Sunday, March 26, 2017

Weeds or Wishes


It's a ways down here, but I promise, you will learn how you can do the above wall hanging. :)



Well, a few days last week were spent with a sick set of kiddos all battling stomach flu or bummer fevers.

The evenings seemed to pick up their spirits a bit until the next morning when long evenings of coughing and upset stomachs brought along morning blues and another round of sick days.

Though it was great for them, I am sure, to have a day off of school, I was struggling at home to make phone calls to get my store that I manage covered for the day so I could stay home and get my children feeling better.

Luckily for me, and to the absolute depths of my gratefulness, another manager was able to re-arrange her store to make it possible for her to come to my store and cover the shift I would be missing. I was very appreciative, but my seven year old was even more grateful. So as the day went on and she was feeling a little better... and a lot bored... be decided to make a gift for the manager that was kind enough to take over my shift for me.

So began our adventure into string art.

We hunted around the internet and landed on some bunny favorites for the Easter holiday coming up.

With some wood scraps and old wooden plaques I had at home, we started by planning the designs on the kids' plaques and the gift one.

The kids all chose bunnies for their shapes.  After painting their shapes onto the wood, they hammered nails into the edges of the of the designs. 




Then they tied the strings to the nails and wrapped them all around each of the nails. Some of the nails a few times. 




With a thank you note, my seven year old sent her peep string art off to my co-worker to thank her for the assistance of the day to take care of my kiddo's. :)

So with the kids all done, it was time for me to get my own project done.



So I used my wood piece and grabbed some paper to trace around the cup that I felt was going to be the right size circle. I traced around it and cut it out for a pattern. 


I then placed the circle at the center of the wood and nailed around 3/4 of the circle. I also found later that I needed a series of nails in an inner circle of the larger circle I made... sorry, I completely forgot to take a photo of it. :(



Next, I placed three nails the lower left  corner of the wood panel,and three groupings of five nails at the top right portion of the wood panel.


Starting with the green yarn, I ran long lengths from the bottom three nails back up to one nail I had chosen on the bottom "corner" section of my nail circle. Then beginning at the middle smaller circle, I tied the white yarn to one nail and worked back and forth, making sure I didn't create a pattern with the looping between the nails until a 3/4 "sun" shape was created. I tied off the string and cut the excess. than did the same with the five nails at the top.



Using foam stickers I had in my craft cabinet, I chose the letters needed to make the words I wanted on my panel


And traced around them to create the outline of the words I wanted. For this project it was "some see weeds... Others see wishes".


I then painted in the lettering and waited for it to all dry and hung it up on my wall! :)

If you would like to try this project, please send me photos when you are all done. 

Would prefer to create something like this with a group? I offer in-studio and traveling sessions! you can contact me today through my website at www.oakgrovecalicocrafts.com

Don't for get to subscribe and share this fun project. 

Until next time, happy calico crafting!