String Art

We are now getting semi-settled in our new home and the decorating has begun.  My daughter has decided that she would like to decorate with princesses and butterflies.  Our budget and bank account has been stretched very thin by the move and unemployment.  But kids don't always fully understand this complication.  So I was trying to think of a craft that would occupy Bethany and give her something to decorate her room with that would not cost a lot.  I decided to check the bits and pieces bin at Home Depot to see if there was anything that I could use that would inspire me. 

I found 3 roughly square pieces of hardwood and 1 rectangle.  I also found a foot long piece of dowel rod.  I asked the worker what they would charge for it since it was not tagged.  He told me he would give me all five pieces for 0.51 cents.  WOOHOO!

I remembered reading somewhere on the net about someone doing a string art project.  So I bought a glidden paint tester in pink.  Bethany at just 3 almost 4 years, sat patiently sanding her board. 

Did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself....Then she sat on the garage floor and painted.  I love the Glidden tester because of the built in paint brush, but she did have a little trouble gripping it.

Mike (DH) watched Bethany and I hammering the nails into the poplar and OF COURSE said I can make that easier.  So he broke out the drill and started all the nail holes along the outline of the butterfly outline that we had chosen.

We then hammered the nails the rest of the way into the holes.

Turned out pretty good if I say so myself...

The next step was to take some crochet thread and weave back and forth between the nails.  I will admit this was tougher than I thought it would be for me, let alone my three year old, partly because we chose to put the nail holes so closely together to maintain the butterfly shape.  I may try it again with a simpler shape like a star and see how that works...

We finished it out by painting and decorating the word love across the top to fill the empty space and I didn't like the way the body of the butterfly turned our so I filled the body in with some beads and am really happy with the outcome.  We wrote our names and date on the back and will hang it in her room to remember our first week in the new house. 

If you try this out or have done it before in other shapes, please leave me a note in comments, still have three more boards to try out!!!  Also please stop back to check out some of the other projects that we bought the makings for that we will be making over the next few weeks!!!

Linking up at:

Craft Envy Saturday Spotlight

Local Fun for Kids