DIY String Art ~ Fun & Easy Craft ~Nifty Thrifty DIYer

Have you ever tried DIY String Art before? This is such a super fun and very easy craft! It’s perfect for a weekend craft project with the kids. I don’t know about you, but with technology taking over the world, I have to purposely ‘encourage’ my children to do fun things together……or they’ll be stuck in front of their devices all weekend spiraling down the black hole of YouTube, or Fortnite…..or *AHEM….Pinterest! Yup…..I’ll admit it…..I’m a Pintrest junkie!

Anyway, while perusing through my Pinterest feed, I’ve admired so many beautiful string art projects. I’ve even seen a few lovely pieces in our local Mercantile store. With Valentines day right around the corner, I was inspired to try my own string art project. I thought I’d start with a simple heart, and my daughter chose to make a star for her bedroom, since her middle name is Star!

Let’s get started!

What You Need:

block of scrap wood
stain
chalk paint
putty knife (I used plastic)
nails with large head
embroidery thread, or any string
print out of design (heart print out here)

What To Do:

STEP 1

Prep Your Wood

Stain or paint your wood whatever color you want. I stained mine with Minwax stain in Dark Walnut, my favorite stain color ever! Since I was doing a rich red heart, I decided to paint on top of the stain, then distress it to give it a rustic look.

STEP 2

Distress The Wood

To distress simply pour a bit of white paint on the block of wood, then with a plastic spatula, spread out the paint and let it dry.

STEP 3

Sand

Once the paint is dry, use medium grit sandpaper and sand various spots of paint so the dark stain shows through. I usually rough up along the edges & sides the most and just a few spots in the middle to give it a rustic look.

STEP 4

Secure Pattern & Nails to the Wood

Now that the wood is prepared, the nails can be hammered in place. I printed a basic heart shape from Canva, measured and marked 1/2″ spaces as a guideline for the nails.

Lay the design on your block of wood, tape it in place, then nail your first four nails on all sides of your design to anchor it in place.

Continue with the rest of the nails. I left about 3/4″ of the nail above the wood. 1/2″ above would work fine as well.

STEP 5

Remove Paper Pattern

Now you can simply remove the paper from the wood. I actually slipped the point of a knife under the paper to guide it up. The paper easily slipped up the nails and was easy to rip off. When my daughter did hers, she randomly ripped the paper and I had little bits left around the bottom of the nails to clean up. Easing the paper up with a pointy knife was much better.