State String Art!!

So my latest project has been for 2 awesome people. A beautiful bride to be and my wonderful boyfriend. My initial DIY instructions came from this lovely lady: The Harpster Home

Here is my version with my favorite southern state.

Louisiana String Art

I started with a wooden board from Hobby Lobby or Michaels. The Red LA is a bigger board that the Blue LA. I stained the woods with watered down paint and a piece of fabric to rub on the wood. 

Through my trial and error, I learned it is best to cut out the outline of the state before nailing. It adds 20 minutes to the project time, but you won't end up with scraps of paper nailed to your board... oops...

 Nailing all the way around is tricky in some places, especially around the southern border. Make sure you left enough room to fit your fingers in between the nails to hold it straight up and down!! Or else.. ouch! Once you've nailed all the way around, don't forget your center heart or circle. Then remove the paper and ta-dah!!

The next part, the stringing was a little tricky. Start with one nail in the center and loop back and forth between the center shape and the state outline. Move to the next nail in the center when you feel like you need to, there's no right or wrong. It turns out different every time! Once you're finished, tie a knot on a border nail, reloop around a couple more nails, and then knot again to make sure it's secure.

For the Red LA I used buttonhole thread since it was thicker. The Blue LA is done with normal thread.

For the letters at the bottom, I printed it out using WordArt in Microsoft and then traced around each letter with a pen. It leaves an indention that you can use to follow when hand painting! Here are my two finished products with their happy new owners!

Love Louisiana!!

~Tina