Have you seen the string art that’s been circling the craftosphere for awhile now? I’ve been meaning to make one for a long time and never got around to it, but when I started planning my daughters 9th birthday, I really wanted one for decoration. Plus, it would do double duty – party decor to room decor.
Now… for some reason, I thought these were done on a canvas. I didn’t bother to read any instructions or tutorials – how hard could it be? I thought. Well… when you put a nail in canvas, as you may have figured out by using your common sense, it has nothing to “grab” and it just slides in and out of the canvas. What a nightmare! I tried putting glue on the canvas, tape, you name it… it didn’t work. So what did I do? Yep… read some instructions. Let me tell you, I would have saved myself a ton of trouble if I did that first! Oh well, live and learn right?
If you want to make your own Baker’s Twine String Art, the process is simple (once you stop trying to nail into canvas) but I’ll be honest with you and admit it is a little tedious. Break out the Netflix and watch some How I Met Your Mother (or other guilty pleasure show) while you do it.
All you need is:
- a canvas
- plywood or mdf for the back
- linoneum nails
- baker’s twine
- a hammer
- scissors
To start, grab your canvas and wood. I decided to use what I had, and found these leftover pieces of MDF in my shed – I have absolutely no idea what they were from, but they worked! A single piece of plywood or something like that would probably be the easiest solution, but I went with what I had. I used a small dab of hot glue to hold the boards in place until the nails went in and then they were guaranteed to hold it in place.
Next, type up your name or word that you are creating in a word processing program or MS Publisher. I like Publisher because it will print larger than a sheet of paper and print in pieces that you can piece together. That allowed me to make a 16×20 canvas. I used the font Plateaux – and if you use MS Publisher, you can go into the font options and turn off the font fill and turn on the font outline, so you don’t waste ink on a huge print job. Here’s how it prints in Publisher:
Now, it’s just a matter of hammering in your nails. Place the template on your canvas and start hammering away.
I like to do a letter or two at a time – so hammer the nails, then string the twine, then move on to the next letter. Make sure to tear the template away as soon as you do that letter – the more nails, the tougher it is to tear out.
The stringing process is easy – simply tie a knot around one nail and string it back and forth between the nails until it looks full enough to you. I used my absolute favorite baker’s twine in the world – the We R Memory Keepers spools. I raved about this twine last month when I made the color your own bookmarks, and it was great to work with for this project too – again, no splits!
What do you think? I love the bright twine colors! We R really has the best bakers twine, trust me! And if you order some (or anything else at ShopWeR,com), you can save 20% with the code MARTHA.
Dawn says
So cute, Sarah! Creating the template to make it easier is so smart!
the cape on the corner says
wow, i love this! the colors are great.
b
Cindy says
I love this, I am going to make one for my grandchildren