nails + string = AWESOMENESS!

i have let my creative side flourish a bit during this nursery preparation! you have already seen the results of my sewing (well some of it anyways...i promise you will see it all eventually).  the next project i'm going to show you is sort of a nod to the wooden letters everyone is doing in nurseries these days.  I just couldn't bring myself to spell out her name in wood letters hung by cute ribbons **while there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with this, it just didn't have the right feel for me**; however I did want to have her name or initials somewhere in the room.  after tossing around a couple of ideas, i settled on doing a string art project.  this probably isn't new to anyone, it is much like a "trace the dots" kinda thing...make dots with nails, fill in with string! I'll quickly take you through the process, if you aren't interested in my labor just scroll to the bottom to find the finished product. 

First i bought a piece of sanded (paint/stain ready) wood (i think it is about 2.5'x4').  Then Chuck stained and polyurethaned it for me (i don't have pictures of this part...i think it is pretty straight forward).  Then it sat in our basement for 2 weeks waiting on me to get motivated.  finally, i was ready.  i used adobe illustrator to type out the name and then convert the outline to a dotted line (i ended up with a dot every 0.75").  here is my font


I went with the one on the top

Once I sized it correctly and changed the outline, i printed it out, taped it to my stained wood and started putting nails on the dots (this took a while...and my hand started hurting from nailing).  during this phase I had three spectators (2 were critiquing my every move...chuck and dad, and one was sucking on that pink bunny)

during the nailing process

finished nailing! considering leaving it just like this!

the next step (while the most time consuming) is probably the easiest and most straight forward.  use your chosen string and start filling in between the nails.  I chose to go around the outside edge once and then do the middle.  the picture below was taken after about 2 passes across the name (i probably ended up doing about 8 passes). 



i left the string at the ends of the nails, to give it more dimension...i know, i'm artsy!



finished product...where it still sits.

  i love it! i can't wait to hang it in the nursery.  obviously i'm going to have to secure it very well to the wall as we don't want this falling on anyone.  i'm glad i thought outside the box on the whole name art thing...