String Art Initials -- Easy Craft Idea

Hi guys!  As you may know, for the past several summers I have had the extreme privilege of heading up the craft cabin at our church's camp for teenage girls. {We call it Girl's Camp.}  I have tons of fun each year coming up with cool new quick & simple craft projects to teach the girls.  This year one of the projects I have planned are these fun String Art Initial plaques.  I can't wait to see how each girl will put her own unique spin on it!! 

Supplies:

wooden plaque in your desired size
3/4" x 18 gauge wire nails
hammer
paint
embroidery floss
scrapbook paper
glue gun

Step 1:  Begin by sanding and painting a wood plaque your desired background color.  I picked up this approx. 5x7 inch wood plaque at Walmart for 97 cents.  A bigger one would be a cool addition to a gallery wall -- they come in all shapes and sizes at craft stores.  For camp I bought some 1x6 pine boards and cut them down to 7" pieces. 

I painted mine plain 'ole white, but I think it would be cool to paint wide stripes or a bright, funky color.

Step 2:  Create a template for your initial.  I printed mine out from the computer and taped it to the wood.  If you are so inclined, you could freehand a design lightly in pencil or chalk directly on the wood. 

Step 3:  Outline your letter shape with small nails as pictured above.  Tap a nail into the wood about every 1/2 inch or so, making sure to get the insides of your letters, too.

Gently remove the paper template or erase your pencil lines.  You want to try and get the nails as straight as possible, but you can see mine are pretty wonky and it turned out fine.

Step 4:  Beginning at one "end" of the letter, tie a piece of embroidery floss onto a nail and start wrapping it around the nails in a random pattern to "fill in" the letter.  The less you think about it, and the more random it is, the better.  If you end up not liking how an area looks, simply unwrap the string and try again.

Step 5:  Once you are satisfied with your string art, tie off the end of the string on another nail and trim all the ends short.

Step 6:  Add a few embellishments.  This is optional, but I thought it added a little something special.  I used coordinating scrapbook papers to make a few rolled paper rosettes and leaves and hot glued them onto the plaque.  If you have never made rolled paper flowers before, this is a great tutorial at By Stephanie Lynn -- her projects are always amazing!

Hot glue a loop of ribbon to the back of the plaque for hanging and you're finished!

I LOVE how it turned out and it really was super easy.  I finished the whole thing in about 20 minutes.  With just a little help, kids of all ages could create their very own string art.  I'm planning on taking the supplies up to the cabin next week for all the cousins to do together one afternoon.  {They'll be my guinnea pigs to see how well it will work at Girl's Camp!}  I'll add some photos after our trip to show you some of the variety you can come up with.

Happy summer, friends!

Amy