With the festive season around the corner, this DIY String Art project will make the perfect homemade gift for a friend, family member or even your child’s teacher. You will have to be a bit more hands on with the little ones especially with the part requiring the use of hammer and nails.
What you will need:
- Wooden panel
- Assorted nails
- String or wool
- Acrylic paint
- Paint brush
- Computer and printer (if you do not have a printer you can simply draw the image on a piece of paper and cut it out)
- 1. Paint the wooden board with the acrylic paint and set it aside to dry. While it is drying, your child can select or draw the image that they would like to use. Image ideas: hearts, flowers, stars or even the first letter of a person’s name.
- 2. Once the board has completely dried, place the cut-out image on to the board, making sure it is in the right place, centered and straight. To hold the paper in place, add a nail on either side of the image, making sure you go through the paper. This will hold it in place while you hammer in the rest of the nails. You don’t want to hammer it too far down because you will need room for the wool/string to loop around multiple times.
- 3. Using a pencil, make markings around the image to mark where the nails should be placed. Be sure to leave at least 1cm between each marking. To avoid any injuries with younger children we recommend you could do this part yourself!
- 4. Once all the nails are in place, and you are happy with the layout – remove the paper from the board.
- 5. Let your child choose the colour of string or wool they would like to use. Start by tying a knot around any hook and weaving around the outside nails, creating a Now let your kids go wild, weaving and winding in any direction and using as many different colours as they like.
- 6. When your child is done, tie a knot around any nail of your choice and cut off the string.
