Hello! For those of you who are new here, my name is Jessica and I love making crafts and decorating my home (find out more about me here). Whenever I can do these projects on a small budget, it’s even better! A few weeks ago my friend Lindsey from L. Devries Designs and I hosted a string art craft night at my house for our church lady friends. We had a group of 20 ladies hammering and crafting away at these Christmas string art projects. It was great! I finally finished mine this week, and I’m here to show you how you can make your own.

 

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1. Cut a piece of wood and lightly sand it

I started with a piece of rough cut pine that I got from Home Depot. I cut a piece using my chop saw, and the dimensions I used were 10″ by 12″, by 1″ thick. Next I used my palm sander using 80 grit paper to lightly sand it. I also rounded all the corners, and got rid of any splinters that were sticking out.

2. Stain or paint your wood

I  chose to stain my wood with Minwax Weathered Oak wood stain.  This is a very light grey stain, but it’s my favorite lately. If you have time, you can let the stain dry then do white chalk paint over top. Once the paint is dry you can sand the corners to give it a distressed look.

3. Find a string art template

For my Christmas string art, I decided to go with some simple words of “Peace on Earth”. You can look online for all kinds of images or ideas. I like to use Canva to look for images and make my word designs.

4. Hammer in the nails

Once you’ve chosen a template, tape it in place on your board. Then start hammering in your nails. I used 1 1/4″ finishing nails, and hammered them in about 3/4 of an inch.  You’ll need more nails around curved parts, and less nails along the straight edges. Once you have all the nails in you can rip off the paper template.

5. Start stringing

I have to admit, this white string was the third string I tried that I finally liked the look of it. The first string I tried I was too thin. So then I tried a really fluffy yarn, but that was too thick. Then I landed on this white cotton yarn and it was juuuust right.

Start off each letter by doing a knot on one string and add a dab of crazy glue. I went around the edges of each letter, then started filling each letter in. Then I went around the outside a few more times, and just filled in the whole letter until I liked the look of it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s also a good idea to do a drop or two of crazy glue every now and then so the string doesn’t all unravel off the nails.

Budget friendly Christmas string art

I don’t do a whole lot of Christmas decorating, but I like to add a few new pieces every year. This is a great way to use up some scrap wood and yarn you might have lying around. This is also a fun Christmas craft you can do with kids, or for a fun night out with some ladies!