colored) (Home Depot)
lace crochet type string (you choose the color) (Michael's/Hobby Lobby)
a hammer
professional grade food dye (Michael's/Hobby Lobby)
a piece of wood (Home Depot makes 1-2 cuts for free... look in their scrap wood pile!)
a printer
tape
large paint brush
1. I went to ReSource to find a piece of wood to use and very sweetly asked the gentlemen at Home Depot to cut it for me to 12x15 inches. I also bought my nails here... in little plastic packets of about 20, i just chose the prettiest gold ones which were about $2.
2. I used my professional grade food dye (this is EXTREMELY potent stuff! $1 at craft store for 2 ounces) to dye my wood! This was you don't have to deal with gross chemical smells of paint or wood stain and it's soooo much cheaper/less scary. I used a Q-tip to swab a fingernail size amount into about an ounce of water and painted in onto my wood slab. If it goes on too dark, simply use more water on your brush to tone it down and vise-versa. Let Dry.
3. I printed out the shape of Minnesota and taped in on my board and started hammering! (Try to cut inside the state line so that you are nailing on the edge of the paper vs right through the paper) Place each nail about 1/2 cm apart from each other for straight lines. For the jagged weird lines (like on the right and top side of the state of MN) I placed nails in kind of a zig-zag pattern to get the right look... Follow me?
4. After completing the border, I pulled up the paper (and found that there were a million little pieces stuck around every nail.. *Note to self: don't nail directly into paper, nail on edge.) I then made the heart shape with nails, trying to use as many as I could because I knew I would have more border nails than heard nails and string would overlap and get cluttered on heart.
5. I tied the string onto the top corner and started looping one nail on border to one nail in heart.... on and on and on and on and on and on and on. One time my string broke so I just tied a new piece to the end and hide in under a crowded string area....
Once you are done stringing... you are pretty much done with the project WHOOP WHOOP! and Phew, that was hard crafting work! Pat yourself on the back, instagram, show everyone in close proximity to you, text a pic to your mom, and clean up your mess.
You don't get it? Or you want me to make you one? I completely understand, you are not craft-talented and I'm not judging you, contact me!
Thanks for reading my ranting, raving, and rambling on! Smoooooooches!
